Temperatures exceed 27C in burst of late September warmth

Temperatures have climbed above 27C at Heathrow, London, in a burst of late September warmth.

Many other parts of south-east England have reached the low to mid-20s Celsius with high teens or low-20s in many other parts of the UK.

This is around 3 to 7 degrees above the average for the time of year.

Tuesday night will also be unusually warm with the temperature in some locations not falling much below 20C.

The boost in temperatures has come because of a strong southerly airflow that has developed during Tuesday.

With unusually hot air across France and Spain - where temperatures have widely been in excess of 30C - the southerly wind is bringing some of this warmth to the UK.

However, some areas have experienced cloudy conditions and a few showers, meaning temperatures have struggled in a few locations - especially in the northern half of the country.

Loftus (North Yorkshire), Killylane (Co. Antrim) and Balmoral (Aberdeenshire) were among the places that were below 14C at the 13:00 BST observation round.

Southerly winds will continue to strengthen with gusts of up to 50mph expected in Northern Ireland and western Scotland.

This is linked to a large and deep area of low pressure moving north in the eastern Atlantic toward Iceland.

The warm southerly winds will continue overnight into Wednesday with minimum temperatures more typical of a summer's night than early autumn.

Widely, it will be around 15 to 19C.

In parts of south-east England, it is possible that temperatures may stay just above 20C overnight.

Nighttime temperatures in late September are typically around 7 to 11C, so this will make for an unusually warm night.

September will mark another month where average temperatures will come in well above normal.

Up to 26 September, the Central England Temperature (CET) - the world's longest running temperature record, which tracks the average temperature across various locations in England - is 2.6 degrees Celsius above normal.

Every month this calendar year has seen the average mean CET above average. It is also 2.6C higher than normal for the year to date.

It would need to be much colder than normal during the rest of the year for 2026 to not be one the warmest on record for the UK.

The Met Office's latest three-month outlook, spanning October to December, suggests higher-than-normal chances of a mild autumn and start to winter.