Met Office verdict on when heatwave will hit the UK as scorching heat to return

24 July 2023 , 17:26

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Forecasters predict the band of torrential rain sweeping over the UK is likely to clear in the coming days, leading to more sunny spells (Image: PA)

The Met Office has given its verdict on whether the European heatwave could be heading for the UK. It comes as the UK has been hit with a deluge of rain over a washout weekend on the first few days of the school summer holidays.

Forecasters predict the band of torrential rain sweeping over the UK is likely to clear in the coming days, leading to more sunny spells and lighter showers.

However, as it stands, the Met Office doesn't predict the UK will see any hot summer temperatures until around mid-August.

A BBC weather expert has also confirmed the same thing, saying, "weather patterns have been stuck in the same position and there is no real sign of that changing".

Therefore, no extreme heat or weather has been forecast in the coming weeks. For this week, for example, the Met Office predicts that, from Thursday onwards, this period is likely to begin with cloud and rain spreading across much of the UK, but the far north may remain drier.

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It comes as Europe continues to see dangerously high temperatures reaching up to 46C in the "Cerberus" weather front (WX Charts WS)

In its long range outlook, it added: "Once this clears, a showery regime is likely, with longer spells of rain still possible. The wettest conditions are likely in the north and west.

"Fresh to strong winds are likely at times, especially near western and southern coasts. Temperatures around average or rather cool, especially in more persistent rain or showers.

"Through the rest of this period, a similar theme is likely to continue with a mixture of showers and longer spells of rain, especially towards the northwest, along with some drier interludes, these perhaps becoming slightly more likely towards the southeast later. Temperatures mostly below average for the time of year."

It comes as Europe continues to see dangerously high temperatures reaching up to 46C in the "Cerberus" weather front.

The Met Office doesn't predict the UK will see any hot summer temperatures until around mid-August (PA)

The initial "Cerberus" weather front - named after the three-headed dog that guards the entrance Hell in Dante Allighieri's Inferno - is to be followed by even deadlier heat delivered by the "Charon" heatwave.

Charon features in the same book penned by the Italian literary giant as the ferryman who carries damned souls across the River Styx to hell proper. The blistering temperatures are set to hit Catania in Sicily hardest, making it the hottest place on the continent where that lethal high of 46C will be seen.

Turkey and Greece - which is currently in the grips of a devastating wildfire - are also set to swelter as the mercury breaks into the 40s.

The initial heatwave, the Cerberus anticyclone, originated over the Saharan desert but pushed north, scorching its way through Italy, Croatia and Greece - some of which suffered hillside razing wildfires.

At the highs expected over the next few days, a number of lethal heat-related changes happen to the human body.

The UK has been hit with a deluge of rain over a washout weekend (PA)

At 39-40C - far below Charon's 46C high - the muscles begin to slow down on the command of the brain, leaving the person suffering severe fatigue.

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Just a couple of degrees hotter and heat exhaustion becomes likely. At 41C the body starts to shut down, with the upper lethal limit believed to be somewhere between 40 and 50C.

Another huge risk to human life are the wildfires decimating huge swathes of the continent. In Corfu today, entire districts had to be evacuated as the blazes took hold of a second Greek island following dramatic rescues in Rhodes.

A weather map shows bands of heavy rain over the UK (Met Office)

An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 British tourists were on the island at the time, with a major evacuation operation underway.

The danger to life warnings has come from Greece's Emergency Communications Service after fire broke out in the northern part of the island of Corfu, ordering people to flee multiple areas.

The Greek government has warned further locations are at "extreme fire risk", including Crete and the region of Attica, which encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area.

Abigail O'Leary