The Met Office’s red weather warning for heat has been extended to Brighton and Hove – and a new amber warning issued for Friday.
The warning, which began at 9am this morning and lasts until midnight tomorrow, was updated at at 10.45am.
It says: “During the heatwave expected to affect a large part of England and Wales this week, the highlighted area now looks increasingly likely to see a two to three day period where maximum temperatures in the shade exceed 37 Celsius, perhaps rising to 38 to 40 Celsius in some places.
“The heat will be accompanied by high humidity, exacerbating the potential for discomfort and health impacts, with very warm and humid night times also reducing the ability for people to recover overnight.
“Significant disruption to daily life is likely and the public should take every effort to make precautions and adapt their daily routines where possible to cope with these levels of heat, which up to now have been extremely rare for the UK.
“The warning has been extended south across Dorset, Hampshire and Sussex as confidence in extremely high temperatures and humidity has increased in these areas. The warning end time is now the end of Thursday.”
Some events have already been cancelled because of the heat, including the West Area Health Forum which was due to take place today, and Varndean College announced yesterday it would be closing for in-person lessons today and tomorrow.
The amber warning, which is in force all day on Friday, says: “Very hot weather will continue to affect much of England. Temperatures by day are widely expected to exceed 30 Celsius, with the hottest areas potentially peaking around 38 Celsius in eastern and central England.
“Overnight, temperatures are unlikely to fall much lower than high teens Celsius, and some places will not fall below low 20s Celsius. These high temperatures will also be accompanied by high humidity.
“Cooler conditions will slowly begin to become established from the west following this period, although very warm conditions are likely to remain across east and southeastern England through Saturday, albeit not as hot as earlier in the week.”
