A provisional temperature of 37.1C has been reached in Cavendish, Suffolk, setting another record for June, the Met Office said. This marks the third day in a row a new record high temperature has been set for June as the heatwave continues to bake the UK.
Earlier on Friday, a provisional temperature of 36.9C was recorded in Wattisham, Suffolk, surpassing the high of 36.7C recorded in Merryfield, Somerset, on Thursday. This beats the previous June record, set in 1976, by more than 1C.
The red alert for extreme heat is in place until 9pm today for areas in the East of England, London, and the South East.
The Met Office said: “The heat will be accompanied by high humidity, exacerbating the potential for discomfort and health impacts, with very warm and humid night times also reducing the ability for people to recover overnight.
“Significant disruption to daily life is likely and the public should take every effort to make precautions and adapt their daily routines where possible to cope with these levels of heat, which up to now have been extremely rare for the UK.”
An amber heat warning is in place for a wider area on Friday, running to midnight and taking in the East Midlands, East of England, North West, South West, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber.
Meanwhile, swathes of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland faced yellow warnings for thunderstorms on Friday.
There are at least 571 schools either fully or partially closed because of the heat, including in Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, West Berks and Worcestershire.
Several hospitals have declared critical incidents, with University Hospital Southampton being forced to cancel a number of planned operations and some outpatient appointments.