Leeds weather: The exact temperature reached in Leeds during record-breaking May heatwave
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A record-breaking heatwave saw the UK experience the hottest ever day in May.
The scorching 34.8C temperature was recorded at the Kew Gardens, the Met Office has confirmed. While it did not get quite that warm in Leeds, it was still well above average for this time of the year.
Data from the Leeds Weather Station shows that it reached a maximum temperature of 33.1C. It was recorded at 4.50pm with the coldest part of the day being at 5.20am when it was 12.1C.
Temperatures are expected to remain above 30C today (May 26), according to the forecast. However, Leeds will enjoy a break from the heat tomorrow (May 27) when it will drop to a maximum of 20C.
Temperatures did not fall below 21.3C on Monday (May 25) at Kenley Airfield, south London, as the country broke the record for the warmest May night for the second consecutive day, the Met Office said.
The country also recorded its provisional all-time hottest meteorological spring temperature when Kew Gardens in south-west London hit 34.8C on Monday.
The Met Office listed 12 locations where the record was topped on Monday – ranging from Suffolk to Berkshire to Warwickshire – while 97 of its monitoring sites reached or surpassed 30C.
The UK’s previous warmest May night was measured on Sunday, when temperatures did not fall below 19.4C at Kenley Airfield.
Meanwhile, the hottest May temperature could be broken again on Tuesday with an expected high of 35C across large swathes of southern England and Wales – which could even creep up to 36C, the Met Office said.
Many places across England and Wales will reach the heatwave threshold on Tuesday and some will have had five days of it by Wednesday, Becky Mitchell, senior meteorologist at the Met Office, said.
Heatwave conditions were already met in eight parts of England by Sunday night: Heathrow, Kew Gardens and Northolt in London; Benson in Oxfordshire; Brooms Barn and Santon Downham in Suffolk; High Beech and Writtle in Essex.
That number will be higher after the bank holiday weather but the data is yet to be released, Ms Mitchell said.
To qualify as a heatwave, temperatures must meet or surpass a specific threshold for three consecutive days.
The highest heatwave threshold in the UK at this time of year is 28C, which applies to London and north of the capital towards Cambridgeshire.
Temperatures will start to gradually decline from the middle of the week but it will still be largely dry with sunny spells.
Many will still experience temperatures in the high 20Cs.
However, they will lower by around 10C in eastern areas as a brisk easterly wind develops.
If validated, the latest May record means seven of the 12 monthly highs have been set since 2003, the Met Office said.
A previous study by the forecasters found breaking that record “is around three times more likely now in our current climate than it would have been in a natural climate not impacted by greenhouse gas emissions”.
This means that the once one-in-a-hundred year event is now a one-in-33 event, it said.