UK weather: Mini-heatwave makes Britain hotter than Barcelona, Bangkok and Honolulu

Tuesday is set to be the hottest day of the year with temperatures reaching 33 degrees Celsius

The hottest day of the year has arrived, with expected highs of 33 degrees Celsius due to the mini-heatwave sweeping across the UK, beating temperatures in of Spain, Thailand and even Hawaii.

Despite the average summer temperature in the UK being around 21C for this time of year, Britain has been benefiting from warm air travelling over from France and Spain, pushing heat levels up dramatically to the point where the weather is better than many holiday destinations across the globe.

Today the UK’s weather is better than in Athens, which is expected to reach highs of 31C, while Barcelona will only reach 29C and Istanbul is much cooler at 25C. Even temperatures in Thailand and parts of America will sit behind the UK’s, with Bangkok expected to reach 32C today, while Las Vegas will only reach 28C and even Honolulu is two degrees cooler than the UK at 31C.

The sunshine is expected to turn to showers and thunderstorms by Wednesday however, with temperatures set to return to average by the weekend.

The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning covering most of the UK bar London and the South East from Tuesday night into Wednesday evening, as heavy showers, thunderstorms, gusty winds and hail is forecasted.

A Met Office spokesperson said that some places could see around 30mm of rainfall in an hour or more than 50mm in the space of three hours.