THE mercury has topped 32 degrees celcius in Salisbury as the city basks in the sub-Saharan heat. The temperature was recorded by SpireWeather's Simon Hammond at his weather station in Laverstock.
It is just 0.1C short of his record high from July 2013. Although the apparent temperature which takes into account humidity and wind chill hit 35.5C.
The weather is a little way short of the high's being recorded on the East coast, due to the bigger expanse of English channel between France and Salisbury, and in urban centres such as London.
Simon though pointed out this bout of hot weather doesn't actually classify as a heatwave as the official definition requires five consecutive days with temperatures at least five degrees above the average.
The average July maximum locally is 21.9C so five consecutive days of 26.9C constitutes an official heatwave.
"We really have tropical storm Bill to thank for the hot weather," he said. "At the moment it is sitting in the Atlantic driving the hot air up from Spain."
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