Scorcher

The Ballywatticock reading is being checked by the Met Office I believe- it did seem a bit suspicious to me but I guess we will find out in a few days.

The CET for this month is fair- there have been no cooler days at all really. Also 2013 had a lot of clear sunny days with temps in the mid 20s with few really hot days. Nights weren't overly warm.

Yes this is certainly true for this part of the country too, maxima have been comfortably above average (although very consistent without any really high temps until this week). Hardly any cool days to speak of so far this month.

Minima are going to hold it up though. Only 4 days from the 27th to make a dent in the figure and I can't see it being that cool.

Certainly won't be cold in the slightest...

Also this is one of the biggest misconceptions- that the Med isn't humid. The coastal Mediterranean is very humid in summer, particularly the islands such as the Balearic Islands and Cyprus. Really high relative humidity.

The classic prolonged memorable spells are nearly always dry air masses. 2018 and the spell in mid July 2006 are prime examples, although 2006 did become more thundery later on. August 2003 is another- generally low relative humidity and I believe June/July1976 was also low humidity. People have a perception that it's humid because of our well insulated buildings and lack of air conditioning. Hot, humid spells are usually more shortlived in this part of the world.

As others have said, amazing to see such a prolonged hot and humid spell in this country. So often the more prolonged spells in this country have lower relative humidity- but this spell feels properly Mediterranean with temps in the high 20s and humidity above 50% in the afternoons. Also these spells seem to be often quite hazy- visibility and air quality seems unusually good for a UK hot spell. The sun also feels stronger as a consequence.

True, although I often think Manchester Airport is a bit low- it's consistently cooler than Rostherne nearby by day (although slightly warmer at night). Rostherne is averaging 22.4C for July so far.

Comical- it was 31C at 14:20 (still miles too high) and then half an hour later apparently went up to 38C before quickly dropping down to 34C. 34C with 45% relative humidity by the way- quite something for the UK It's been far too high for months in all honesty but it took people ages to agree I had a point about it.

This has been discussed in the ramp thread and also the North West regional thread- there is clearly a problem with the station. I've been making the point about the Liverpool Airport station for months- it's consistently been miles higher than nearby stations. There is nothing particularly favourable about the location either- it's more exposed than many of the inland sites nearby.

Looks like it could rise a fair few places by the end of this week with a lot of sunshine and heat to come.

It's been very suspect for months, if not years. Even back in the day it used to record higher readings in certain setups than the other stations nearby. I see nothing favourable about the location of the station geographically when compared to other stations nearby such as Hawarden, Crosby or Woodvale. There's no way it should be recording higher temps than inland stations such as Rostherne or Manchester Airport in a NW wind.

Plenty more heat to come before then and still scope for that to change- a fair way out still.

Interesting how the temps for today and tomorrow for this part of the world have been hugely underestimated by the models a couple of days out. Have the models struggled with the surface flow and overestimated the effects of this perhaps? High pressure is so strong and winds so light that the breeze from the NW made very little difference to the temps yesterday here.

The GFS was at one point showing the heat and high pressure being swept away on Monday. It has performed very poorly recently. I still think the breakdown may be pushed back further- looks like Friday may be dry and very warm for most now and I wouldn't be surprised if Saturday also ends up good too.

No chance this is accurate- no stations close by are anywhere near this. Liverpool Airport has been recording very suspicious readings for months now. The east of the region is actually warmer today than the west.

No way in a million years that reading of 30C at Liverpool Airport is correct in a NW wind... That station is always far too high these days.

Yes if you're in Macclesfield that's fair enough- a bit higher up there too.

I'm in Wilmslow and it doesn't feel chilly in the slightest- 23.5C at Rostherne at 12pm.

I must admit I'm very frustrated this morning by what I'm seeing for the weekend- if the GFS is correct, Friday could well be warmer than Sunday in my area now. It looked for a long time like NW England could be one of the hotspots in this spell, now we might be struggling to get out of the low 20s on Sunday if the GFS is on the money. Monday barely reaching 20C now according to GFS- absolutely gutted. Even by the standards of the UK, we've been incredibly unlucky so far this summer, with many promising scenarios just not delivering sunshine and heat. I can only hope the ECM is right for next week as it would make up for the weekend disappointment to a large degree.

It didn't take you long did it Chris... The GFS while not quite what we hoped for, is still very warm to hot for many for most of next week. The ECM shows another warm up after midweek as well with higher humidity I imagine. Hardly disastrous. Details are still to be resolved as well after the weekend- still a good chance the heat could keep going I think with uncertainty over that trough dropping down over Scandinavia.

No doubt Liverpool Airport will record 35C while no other station within 30 miles records 30C...

I think we all knew it was going to be way off the mark with that feature- the GFS really has been all over the place with its op runs over the last few days. The ECM has been rock solid mostly with a few smaller differences between runs.

The GFS is disappointing but is out on its own this morning with that trough. ECM looks great until Wednesday but nothing like last night for the rest of the week unfortunately- hopefully just an outlier from Wednesday onwards.