The United Kingdom has had its hottest day on record for May, the country’s weather service says, with the temperature nearing 35C.
On Monday, which also broke records for a public holiday, the Met Office said the temperature hit 34.8C at west London’s Kew Gardens, provisionally exceeding the UK’s previous 32.8C May record, registered in both 1922 and 1944.
A study last year concluded that the chances of surpassing the previous 32.8C May record were three times more likely as a result of changes in climate as a result of human greenhouse gas emissions, the Met Office said.
“This heat would be exceptional in the UK even in mid-summer, let alone in May,” it said.
Monday was also the hottest public holiday recorded since Met Office UK-wide records began in 1884, exceeding a previous high of 33.3C in August 2019.
Swimmers flocked to open air pools and pedestrians sought to cool off in public fountains, while near the village of Brockworth in southwest England, competitors braved both the heat and a steep hill for an annual cheese-rolling contest.
The participants risked broken bones and serious injury as about two dozen daredevils threw themselves down a steep hill in the annual death-defying cheese-rolling race in Gloucestershire.
Brave competitors sprinted, tripped and tumbled down Cooper’s Hill in Brockworth to try to win the double Gloucester.
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