Wales is set to be among the hottest places in the UK this week as we brace another heatwave. According to the Met Office, the heatwave this time round will be longer but with lower temperatures.
Temperatures over the coming days will remain lower than last month's scorching 40.3°C, but the warmth will continue over a "prolonged period", the weather service has said. People have been urged not to host barbecues in the tinder-dry conditions after 15 homes were evacuated following a garden fire that spread out of control in Essex.
In some parts of Wales, temperatures could reach up to 34°C, prompting fears of an extended drought. This comes after Welsh Water announced that parts of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, will face a hosepipe ban towards the end of the month after seeing the driest July since 2006.
Read more: UK heatwave: How hot it will get where you live according to the BBC and Met Office
This week, it is set to be dry and sunny from Monday, August 8 to Friday, August 12 and is set to turn increasingly hot over the coming days. BBC weather shows temperatures rising through the week, hitting 33°C in Cardiff on Thursday and Friday and 34°C in Usk in Monmouthshire.
The whole of England and Wales is likely to see sunshine and dry conditions over the coming week as high pressure builds across the UK, reports PA, while parts of north-west Scotland may be cloudier and breezier up to Wednesday, but fine weather is expected for all areas of the country later in the week.
Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: "It will be a lot of sunshine for a vast majority of the UK and also temperatures rising day after day. Not everyone will initially see those sunny conditions, but towards the end of the week even Scotland and Northern Ireland will join the rest of the UK in having generally fine, sunny and very warm if not hot conditions. It does look like a prolonged period of dry weather and obviously that's bad news for southern England where some rain would really be useful now.
"In terms of temperatures we're looking at them build from 28°C or 29°C tomorrow to the low to mid 30s from Thursday onwards, so a fairly widespread heatwave developing across the UK this week. The peak of the temperatures look likely to occur on Friday or Saturday."
Mr Morgan said the West Midlands and West Country in England could see the highest temperatures, with a maximum of around 35°C predicted, but noted this was still uncertain. He added: "The heatwave we saw at the end of July, that was relatively short-lived and saw exceptionally high, record-breakingly high temperatures.
"We're quite confident temperatures will not go as high as they did during July, but the difference is that this is going to be quite a prolonged period of temperatures in the low 30s, so it will be very notable nonetheless. Heatwave criteria are likely to be met across many parts of the UK and there will no doubt be some adverse impacts from heatwave exhaustion, dehydration and so on, so we do anticipate some potentially adverse effects to the NHS and more vulnerable people having heat-related problems through this period of time."
The Met Office has urged people to follow precautions to avoid becoming overheated, including closing curtains and windows during the day and avoiding the midday sun. You can find out more about how to be safe in high temperatures here.
Sharing photos showing today's weather, Derek Brockway - BBC Wales' weatherman, said on Twitter that summer was "far from over". Last week, parts of continental Europe also faced high temperatures as much as high 30s in some parts, with the city of Seville in Spain naming the world's first heatwave - Zoe, to try and raise awareness about the weather condition.
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