We’ve passed 30c here in South Glos just north of Bristol on each of the last 3 days. We are already at 31c here which will make it 4 on the bounce. Prior to this it was on the fringe of 30c as well

Just passed 31C at Blackbushe, up 0.7C in 35 mins and still only the barest wisp of cirrus. A hazier look to the sky generally than yesterday though.

Webcam could be somewhere on the African plains... https://www.blackbusheairport.co.uk/weather/

Not aware of any problems this morning. Traffic has been record breaking during the last 24 hours but things seem to be ticking over quite nicely. 

Like even compared to winter 2010, or June 2016?!

Miles and miles ahead of winter 2010. Summers always generate more traffic than winters.

I think you said that before but I always forget.

Comes with being in the cold rampers bubble.

Thermometer and webcam is the way to go!

25.0C in there at the moment (and 25.1C outside, under cloud).

Over the years a number of people have asked me about setting up a weather website. I've told them summers generate more traffic and revenue than winters but I suspect many think I was feeding them with rubbish. Probably because they were snow rampers. Nonetheless, it is the absolute truth. The last week has generated more traffic than December 2010 in its entirety. 

Its very easy to naively extrapolate your own personal echo chamber. TWO forum members are cold rampers in their overwhelming majority, easy to forget that site viewers and the public at large are warm rampers not cold rampers.

Also I suspect the UIA stuff which feels like it generates alot of activity probably didn't even register in your overall traffic?

Given the media is always telling me I'm a remoaning metropolitan liberal who is out of touch with the will of the people, it's reassuring to know that in this one small area at least, I am squarely on side with the average British punter. Summer is so much more interesting than winter.

I don't have it now as I moved to Galley Common near Nuneaton and no shed in the N facing garden but plan to put log cabin next year.  Now 31C in here.

Sites as far apart as Herstmonceux and Pershore are currently recording over 32C and they are pretty rural. And also show how widespread the heat is.

I suspect the only reason the airports were showing as higher is because it is generally airports that generate the half hourly METARs, so they will always be a step ahead.

32.1 at Blackbushe currently, which although it is an airport is not exactly a UHI, being mostly grass with a couple of runways, one small car park and two small terminal buildings.

I suppose it depends what you want when it comes to temperature measurments.

You could argue the urban heat island is unsuitable because it artificially modifies the temp, but I don't think anyone would suggest getting rid of all urban sites. Airports definitely push that line further. Miniture heat islands caused by tarmaced surfaces. Perhaps they should have an asterix like mountain sites do.

Then again these are the environments people live in (not airports, but similar heat islands in urban environments) so perhaps these temperatures are relevant to people's experiences in a way cairngorm summit is not (and is more a meterological curiosity).

I think this is just a feature of which sites publish half hourly SYNOP readings automatically. The majority of those locations that feature on XCWeather are airfields. Many of them are very rural, little more than one strip of runway surrounded by fields. Not "airports" in the sense you might be thinking of. The non-airport sites, many of which end up posting the daily UK max, don't report half hourly but just give daily max-mins.

XCWeather is, after all, a site for glider pilots. Essentially it's not surprising that a site publishing weather reports from a base of mainly airfields ends up showing the highest temps at airpot sites.

Remember Herstmonceux was the UK hot spot twice in the past few days. Hardly a UHI is it? Although if this location is the weather station it does look extremely sheltered by trees and high hedges.

I was just thinking that with so many aircraft related sites monitored. Add Mildenhall Royal Air Force Base to the highest temps at 33c at 1.08pm.

Makes perfect sense. Normal people buzz about summer weather not about feeling cold and miserable 

Landuse definitely makes a difference to daytime temperatures - not UHI per se (UHI is largely a nocturnal phenomenon and is most pronounced in city centres rather than places like airports), and I the fact is airports are generally open areas, there are not so many trees around and as they are often low altitude and flat they are more likely to be in arable zones, all of which lend themselves to lower humidity, larger diurnal ranges and high daily maxes.

Essentially everywhere on the world's surface other than true wilderness areas (and nowhere in the UK) the climate is influenced by human landuse change. Deforestation in the tropics is probably the extreme example, where whole regional climates can be affected. As a species we have changed the land cover, topography, humidity, albedo, and soil moisture of vast swathes of the continental land masses. It means that, even before we consider greenhouse gases, all temperature readings in the British isles are arguably artificial, even in somewhere like Aviemore or Altnaharra.