Tuesday 26th May
Monday was a blisteringly hot day that under the relentless strong and continuous sunshine lifted the temperature to a maximum of 32.4C at 15.43. This high was a significant 15.1C above my long-term May average. The past night was also very warm as the thermometer did not drop below 14.2C, logged at 05.10 early Tuesday, which was 7.1C above average.
My hottest May day since the station opened in 1984 was a high of 28.1C in 2018, that was superseded by 28.3C in May 2025 and now significantly beaten by 32.4C yesterday, with the high today still to be seen.
We are today, and have been, under a genuine heatwave as today will see the third consecutive day when the temperature reaches or exceeds the heatwave threshold of 27C for Wiltshire.
Tuesday arrived with strong sunshine from the start of the new day, that is likely to become wall to wall sunshine again, with another extreme high maximum temperature. On Sunday, 30C was reached at 15.18 but very much sooner yesterday at 11.29, indicating the build up of the heat. Update: 30C reached at 11.09 today, Tuesday, 20 minutes earlier than yesterday.
The ground has also been soaking up the heat with the soil temperature at a depth of 5cm, read daily at 08.00, indicating 19.3C, 22.1C and 24.0C respectively, over the last three days.
The high pressure has been acting as a dome sitting above the pool of hot air that with little movement of air is quite stagnant. The air stream today will come from the southeast initially, then slowly veer to come from the south and then south-southwest later today, continuing the flow of hot air from the Continent for much of the day. By tomorrow, the anticyclone, currently centred over Scotland, will have moved slowly eastwards towards the North Sea, which will make a signifiant but slow change to the air stream, then coming off the cooler sea surface and resulting in a slight drop in overall temperatures. The current North Sea surface temperature is 11.7C.
At the moment there is no sign of rainfall for the rest of the month unless thunderstorms suddenly spring up. The total rainfall for May is just 19.8mm, which is only 33% of my 42-year record. The past few days under the intense dry air has seen the equivalent loss of rainfall, due to evaporation from ground sources and plant life, in excess of 5mm each day, yesterday was 5.9mm, that for the month to date amounts to 81mm.
Provisional spring daily temperature record as heatwave continues
Author: Met Office
17:28 (UTC+1) on Mon 25 May 2026
Updated at 17:41 (UTC+1) on Mon 25 May 2026
A new UK daily temperature record for spring and May has been provisionally broken, with 34.8°C reached at Kew Gardens today.
The figure is the highest daily maximum temperature recorded in meteorological spring (March, April and May), as well as the highest temperature in May.
The previous record of 32.8°C was reached in 1922 and 1944. If confirmed and validated, and May sees a new official daily temperature record, it would mean that more than half of the monthly record highs – 7 out of 12 – have been set since 2003.
As is the case for new national records, the equipment and site will undergo a rigorous validation process before a decision is made on officially inducting the figure into the meteorological record books.
This process will include a site inspection and a verification check of the equipment used to measure the temperature.
In order for a value to be treated as an official national record, the Met Office follows national and international best practice and guidance. If the figure doesn’t meet the required standards, it will be rejected as an official national record.