UK to enjoy 800-mile ‘heat dome’ with temperatures 'hotter than Turkey' in balmy half-term weather

20 May 2024, 18:48 | Updated: 20 May 2024, 23:20

A ‘heat dome’ is set to bring ‘sizzling’ weather to the UK next week as temperatures are forecast to soar as high as 25C in parts of the country.

Parts of the UK will enjoy summery weather starting on the Bank Holiday Monday, as the country continues to experience its hottest May in 160 years.

Temperatures are forecast to reach highs of 25C on Monday, exceeding temperatures in the likes of Istanbul, Turkey, which is predicted to hit 22C on the same day, according to maps from WXCharts.

The weather is set to bring a plume of warm air around 800 miles long over the British Isles.

Brian Gaze at The Weather Outlook said of the forecasted temperatures: “There's potential for it to be warm or very warm on occasion in the week from May 24."

It comes as the country has been enjoying its warmest May since records began in the 1860s.

The country has averaged 13.5C over the course of the month - 3.6C higher than typical of this time of year.

Aidan McGivern, a forecaster for Met Office, confirmed: "It's the warmest first half of May on record."

However, while the warm temperatures will be welcomed by many next Monday, the nation is set to experience thunderstorms first.

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The Met Office put a yellow weather warning into force for a thunderstorm starting at 12pm on Tuesday and lasting until 9pm the same day.

It has warned of flooding, potential lightning, power cuts and possible disruptions to travel services.

The warning reads: "Scattered heavy showers and thunderstorms will develop during the afternoon across parts of Northern Ireland before slowly dying out this evening.

“A lot of places seem likely to dodge these downpours, which may end up focused in the far west of the warning area. But where they do develop, they'll be moving only very slowly and so could produce a lot of rain, some lightning and a risk of hail."

Meanwhile, long-range forecast from the forecaster says: “Over the bank holiday weekend a band of rain likely to arrive from the west, reaching Northern Ireland on Saturday and becoming weaker as it moves east across the rest of the UK.

“It is also likely to become more showery in nature with scattered showers also following. Into the new week, once these showers have cleared, more settled conditions more likely for most, though rain may threaten north-western areas whilst some southern or eastern areas occasionally less settled with showers which could be heavy and thundery though there will be some sunshine between them, the best of this in south-western parts. Temperatures are likely to be a little above average, but some large spatial differences are likely.”