It's pretty amazing really. The average CET maximum would have been a new UK temperature record before 2003. Never mind 40C being reached, I think this is the most incredible stat of the day. Just shows the enormous extent of the heat.

This is very true but let's not forget that the overall record was broken by a massive 1.6C. Now for a reliable record of around 150 years that's a huge jump. In an essentially stable climate in that time period we should surely only be expecting records in mere increments, a tenth of a degree here, a couple of tenths there and even then only ocurring every few decades.This is even bigger than the jump between 1990 and 2003 which was in itself was a remarkable 1.4C. Amazing to think that prior to 1990 we hadn't even hit 37C.

37.4C at Bingley is perhaps the most impressive result of them all. Simply incredible. 

Bingley has a higher record temperature than cities like Bristol and Southampton now

 Yes, down here it did not get that hot in comparison to further north. . Only up to 34c on the monday here.. Bit strange really as the heat was coming from the south. . 

The rate things are changing the answer might be…..Earth?

Still warm here tonight hence middle of the night post! Minimum on 19th was 17.1c.  Classic downland valley adiabatic cooling profile - the cool air was greedily taken in and trapped.  Just as well - because whilst Langdon Bay atop a 400ft cliff achieved 37 that afternoon around 4pm, this sheltered valley location achieved a VP2 high of 39.8c - an all time record.  A summer temperature differential of 3c is quite normal due the extreme nature of the Langdon Bay site (atop a cliff - and then up a pole to reach 400ft).

39.8c...you must be gutted to not have reached 40c 

A perfectly plausible temperature Phil. The cold that sat in the valley at 6am would have just as easily trapped in the heat at 4pm.

Does anyone know a good* site where it gives previous days weather data/temperature, please?

*i.e, preferbly not Wunderground. Some sites gives weather data/temperatures of nearest airport/airfield rather than the actual location (like Sheffield actually gives Doncaster)!

Ogimet is a great site for data from the main UK weather station network.

Or Weatherobs has a wider network including all the more obscure stations.

For Sheffield weather station you need weatherobs.com.

Zoom in on the map and click the Sheffield station, then "open dashboard" for all the historic data.

Didn’t mind Steve  it’s just a matter of time  Global Warming is accelerating so fast that it could be August 2022 or June 2025 but it will come  

Cheers Rob.

Great writeup from the Met: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/interesting/2022/2022_03_july_heatwave.pdf

They make it 46 sites equalling or breaking the previous record, so I missed a couple :)

I see that the top temp for Monday 18th has been revised upwards to 38.2C at Pitsford, Northants, just beating Santon Downham. Still no data from Denver in Norfolk that I can see, so that may be a wait until 1 August!

Not another Ice Cream van?😄

Coningsby 40.3c has been officially confirmed though.👍

Why is that embarrassing? Surely all records are 'provisional' until they have been officially verified. This is the Met Office doing it's job properly in rejecting readings form sites that don't meet the current standards.

Embarrassing for whoever is responsible for running that site though.

Thats what I meant. Sorry I should have been clearer. 

... and there was me thinking that Scotland had gone above 35°C for its temperature, but obviously not (at least, not officially anyway). I would expect that quite a number of places in the Scottish Borders would have gone above 35°C on that day, but the fact that there are so few official stations would have made that more difficult to pick up.

Nevertheless, I think that it is only a matter of time before that does end up happening, and I wouldn't be surprise if this happened very soon given the manner in which high temperature records keep on tumbling at a faster and faster rate these days (it's such a shame that it can't be like that with cold temperature records, especially during the winter).

In any case though, Charterhall is the closest official station to where my family live in Hawick and I did at least have the honour of actually being there (by that of course, I mean in Hawick and not actually at Charterhall) at the time which was quite an experience in itself.

This really is a sign that we're descending into a new Dark Age of ignorance:
UK heatwave: Weather forecasters report unprecedented trolling

Sad times indeed.

They are just doing their jobs to live on just like us to work and live on.  I remember back in August 2003 it was lot of cheers, celebrating news when we hit 100F first time.  Helen Willets who the most beautiful forecaster girl was on duty that day.  She still working now and she must be also abused as well.