Temperatures to cool off after sizzling start to weekend

Temperatures will cool down on Sunday after Britain basked in the hottest day of the year so far.

A new record temperature for 2019 was set on Saturday, with the mercury reaching 34C (93.2F) at Heathrow and elsewhere in west London – just short of the 35.6C (96F) June record set in 1976.

Forecasters are predicting a “massive drop in temperature” to finish the weekend – although conditions will remain warm.

“It will be nowhere near as hot as yesterday; today (Sunday) we’re looking at 26 to 28 degrees in East Anglia, London and parts of Kent,” said Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill.

While many places will see sunny conditions, isolated showers are predicted across southern England and Wales.

“Some places will see showers with bursts of 10 to 15 millimetres in an hour, but it won’t be especially heavy,” said Mr Burkill.

Western Scotland and Northern Ireland are expected to start the day with showers, with stronger rain developing around lunchtime.

People flocked to the seaside to make the most of the hot weather on Saturday, while Tesco said sales of barbecue food had soared.

The supermarket predicted it would sell more than one million packs of sausages, 650,000 packs of burgers and 50,000 disposable barbecues over the weekend.

Several European countries have reported record temperatures this week, including France which hit an all-time heat record of 44.3C (111F) on Friday.

As a new working week approaches, rain is predicted through central parts of England on Monday.

Despite the threat of rain on Tuesday and Thursday, dry conditions are forecast for the rest of the week with sunny spells and average temperatures ahead.