Leeds weather Thursday: City prepares for hottest day of year on Friday with cloudy morning before sunny spells

The hot spell in parts of Britain is set to build to a “crescendo” on Friday as temperatures are expected to soar to a sizzling 34C in south-east England.

Temperatures between 27-30C are expected across most of England and Wales.

The warm flow of weather is coming from Spain and Portugal, where daytime temperatures have exceeded 40C in southern Spain.

Britain’s highest recorded June UK temperature was 35.6C at Southampton Mayflower Park in June 1976 – the year of a notorious summer heatwave.

On Thursday, Leeds is expected to reach a high of 24 degrees.

The Met Office said a cloudy morning will change to sunny spells by midday.

The sunrise is at 4.35am and sunset at 9.39pm.

Pollen levels have been described as 'very high' by the Met Office.

Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said: “We have got high pressure at the moment so we are getting a certain amount of natural home-grown heat building up because obviously we have got clear skies and fairly dry ground conditions across southern England.

“We have also got warmer air being brought up from further south in Europe where there has been a major heat incident, particularly in Iberia, so that’s leading to the sort of crescendo we will see on Friday.

“Because of the direction of the flow, with the weather pattern we have got set up in our latitude, that is encouraging this warm flow of air to come further north.

“We have got the heat building day by day. The next couple of days will be hotter than the preceding day. We think at the moment, although there is some uncertainty, that the weather temperatures will peak on Friday and then largely we will be in for a cooler day on Saturday.

“Heat may remain potentially into Saturday but for most parts of the UK, because we have got a cold front moving down from further north, we will see temperatures coming back down – but they may just hang on in southern England.”

A sweltering 28.2C was recorded at Kew Gardens, south-west London, on Wednesday - the hottest of the year so far.