Expert reflects on 'historic' Aylesbury Vale weather and predicts the week ahead

Last week the historic temperatures, not just seen across the Aylesbury Vale but indeed the whole of Britain, brought everyone together in resounding agreement that 37-40C is absolutely too hot.

We can all breathe a sigh of relief for the time being as conditions have returned somewhat closer to normal and stepping outside can feel enjoyable once again.

The extraordinarily high temperatures were not the only thing that was unusual about the conditions last week.

The hot airmass was also unusually dry compared to heat usually experienced in the UK, with a relative humidity of below 10% in places, drying out everything very rapidly.

The extremely dry air coupled with a very dry July and fairly breezy conditions lead to the spread of many fires throughout Tuesday last week, most notably on the outskirts of Dartford.

However, even though conditions cooled off rapidly through the remainder of last week, it stayed largely dry and warm which allowed for a continued threat of fire spread. On Sunday afternoon, five days after the intense heat, multiple fires broke out across parts of the south-east in the sunshine and strong

breeze despite temperatures only reaching the high 20s Celsius.

So far this month conditions have been extraordinarily dry with rainfall amounts barely reaching 30% of a normal July in the Aylesbury Vale area. In the far east of England not even 10% of the normal rainfall has been recorded for the month.

Luckily some spells of rain continue to be in the forecast going forward, with showers likely at times through tomorrow. Mostly dry and settled into the weekend but by the end of the weekend further outbreaks of rain are expected to push in from the north-west.