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

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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