Bank Holiday FUNDAY! Britain is set for HOTTEST day of year with sizzling 77F

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Britons today basked in the hottest day of 2021 so far today as bank holiday Monday brought highs of 77F (25C) and two million drivers hit the roads – while scientists warned ‘freedom day’ June 21 is on a ‘knife edge’.

With three weeks to go until all Covid-19 restrictions are due to end, Downing Street sources said the plan was ’50/50′ amid calls for Sage advisers for it to be delayed ‘by a few weeks’ amid rising cases of the Indian variant.

Millions of Britons have enjoyed a hot weekend at beaches and parks, which are now looking mostly back to how they were pre-pandemic, but discussions continue within the Government over whether it can hit the target date.

While people have been able to see their friends indoors, visit the cinema or theatre and hold outdoor gatherings of up to 30 people since May 17, there are still restrictions on event capacities and nightclubs remain closed. 

People are now flocking to parks and beaches as they make the most of the turnaround in conditions – with the spell of summer sunshine now expected to last more than two weeks, following the fourth wettest May on record.

A top UK temperature of 76.3F (24.6C) was recorded this afternoon at Kinloss in the Scottish Highlands – beating the previous warmest day of 2021 which was two months ago on March 30 when West London hit 76.1F (24.5C). 

Conditions will improve further this week with highs of 81F (27C) by Wednesday, making Britain hotter than Rome which will only reach 77F (25C) – and it follows two days of glorious weather already over the three-day weekend.

This afternoon, the beaches of Lyme Regis, Bournemouth and Camber Sands looked particularly busy as the excellent weather continued, after highs of 75.2F (24C) were observed yesterday and 73.2F (22.9C) on Saturday. 

With the start of meteorological summer now just one day away, Britons have been flocking outdoors and making the most of sitting outside pubs and restaurants after Covid-19 restrictions were mostly lifted on May 17. 

Last week it seemed likely that the June 21 unlock would go ahead, but one minister has now said the Government ‘couldn’t rule anything out’ after daily infections breached 4,000 on Friday for the first time in nearly two months. 

Meanwhile a rugby-themed mass Covid vaccination event set at the 82,000-seat Twickenham Stadium in London will jab as many as 15,000 people today, with the huge walk-in operation hosted there from 10am to 8pm tonight. 

Meanwhile, SAGE advisers today called for England’s June 21 Freedom Day to be delayed ‘by a few weeks’ amid rising cases of the Indian Covid variant – as a minister admitted the Government ‘couldn’t rule anything out’.

Professor Ravi Gupta, who sits on the NERVTAG subgroup, urged No10 to push back the crucial date to allow more people to get vaccinated before ditching all social distancing and mask-wearing rules.

The Cambridge University expert claimed there were early signs the third wave had already begun – after daily infections breached 4,000 on Friday for the first time in nearly two months – and warned it could become ‘quite explosive’ over the next few months.

During a round of interviews this morning, Environment Secretary George Eustice said the Government ‘couldn’t rule anything out’ when asked if the June 21 unlocking could be pushed back. He insisted a decision would be made in a fortnight’s time when ministers will know more about the Indian strain’s effect on hospital rates.

The roaring success of the vaccine programme has seen almost 40million adults given at least one dose of the jab and 25million fully inoculated. But it leaves more than 5million Britons over-50 either unvaccinated or only partially protected.

Professor Gupta said the jab rollout was giving people a ‘false sense of security’ because infection rates were still relatively low, but claimed it was inevitable unvaccinated people would eventually start to fall ill with the highly infectious strain.

His comments were echoed by Professor Susan Michie, who sits on SAGE’s SPI-B committee. She warned Britain was on a ‘knife-edge’ as it approached June 21 deadline. The behavioural scientist, from University College London, said fully opening the country as planned could lead to a serious spike akin to the second wave in the winter.

‘Either it could run away as it did before Christmas, which would be extremely serious and we’d have more restrictions, or it could be contained,’ she told Sky News.

Last week the noise from Government was that the June 21 date was likely to go ahead but sources in No10 say there is now a ’50 – 50′ chance.

Mr Eustice told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The Prime Minister has said all along that he is going to take this one step at a time and will only make the judgement on the next step, on June 21, about a week before that.

‘The rates are going up again slightly but from a low base and probably to be expected, given there are a significant number of younger people who are now out and mixing but haven’t had the vaccine – I suppose that is to be expected. But the right thing to do in a couple of weeks’ time is to assess that data before deciding what we can do.’

Ministers are set to make a final decision on whether to push on with the last phase of the roadmap on June 14, a week before the restrictions are set to be ditched.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly promised he will be led by ‘data not dates’, and said his roadmap will be ‘irreversible’.

It comes as NHS chiefs warned the lockdown-induced backlog of treatments for ailments other than Covid means even a small increase in the number of Covid patients could cause hospitals to be overstretched once again.

Amid the concern over whether June 21 will be hit, the forecast is looking very promising for the next few weeks as Britons enjoy some much-needed sunshine.

There is no sign of rain in the near future, with the spell of summer sunshine now expected to last more than a fortnight. BBC Weather reports that daily highs will remain at around 74F (23C) until at least the middle of June.  

 

Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell said the mercury could reach 77F (25C) today – surpassing the high for 2021 so far. Temperatures will be at least in the mid-70Fs (low 20Cs) for most of the UK, even northern Scotland.

Ms Mitchell said: ‘The only exception is along the east coast – there is quite a lot of low cloud, mist and fog in east coastal areas and that will stay for the next few days, so highs of between 12C (53.6F) and 16C (60.8F) there.’

Photos from the weekend showed Britons making the most of the weather, with beaches and parks packed. Party-goers were spotted out in force last night, with the city centres of Leeds and Newcastle particularly bustling. 

Day-trippers piled in to several picturesque seaside resorts and basked in glorious sunshine as they enjoyed clear blue skies on the packed beach on Lyme Regis, while punts and kayaks filled the River Cam in Cambridge. 

Droves of lockdown-weary Brits made the journey to Devon in a bid to enjoy the hot weather – as roughly 75,000 visitors were expected at Brighton, with 50,000 at Bournemouth and 50,000 at Blackpool. 

Some 11million daytrippers were clogging roads over the weekend, RAC data showed, with traffic jams due on coastal routes including the A23 to Brighton, A31 to Dorset, A30 to Cornwall and M55 to Blackpool.  

At least two million separate leisure journeys were expected to take place today, but the RAC said this figure could be even higher if more people are tempted out by the excellent weather. 

One local who visited The Imperial pub in Exeter said his family had to wait more than two hours for a round of drinks as the city’s beer gardens saw an influx of revellers to enjoy their time off in the sun.  

Forecasters at the Met Office warned people to slap on plenty of sun cream as UV light levels will be high or very high. However, Ms Mitchell warned there could be some thunderstorms for some parts of the UK on the way.

‘There will potentially be some thunderstorms by midweek, the first bout of showers will come into parts of the South West and there will be a few thunderstorms in that,’ she said.

The storms in the South West are expected to hit on Wednesday, with the South East due a bit of a soaking by Friday. 

‘There’s a chance of some thundery break down in the south east and we could have some quite intense storms there,’ Ms Mitchell said.

‘There’s still a lot of uncertainty but with the warm and humid weather we are having we have the key ingredients for thunder storms.’

She continued: ‘The warmer weather will stick around until at least Thursday in most places, that’s when we could get some slightly fresher air coming in.

Although a fine bank holiday is rare, the temperatures are not unusual for the time of year, with the mercury usually sitting in the high teens and low 20Cs by late May.

The Met Office warned previously that levels of harmful UV light will be very high over the coming days, and advised people to wear plenty of sunscreen.

May has been the fourth wettest on record for the UK, with an average of 199mm (7.8in) falling, and the wettest ever for Wales.