UK set for fourth heatwave next week

The UK is set for its fourth heatwave next week - and it may not be the last of the summer.

Temperatures are expected to climb again next week after a brief reprieve this weekend.

Heat alerts are currently in place across parts of England, with officials warning temperatures are likely to impact health and wellbeing.

Yellow alerts for the East Midlands, East, London, South East, South West and West Midlands are in place until 9am on Sunday.

Cooler and fresher weather is then expected, bringing an end to the longest-running heatwaves, with highs of 25 and 26C possible in the South East and high teens and low 20s more widely elsewhere.

Sky News meteorologist Chris England said: "The high pressure system that brought the recent prolonged heatwave is easing off to the southwest, allowing cooler conditions and some much-needed rain across the UK, but there'll be very little for Wales and southern England, where drought or near drought conditions prevail."

But the heat will begin to climb again at the start of next week.

Monday's high is forecast to be 27C in the South East, just below the area's heatwave threshold of 28C.

Such thresholds will start to be crossed the following day, with highs of more than 30C expected in the South East until Thursday.

Next week's heatwave may not be the last of the summer, according to the Met Office's long-range forecast.

"[The weather] is a bit more changeable in the short term, but as we head more into August there are hints that conditions will settle down and become drier again", said the Met Office's senior operational meteorologist Marco Petagna.

Read more from Sky News:
Six arrested after man stabbed to death
'Cockroach' movement to end protests

It comes after North Wales and the Upper Severn became the first part of the UK to declare drought status on Thursday, with parts of Exeter, Devon and Usk in Wales meeting their heatwave threshold for 20 consecutive days.

No rain has fallen in July in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and West Sussex, and 16 counties have recorded 0.1mm, which Mr Petagna said "might just be a bit of dew on the grass".

The UK has had 20% of its average July rainfall, which takes into account the wetter areas.

It is "very, very unusual" for a hot and dry spell to last this long, Mr Petagna added.

The dry conditions come after last year's drought summer, with the UK facing more extreme weather fuelled by human-caused climate change.

Meanwhile, wildfires continue to burn in the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland, across the Rhinogydd mountains in North Wales and Blaenavon in South Wales.

The last week has also seen blazes on heathland on the Isle of Wight, woodland in the New Forest and fields in Tadley in Hampshire.

Europe wildfires latest: 270,000 people evacuated across southern Europe

Elsewhere, raging forest fires have forced 270,000 people to evacuate in southern Europe.

(c) Sky News 2026: UK set for fourth heatwave next week