UK breaks May temperature record for second consecutive day, hitting 35.1°C

The UK recorded its hottest May day for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, with a provisional temperature of 35.1°C at Kew Gardens in south-west London, surpassing Monday's 34.8°C at the same location. Wales also set a new May record for the second day running, reaching a provisional 32.3°C at Cardiff's Bute Park, exceeding Monday's 32.2°C at Hawarden Airport in Flintshire. Before Monday and Tuesday, May's warmest day in the UK was 32.8°C in 1922 and 1944.

"Until yesterday, the highest temperature in May was 32.8°C, but we've now exceeded that record on consecutive days by a full two degrees Celsius," the Met Office posted on X. The Met Office's chief operational meteorologist Dan Suri said the high temperatures were due to "the influence of warmth building under an area of high pressure near the UK."

Six amber heat health alerts issued by the UK Health Security Agency cover much of England and will be active until Thursday. The alert warns significant impacts are likely across health and social care services due to high temperatures, including increased demand on all health and social care services. Much of England and Wales are in an official heatwave as of Tuesday. A location has to reach a threshold temperature — 25°C for northern and western areas and 28°C in London and Home Counties — for three consecutive days.

Train services faced delays due to heat-related speed restrictions. Network Rail imposed speed restrictions on tracks to keep trains safe. National Rail said heat can cause overhead lines to expand and sag, line-side fires and also rails to buckle. South Western Railway warned services running across its whole network may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised due to issues including heat-related speed restrictions. High track temperatures disrupted LNER services between Peterborough and London Kings Cross. There was also major disruption to Great Northern, Thameslink and Southern networks.

In Kent, dozens of homes have had little or no water for the third day due to high demand during the hot weather. The outages began on Saturday and peaked on Sunday when about 800 properties in the villages of Charing, Challock and Molash were unable to get water. South East Water said teams were working hard to restore drinking water supplies across the region following "high demand during the exceptionally hot weather", which led to "storage reservoirs running low in parts of Kent".

As exceptionally warm spring temperatures hit during the Bank holiday long weekend, four people died at English swimming spots. On Monday, a 13-year-old boy died at a reservoir in Halifax, West Yorkshire. A teenage girl's body was recovered at Kingsbury Water Park in Warwickshire on Monday evening. Another body was recovered from the water of Rother Valley Country Park in South Yorkshire in the early hours of Tuesday morning after a teenage boy went missing. A man in his 60s died at Tregirls Beach near Padstow, Cornwall on Monday after running into the sea to help two relatives who got into difficulty, police said. The Royal Life Saving Society urged people to stay safe and warned that "warmer weather unfortunately sees an increase in accidental drownings" and while air temperatures are hot, water temperatures remain very cold.

The Met Office also issued a yellow weather warning for thunderstorms in England from 15:00 BST to 22:00 on Tuesday. The warning affects the East Midlands, East of England, parts of London and south-east England, parts of north-west England, south-west England, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and Humber. The Met Office said the thunderstorms are likely to be very isolated and "could bring disruption to a few places", adding the warning had a "very low likelihood and a medium impact".