I think there was a period of 1-2 hours on the afternoon of Thu 25th when the flow not only aligned perfectly with the hottest part of N. France, during the peak of the day's heat - or close to it, but was also orientated such that it crossed close to the shortest possible stretch of water on the way over to SE England.

So it's possible that a wedge of over 40*C heat was shifted rapidly across to the far SE of England, only having time to cool into the very high 30s by the time it reached Folkestone.

40C is the next target in this country and I doubt it will be long before it's hit.

 

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40C is the next target in this country and I doubt it will be long before it's hit.

 

It really wouldn’t surprise me if some places did actually reach 40c, just not the places with official stations.  My sensor recorded over 39c IMBY but the nearest Met office station only got to 38.4c but I live in a small valley which would be a heat trap, so I don’t think my reading was far wrong.  I’m pretty sure there were other places that were genuinely hotter, but not officially.  

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I think there was a period of 1-2 hours on the afternoon of Thu 25th when the flow not only aligned perfectly with the hottest part of N. France, during the peak of the day's heat - or close to it, but was also orientated such that it crossed close to the shortest possible stretch of water on the way over to SE England.

So it's possible that a wedge of over 40*C heat was shifted rapidly across to the far SE of England, only having time to cool into the very high 30s by the time it reached Folkestone.

Thanks SC. That's re-assuring. Northern France was 41c at around 5pm and from all accounts there was a fair ole SSE'ly breeze blowing..hence allowing for minimal modification.

I've a Davis vantage vue and very happy with the results it gives. Bear in mind the siting of this station has remained in position since Sept 2006 and has sat through many heatwaves. Previous max 33.9c ! 

39.2c is staggering.

I'd happily accept a margin of error for over exposure of 0.5c or so given its not fan assisted.

Nevertheless I'm pretty sure had a Met Office official station been located somewhere in the vicinity of Folkestone a figure of very close to 39c would have been achieved on this already historic afternoon. 

 

 

 

 

 

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I've got a couple of hours spare later... I'll give it a trawl Caz 

 

If you missed this, it is worth a read. Couldn't believe it when I saw the hourly readings come out at the time. 

https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/local-news/temperatures-suddenly-shot-up-ten-3138661

There could have been other examples across the country.

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If you missed this, it is worth a read. Couldn't believe it when I saw the hourly readings come out at the time. 

https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/local-news/temperatures-suddenly-shot-up-ten-3138661

There could have been other examples across the country.

I can clearly see that the article in question went out before its authors had learned about the actual temperature of 38.7°C  as recorded at Cambridge Botanic Gardens being confirmed as the new all-time UK record.

Nevertheless, that is quite an interesting phenomenon which makes that article, well worth reading.

 

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Thanks SC. That's re-assuring. Northern France was 41c at around 5pm and from all accounts there was a fair ole SSE'ly breeze blowing..hence allowing for minimal modification.

I've a Davis vantage vue and very happy with the results it gives. Bear in mind the siting of this station has remained in position since Sept 2006 and has sat through many heatwaves. Previous max 33.9c ! 

39.2c is staggering.

I'd happily accept a margin of error for over exposure of 0.5c or so given its not fan assisted.

Nevertheless I'm pretty sure had a Met Office official station been located somewhere in the vicinity of Folkestone a figure of very close to 39c would have been achieved on this already historic afternoon. 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Steve. Back now from 2 week break!  Left on the morning of 25th July. I Posted on that day a transect of car temps. On my return this morning I Downloaded my Davis VP 2 data. Saw Your post and was thinking that if the very exposed clifftoppermost Langdon Bay was 35.9, that on the basis of hot day maxima over the past 14 years at this site, that my valley bottom max would be 2-3 degrees higher. Also, given your 39.2, I was expecting my max to be somewhere around half a degree Celsius lower than yours, as you will recall that you are usually about +0.5 c from me on scorchio days.

So, on that basis I was anticipating something in the region of 38.5 c. In fact I recorded 38.6. So very close to the expectation. So. The evidence does indeed suggest that the   Defecto ( if not the official, I hasten to add) national record may well belong to the South East Kent Massive. 

WI. 

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 Hi Steve. Back now from 2 week break!  Left on the morning of 25th July. I Posted on that day a transect of car temps. On my return this morning I Downloaded by Davis VP 2 data. Saw Your post and was thinking that if Langdon Bay was 35.9 that on the basis of hot day maxima over the past 14 years at this site, that my valley bottom max would be 2-3 degrees higher. Also, given your 39.2, I was expecting my max to be somewhere around half a degree Celsius lower than yours, as you will recall that you are usually about +0.5 c from me on scorchio days.

So, on that basis I was anticipating something in the region of 38.5 c. In fact I recorded 38.6. So very close to the expectation. So. The evidence does indeed suggest that the   Defecto ( if not the official, I hasten to add) national record may well belong to the South East Kent Massive. 

WI. 

Excellent Phil...thank you.

To summarise

IDJ - Coastal Folkestone 38.3c (100.9f)

WI - Semi coastal Dover 38.6c (101.5f)

Gusty - Inland Folkestone 39.2c (102.6f)

Wow.  For the SE Kent massive when the previous record was probably closer to 36c 97f. What an extraordinary day that was. One to tell the grandchildren.

Its just a shame that it will never been shown officially.

We know though. 

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Fascinating conversation.

I wonder if modification but also have been limited by the hot air failing to mix at all with the cooler surface air over the water, and like laminar flow in a river, simply skated across the top of the cool, finally making landfall a few m ASL on reaching the Kent coast. Temperatures on the open water would then be much lower, and under the circumstances there wasn't enough time for a sea breeze set up.

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A thread for the classic forum surely?
It is clear reading this that 25th July should go down as a truely historic day. Not just because the record was broken in Cambridge but because many areas experienced their hottest day ever. The records were much more widespread than 10th August 2003.

All this with damp ground (here at least) and no build up of heat over days/weeks.

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A thread for the classic forum surely?
It is clear reading this that 25th July should go down as a truely historic day. Not just because the record was broken in Cambridge but because many areas experienced their hottest day ever. The records were much more widespread than 10th August 2003.

All this with damp ground (here at least) and no build up of heat over days/weeks.

I agree with that and what makes that even more remarkable is that most people would normally expect these high temperature records to be more likely to be broken during a really good summer such as what we had during the first half of last summer in particular. This summer hasn't been as good overall as last summer and yet, this hasn't stopped those records from being broken on this occasion.

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Fascinating conversation.

I wonder if modification but also have been limited by the hot air failing to mix at all with the cooler surface air over the water, and like laminar flow in a river, simply skated across the top of the cool, finally making landfall a few m ASL on reaching the Kent coast. Temperatures on the open water would then be much lower, and under the circumstances there wasn't enough time for a sea breeze set up.

Interesting thoughts.  I will be getting in touch with the Met Office on this one Bertie. When the dust has settled I will share whatever insights the experts can lend to these amateur enthusiast datasets.

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Hey Mods. Can we move this to the classic forum now?

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The met office said the overall overnight minimum record didn't go, however Brogdale shows a minimum of 24.3c in the 24hr period of July 25th to 26th

 

http://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/view?&reportId=8082001&siteID=25668314

 

This attracted my attention so I went back and checked and the minimum was actually 20.0C. The 24.3C figure was the actual temperature at the time of the 0900Z observation.

https://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/observations/details/201907263foef47xtye6ucrdyyb96sccar

 

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