The breeze has died down here but the temperature is only climbing quite slowly, currently at 28.8C.
According to the Beeb, Heathrow reached 31.6C by 10am so we're well on course for the record.
The really high readings tend to come in early from Wisley, Kew and the West London airstrips but then somewhere in North Kent tops them all much later in the day.
Clouds are starting to appear more and more, affecting the best area for the record to be broken. As things stand, Cambridge looks a good bet location wise....
The woman sitting next to me is from Madrid. At the courses I'm responsible for there are about 20 people from all over Spain from Cadiz to Barcelona, (including a couple from Murcia and Alicante). All of them are wilting in this heat. The temperature may not be that high but combined with humidity and all the rest of the way that the UK is built for cold weather (building construction, no air conditioning, carpets everywhere etc)
You all have my sympathies. 39C in Britain will not be like 39C in a place that has dry air. And is not like 39C in a place that's used to hot weather and therefore has decent air-con, or houses and a culture built to deal with serious heat. It'll be miserable in a way that 39C is not miserable here.
Hmmmmm - my back garden readings are now 39C+ which I presume is a mis-reading, or at least I really hope it is!
Although the measurement device is cheap and cheerful I calibrate it against official readings at a nearby weather station and it usually seems to match up.
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