Northern Ireland weather: Province's heatwave just a whisker off reaching hottest ever September temperature - record is almost 120 years old

A Met Office spokesman said the province was only 0.3C off reaching its highest recorded temperature for this month when the sun sent the mercury rising today, Thursday.

The max temp in Northern Ireland was 27.3 C at Magilligan, however the all-time September record is just a little higher – with 27.6 C which was recorded on 1 September at Armagh in 1906.

The spokesman added: “So the answer is no – sorry, that is, no records were broken today”.

However, in UK terms Thursday is provisionally the hottest day of the year so far, with 32.6C recorded in Wisley, Surrey, the Met Office also confirmed.

The heatwave is about to break the record for the most consecutive days with temperatures above 30C in September, according to the forecaster, with Saharan dust generating vivid sunsets and sunrises in the clear conditions.

Wednesday was the third day above 30C, matching a record seen on four previous occasions, most recently in 2016.

The high temperatures are expected to continue through the weekend, peaking as high as 33C on Saturday.

September’s highest daily temperature reading was 35.6C recorded on September 2 1906 in South Yorkshire, according to the Met Office.

Prolonged heat above 30C leaves older people and those with respiratory or cardiovascular diseases at greater risk, with the UK Health Security Agency issuing an amber warning until 9pm on Sunday evening in nearly every area of England.

A yellow heat alert is in place until the same time in the north east of England.

The Met Office said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter: “After getting very close yesterday, today is provisionally the hottest day of the year so far, with 32.6°C recorded in Wisley.”