Sunday has gradually trended hotter. Wouldn’t be surprised if we reached 32C tomorrow, yet just a couple of days ago Sunday was forecast to be 27C or so. 32C would usually be a ‘hottest day of the year’ temperature for us, but Monday and Tuesday will obviously take the attention.

One thought I have had which worries me is this. And I'd appreciate your input on this since I'm not an expert (and this is not medical advice).

So we are going to see a period of exceptional dry heat. The dry heat is good, it makes it alot easier to stay cool, but its a double edged sword; it means people are going to drink and drink and drink.

Again fine, you might say, but as a runner I know this can also be a problem.

You might have heard of marathon runners dropping dead close to the finish line, and it is mostly marathon runners not short distances like a 10k (which you might do in under an hour). Why? Because they are not experienced enough to understand the dangers of drinking alot of plain water.

The problem is if you drink loads and loads of water you start to dilute your blood if you don't replace your electrolytes. So people know to drink, but do they know to consume salt? These days marathon runners of any experience know not to bring water in hot conditions but something like lucosade. They may also consume salt tablets.

So here is my question, is there a risk of people dying from electrolyte depletion; from drinking too much water and not replacing their salts they have sweated out?

When I did my first half marathon, which was before COVID, it was a bit like a full marathon because it was in the mountains (and some teenagers turned the sign upside down so I did extra). When I got back I drank water with some table salt dissolved in it.

Anyway I'm going to ensure that the food I eat on Monday and Tuesday is somewhat salty, and make sure I watch my own H2O consumption and make sure it doesn't go too insanely high - that would be a warning that I'm exposing myself too to much heat.

Following on from the great Sheppey water cut a few days ago, villages near Ashford and parts of Broadstairs are now without water.

https://kentonline.co.uk/ashford/news/taps-run-dry-in-two-villages-270409/

It seems extra demand is causing problems for both Southern Water and South East Water. Beware if you live in their supply area!

You don't have to go that far for fires. We've had two big corn field fires in Kent and then some moron decided fireworks would be a great idea yesterday evening. Hence:

Model aircraft fireworks display blamed for 100,000 square metres grass blaze at Barton's Point Coastal Park, Sheerness

Five fire crews are tackling a huge blaze after a model plane display is believed to have set grassland alight.

The finale of a model aircraft exhibition on the Isle of Sheppey was brought down to earth with a bump when fireworks from planes ignited tinder-dry grass.

https://kentonline.co.uk/sheerness/news/big-blaze-at-country-park-after-model-aeroplane-display-270411/

Lots of more of this sort of thing to come over the next three days! (Especially once the desiccating winds set in tomorrow...)

Yes , 27-28c is often the hottest day of the year of the year at mine , we might get 29c/30c today if lower ground is 31/32c which is better than most years historically. 

I notice lot of high clouds and haze here that might severe impact the hot temperatures.  Was expecting very clear desert type blue skies as reaching 40C in Cyprus always under blue skies but low to high 30;s under hazy skies.

Yes do have a little extra salt but eat bananas as well, which are a good source of potassium.  Dioralyte works on the same principle and replaces electrolytes lost from vomiting and diarrhoea. I wouldn’t worry too much as it’s extremely unlikely that people will drink a lethal amount of water due to the heatwave and I doubt many will be running marathons. 

We’ve actually had a few spots of rain this morning and there is a fair bit of light cloud but also patches of blue sky. 

I learnt that lesson the hard way in a humid tropical climate.

I was told to drink salted and molasses sugared water which helped replace the lost electrolytes caused by sweating. Coconut water does it well too. Though you can't easily get green coconuts in the UK. But yes the dry heat we're going to experience might be an issue with people who only drink lots of water. Because it's coming suddenly, though granted we've had a dry and often warm summer here, people might get caught out and not realise till it's too late. 

Edit. Yes Caz bananas are great too.

Good luck to everybody over the next 60 hours. 

The upper air is now starting to warm here on the south coast in response to what will be an incredible 2 or 3 days. 

...and so it begins. For now its all good, 17.2c 

The Met Office are still going for 32°C on Tuesday in Hawick and at Edinburgh Gogarbank on Tuesday which would almost certainly beat that 2019 record of 31.6°C which gave Edinburgh its current hottest day on record.

I say almost here because that encompasses anything from 31.7°C to 32.4°C which rounds to 32°C and which would be enough to beat that record although a temperature of 31.5°C would fall just short of that record, but would still round up to 32°C.

This means that the record for here in Edinburgh isn't quite guaranteed to be broken, although there is a very good chance that it will be.

The BBC on the other hand are going for just 29°C on Tuesday here in Edinburgh and 31°C in Hawick. If that is right, the record won't be broken here in Edinburgh although it will still be very hot by our standards, and that would still be enough to get us our hottest day of this year so far here in Edinburgh.

Even for tomorrow, a temperature of around 28°C is being forecast in Hawick by the BBC and the Met Office but the BBC and the Met Office are forecasting a temperature of 29°C here in Edinburgh on that day.

I reckon that even today will be very pivotal in terms of how severe this heat spike actually gets. Looking outside here just now, it is overcast here in Edinburgh as I write and from that, you wouldn't think that it was about to get all that hot here yet the BBC are going for a maximum temperature for today of 25°C here in Edinburgh with the Met Office going for a maximum temperature of 26°C.

At this stage, neither of those temperatures would be hot enough to even give us our hottest day of this year so far, let alone beat any records.

However, I reckon that what actually happens during today could play quite a big role in what happens over the following few days.

If today ends up being hotter than what it was actually forecast to be, we could be in very serious trouble with this heat spike as early as tomorrow, especially if today was also to end up being our hottest day of this year so far (what is being forecast for today isn't all that far short of our highest temperatures of this year so far).

This would then probably give us an outside chance of seeing our own local records being broken as early as tomorrow with the horrible prospects of Tuesday possibly being even hotter still.

In on the other hand, today ends up not being as hot as is currently being forecast, this would at least raise a glimmer of hope that the heat spike might not be quite as severe here as is currently being forecast with no records being broken on either of the coming two days.

Let's just hope for our sake, that it is the latter of those scenarios which ends up being correct.

London seems to have lost the 40s on the BBC app. Cambridge aka Death Valley UK, though has 40c, 41c🥵

Why they remove it? anyway the heat from Framnc have to pass London before going to Cambridge so it does make sense that London will see 41C as well? Weird.

Notice lot of well unforecast clouds around.

Significant changes overnight.

https://www.theweatheroutlook.com/weather-news/6263/uk-heatwave-tracker-july-2022

Interesting. Suggestive of the hottest air being slightly delayed?

I think it will be more interesting if we just scrape a new record tomorrow and then go hotter again on Tuesday, rather than having an anticlimax on Tuesday!

To be fair, once it gets above 36, would anyone even notice the difference. Most will sitting in front of a fan, until the power grids fails! I fully anticipate that

BBC have now knocked 2 degrees off for my area giving a max of 33 in line with Met Office output

The BBC are showing a high of 39c tomorrow then down to 38c on Tuesday with some rain in the west

They are late, too much 18Z injected into their veins.