On Sunday, July 14, 2013 9:56:56 AM UTC+1, Jared Nigel Fruyton wrote:
Recalling record-breaking 10 Aug 2003,I was at my mother's home watering
her outside plants very early on and feeling the burning heat of the sun on
the neck area by 8.00 BST.

In those days BBC teletext provided hourly updates of Cities and large towns
across the UK and for London the 9.00 BST temp was shown as 26C,by the time

I think it depends where you are. Here in west Cornwall Culdrose on the Lizard plateau was 23.5C @ 08:00 today, this pool of very warm air drifted westwards and Land's End recorded 28C (remarkable enough in itself for that location - I must ask if it's a record) around 10:00, it then dropped back as the sea breeze set in together with some sea fog patches. In Penzance it was 24 by 09:30.

The surrounding sea puts a bit of a lid on things, so although there has been virtually no sea breeze in Penzance recently, the maximums were limited to 27.7C yesterday, 27.6C today. These may seem modest by inland standards, but the highest temperatures ever recorded in Penzance a-

29.9C in June 1976 (Official station - data via Philip Eden)
29.7C in July 2006 (my station - sheathed thermometers in a standard Stevenson Screen)

Looking back to 2003 I recorded 4 days 27C, the highest 28.3C on 8th August, so this spell is up there with it in this location, and with some time to go may well eventually prove more notable.

Graham
Penzance