Heatwave Britain hits 40.3°C – here's how scientists know when a temperature record has been broken

By Stephen Burt, Visiting Fellow in Meteorology, University of Reading

The UK has experienced its hottest day on record, as provisional data showed the temperature soared to 40.3°C at Coningsby in Lincolnshire. This surpassed the previous record of 38.7°C set in Cambridge just three years previously. The unprecedented day followed a record warm night, when the 24-hour minimum temperature at Kenley in Surrey did not fall below 25.8°C, smashing the previous UK record by nearly two degrees.

As a historian of UK weather…

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