UK heatwave: Heathrow Airport surpasses Sussex border villages' national heat record as temperatures top 40°C
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At 11.47am this (Tuesday, July 19) morning, the temperature reached 39.1°C in Charlwood, Surrey, surpassing the previous record of 38.7°C set at Cambridge Botanic Garden in 2019.
But UK temperatures have since climbed above 40°C, with a recording of 40.2°C taken at Heathrow Airport at 12.50pm today, according to early Met Office data.
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Hide AdThe Met Office has warned that temperatures will climb further throughout the day, with places along the A1/M1 corridor, like Lincoln, Cambridge and Huntingdon, expected to see up to 42°C later.
By 10am this morning, the highest UK temperature was already 35.1°C at Kew Gardens – 7°C hotter than the same time on Monday (July 18).
The Met Office has issued the UK’s first-ever red warning for exceptional heat, covering much of central, northern, and south-east England.
Provisional figures showed the UK experienced the warmest night on record from Monday into Tuesday.
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Hide AdEmley Moor, in Yorkshire, holds the provisional overnight record with a temperature of 25.9°C, according to the Met Office.
BBC Weather's Simon King said: "For meteorologists, exceeding records by a margin of two or three degrees is a staggering thought when historically records were only broken by fractions of a degree."