Today is officially the second hottest day on record.

The mercury hit 38.1°C in Cambridge at 4pm, coming close behind the all-time record of 38.5°C set in Faversham, Kent, in 2003.

Temperatures started soaring early this morning, reaching 31.6°C at Heathrow Airport by 10am and 34°C in Kew Gardens before midday.

It is only the second time temperatures have ever been recorded above 100 Fahrenheit in the UK.

If you were wondering why it is so hot, experts at the Met Office say there is ‘no doubt’ climate change is playing a role in the unprecedented temperature highs.

Met Office spokesman Oli Claydon, said: ‘There’s a very large area of high pressure over eastern Europe and up into Scandinavia.

‘That’s combined with a jet stream that has taken a bit of a downturn to the south across the Atlantic, then shooting up north to the west of the UK.

‘That combination of the jet stream and the high pressure is working to funnel up the warm air from the continent which has its source origins in North Africa.’

But the kind of heatwave the country is experiencing is being made more likely, and more intense, by climate change, experts warn.

A study from the Met Office previously showed last year’s summer heatwave was made around 30 times more likely than it would be under natural conditions as a result of human activity driving global warming.

The world has seen temperatures rise by a global average of 1°C since pre-industrial times, and more in some areas, increasing the likelihood and frequency of extreme heat spells.

Professor Peter Stott, from the Met Office, said: ‘There’s no doubt that climate change is playing a role here because of the elevated temperatures and that’s related to the fact we’ve got this weather pattern being drawn up from North Africa.’

That part of the world has warmed by double the global average, while continental areas are warming faster than over the sea.

So when the UK shares weather patterns with places that are warming fast, it is ‘pushing us into temperatures that are unprecedented, pushing us into those ranges that we have never seen before or are very, very infrequent’, he said.

And it is not just the UK, with heatwaves seen across the northern hemisphere both this summer and last.

The east coast of America has recently been in the grip of a heatwave and much of Europe is seeing records broken at the moment, while last year, Europe and Japan saw sweltering summer conditions.

Professor Stott added: ‘Having this frequency of heatwaves across the hemisphere would have been extraordinarily unlikely without climate change, and it’s now being made a possibility, and it’s what we’re seeing.’

Got a story for Metro.co.uk?

If you have a story for our news team, email us at [email protected].

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Source: Read Full Article