United Kingdom unofficially sets all-time record; temperatures still rising

Temperatures rose to triple digits in parts of the United Kingdom Tuesday

Record heat wave in parts of western Europe

ROANOKE, Va. – The Met Office of the United Kingdom reported Tuesday afternoon that London hit 40°. That’s equivalent to 104°F.

Unofficially, this breaks the record for the all-time highest temperature recorded in the United Kingdom.

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Here’s the catch. This was only around midday, and the Met Office forecasts temperatures to rise more in the following hours Tuesday afternoon.

You can follow along with this record heat wave on their Twitter linked here.

This kind of heat is also being seen in parts of Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Forecast high temperatures in western Europe for Tuesday, 7/19/2022

The United Kingdom is a part of the world that is not used to this level of heat. The average high temperature in London in mid-July is 74°.

(Imagine us forecasting temperatures 25-30° above average - that would be 113 to 118°F).

Many will tell you they don’t have the proper A/C or infrastructure to withstand an unprecedented heat wave like this one. London, for example, is just slightly farther north than Calgary, Alberta and is farther north than any of the Lower 48 states.

We’ll get increasingly hotter later this week, but not quite this hot. You can read our forecast update here.


About the Author

Meteorologist Chris Michaels is an American Meteorological Society (AMS) Certified Broadcaster, forecasting weather conditions in southwest Virginia on WSLS 10 News from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. weekdays on Virginia Today.

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