Thursday saw the thermometer steadily climb, at the rate of 2C every hour, in the morning to reach 31.9C at 13.00 but further increase in heat was stopped by a ribbon of cloud moving from south to north that blanketed out much sunshine. There was further sunshine late afternoon that saw the temperature rise a little to a maximum of 32.6C at 16.10, which was almost 10C above average and equalled the maximum on 1st July 2015. The record for July was set on 19th July 2006 with a peak of 35.2C.
My weather station is on the outskirts of Marlborough so it would have been a degree or two warmer in the town where buildings and tarmac absorb more heat than cultivated ground.
A very warm night followed so that the minimum of 17.4C was reached at 05.28 Friday morning. This was 5.8C above average. A cold front passed over the area just after 01.00 bringing cooler air.
Friday arrived with a mainly cloudy sky, only the odd glimpse of sunshine, with spots of rain between 06.30 and 07.00 that were insufficient to measure.
Update on Friday at 16.20: maximum temperature of 25.2C recorded at 12.23 at the end of a longer spell of brief sunshine. This was 2.5C above average but, thankfully, 7.4C below the extreme high of Thursday. The UV level returned to very high with the highest maximum of solar radiation for four days.