Brits are basking in an unprecedented spout of May bank holiday sunshine as authorities report record-high temperatures for this time of 12 months and warn against dangerously high UV rays.
A heat wave, which the Met Office — the U.K.’s national meteorological service — called an “exceptional spell of heat for May,” is thrashing down across the country, with highs of 35 C expected this week in Lincolnshire, within the East of England, through the Midlands, western parts of East Anglia and the London area, it said in an announcement Monday.
“Temperatures exceeding 30°C are expected from southern parts of northern England southwards and westwards into eastern Wales,” the service added.
The U.K. rarely sees such scorching heat, especially in spring and even in summer, when average temperatures within the south of England are inclined to linger between the high teens and the mid-to-low 20s.
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Monday was the most popular May day within the U.K. in greater than 80 years; the last record was set on May 29, 1944, at Camden Square in London and in Tunbridge Wells in Kent, and before that, in 1922, when temperatures hit 32.8 C.
Within the second half of the twentieth century, the U.K. experienced highs of 35 C or more all 12 months just once a decade, in line with a 2025 BBC report.
“Overall, the pattern is evident,” the Met Office wrote. “May 30°C events are sporadic somewhat than regular, typically separated by a few years.”
The three warmest springs on record have all occurred since 2017, in a series dating back to 1884, it says.
“So, while the every day threshold of 30°C in May stays an infrequent occurrence, the temperatures experienced in spring overall have shown a rising trend,” the agency added.
The hottest day ever recorded within the U.K. was July 19, 2022, when temperatures reached 40.3 C. Summer 2025 was officially the warmest on record within the U.K., with a mean temperature of 16.10 C, surpassing the previous record of 15.76 C set in 2018.
Meanwhile, in Canada, following a bitterly cold winter, spring has sprung ahead of what is going to likely be amongst the most popular years on record, in line with Environment and Climate Change Canada’s latest global mean temperature forecast, driven by the El Niño weather system.
Environment Canada says the phenomenon “might be distinguished when the surface waters within the eastern tropical Pacific extending westward from Ecuador turn into warmer than average.”
“The changing pattern of the Pacific Ocean causes a shift within the atmospheric circulation, which then impacts weather patterns across much of the earth,” and is prone to exacerbate Canada’s wildfire season.
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