Temperature in my back garden is still rising. Currently 31.3C

Sorry, I missed your post as I went out (it was nice for drinks on the surrey hills!) I had seen the GFS forecast, but it got rid of the inversion completely. At the end we seem to have had plenty of mixing as NW London went around 33.5C (and 33.8C at LHR). Had it not been for that N.Sea influence, then we'd probably have peaked near 37C today.

Tomorrow does look interesting and complex, the inversion looks more shallow and it looks easier to to have more mixing during the critical afternoon hours, but there is also likely to be some more cloud compared to today. My best guess is for ~34C and then 37C on Tue and probably Wed too.

If this happened despite some being disappointed this would still be an exceptional heatwave by any UK standards with six consecutive days of 34+ and three reaching 36...

12z Harmonie run.

It correctly predicted 34C in the Herstmonceux area today.

Tomorrow it has 34C in a number of locations with 35C in the London area

http://modeles7.meteociel.fr/modeles/harmonie/runs/2020080912/harmonieeur40-41-27-3.png?09-18

ARPEGE also has 35C in the London area

http://modeles7.meteociel.fr/modeles/arpege/runs/2020080912/arpege-41-27-1.png?09-16

It's also rather exposed to any sea breeze wind from the Eastern quarter as its close to the water... which make that 33.5C more impressive as it goes to show how hot it must be in the urban areas up wind across the harbour.

Absolutely, it's a very impressive heatwave. And as many posters have said, it's just a matter of time before seeing >40C.

12z run from Arome got rid of the residual cloud and it shows 36C at LHR tomorrow (I think it had 35C for today).

So 10th August 2003 actually wasn't the first time that anywhere in the UK reached 38C/100F then?

I don't think those are official readings.

This article from Stephen Burt in 2004 is primarily on the 2003 heatwave but has a great section on historic heatwaves, going all the way back to 1881. It covers all the periods listed in my table. It mentions one new entry of 35.0C on 8 August 1911.

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1256/wea.10.04A

Latest Arpege has 36c , 36c, 35c, 30c .

Horrific

This is absolute hell

This is absolute hell,nothing pleasant about this at all!!!

The EC 12z run would support the following max for next week (Mon-Fri): 35, 37, 37, 32, 30. Still plenty of uncertainty for the 2nd half of the week (in both directions!)

Each to their own. I love the novelty of being able to sit out in the garden in a T-shirt without having to go inside by 7pm because of the chilly dampness. Extreme heat and extreme cold, I love it. I just hate the bland wet chilly nothingness that we usually get in the UK!