LONDON: Britain was set to break its record for the hottest day in May on Monday, the national weather agency predicted, as the country sweltered in an &quot;unprecedented&quot; heatwave. &quot;Today will be the hottest day in May in the UK in our temperature records, with highs of 35 degrees Celsius expected,&quot; the Met Office said on social media. The current record for the hottest May day is 32.8 &deg;C, set in 1922 and seen again in 1944. &quot;Records are usually only broken by tenths of a degree -- making this heatwave unprecedented for the time of year,&quot; added the Met Office statement. Monday is also expected to be the hottest bank holiday ever, as heatwave conditions spread to parts of southeast England and London by Sunday night. &quot;We rarely see temperatures above 35C, even in the summer months, so to see temperatures getting close to 35C in May is, as I say, pretty historic,&quot; Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan told the Press Association news agency. &quot;It&#39;s nice to have it, but it is much, much hotter than it should be in the UK,&quot; Andrea Quaine, a 41-year-old mother, told AFP in London as temperatures exceeded 30C on Sunday. &quot;I am worried about it because it obviously shows that global warming is happening,&quot; she added. &quot;The weather here, it&#39;s like a mini version of hell. It&#39;s boiling. It&#39;s like really hot. The sunscreen, it will protect me, but it&#39;s really hot,&quot; said 10-year-old Liza Nizari, who was visiting London from Manchester in the northwest. Scientists say human-induced climate change is making extreme weather events like heatwaves, droughts and floods more intense, resulting in temperature records being broken more frequently. Britain saw its hottest year on record in 2025. Climate advisers last week warned the UK government that the country was &quot;built for a climate that no longer exists&quot; and urged it to adapt infrastructure like schools and hospitals for a warming planet.

Europe

Britain is set to record its hottest May day as temperatures near 35°C during an unprecedented heatwave, prompting climate concerns and renewed warnings about the growing impact of global warming.

UK set to record hottest May day amid unprecedented heatwave

ISLAMABAD: The European Union&rsquo;s climate monitor has said on Friday that ocean temperatures are edging toward record highs as conditions shift toward a potentially powerful El Nino weather pattern.&nbsp; Samantha Burgess from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) said sea surface temperatures in recent days were just shy of the all-time highs of 2024, and May looked set to break its own record. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a matter of days before we are back in record-breaking ocean SSTs (sea surface temperatures) again,&quot; Burgess, strategic lead for climate at ECMWF, told AFP. The Copernicus Climate Change Service said daily sea surface temperatures in April &ldquo;gradually inched&rdquo; toward near-record highs, reflecting the transition to El Nino expected in the coming months. Copernicus, overseen by the ECMWF, said sea surface temperatures in April were the second-highest of the measured, with marine heatwaves breaking records across the tropical Pacific and the United States. Last month, the World Meteorological Organisation said El Nino conditions could develop as soon as May to July. One phase of a natural climate cycle in Pacific Ocean temperatures and trade winds, El Nino influences global weather and increases the likelihood of drought, heavy rainfall and other climate extremes. It also adds heat to a planet already warmed by burning fossil fuels. The last El Nino helped make 2023 and 2024 the second- and first-hottest years on record, respectively. Some weather agencies forecast the coming event will be even stronger, possibly rivalling a &ldquo;super&rdquo; El Nino three decades ago. Zeke Hausfather, a scientist at Berkeley Earth, an independent climate research organisation, wrote last week that a strong El Nino could significantly raise the chances of 2027 becoming the hottest year ever recorded. Burgess said it was still too early to predict the event&#39;s intensity with confidence, as forecasts made during the Northern Hemisphere spring could be unreliable. But she said, regardless of its strength, this El Nino would not go unnoticed. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re likely to see 2027 exceed 2024 for the warmest year on record,&rdquo; she said. El Nino&rsquo;s impact on global temperatures typically comes the year after its peak, she added. Extreme sea temperaturesCopernicus said the upturn in ocean temperatures over March and April indicated the transition from neutral conditions to El Nino was underway. Scientists stress that El Nino alone is not driving the extraordinary ocean warmth or its knock-on effects, such as coral bleaching and marine heatwaves. The phenomenon is unfolding against a backdrop of long-term global warming, caused primarily by greenhouse gas emissions, with oceans absorbing around 90 percent of the excess heat generated by human activity. In its monthly bulletin, Copernicus said April was the third-hottest globally and 1.43 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial benchmark. Arctic sea ice remained near record lows in April while Europe endured varied conditions that set the stage for a hotter and drier summer at risk of drought or wildfires, it said. &ldquo;We just keep seeing extremes. Every month we have more data that the climate change impact is creating these extreme events,&rdquo; said Burgess.

Climate

Samantha Burgess from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts said sea surface temperatures in recent days were almost all-time highs of 2024, and May looked set to break its own record.


Articles tagged with "high temperatures"

UK set to record hottest May day amid unprecedented heatwave

Sea temperatures near all-time highs as El Nino looms: EU monitor

UK set to record hottest May day amid unprecedented heatwave