Record temperatures in London and alarm for France as part of it is hit this week by a rare heat wave for the month of May, the result of a continent warming faster than in the past.
The mercury soared to 34.8 degrees Celsius for the first time today in Kew Gardens, a botanical garden located in south-west London.
“Today is the hottest day ever recorded in May, surpassing by 2 degrees Celsius the previous record” of 32.8 degrees Celsius, which was set in 1922, then 1944, the Met Office announced at X. “Such heat would be unusual in the UK in the middle of summer,” the British Met Office stressed.
Today has been the hottest day in May on record with Kew Gardens provisionally reaching 34.8°C – exceeding the previous highest May temperature in the UK by a full 2 degrees Celsius🌡️
This heat would be exceptional in the UK even in mid summer, let alone in May📈
— Met Office (@metoffice)
That level is “well above normal for the season, which, for example, in London should be around 17 or 18 degrees,” Met Office meteorologist Greg Dewhurst told AFP.
This phenomenon is due to the flow of warm air from North Africa, which is trapped under the high pressure of a strong anticyclone. According to scientists, human-caused climate change is making extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts and floods, more intense.
A man takes a dip in the Canal de l’Ourcq as temperatures hit 35 degrees Celsius during a heat wave in Paris, France May 25, 2026. REUTERS/Tom Nicholson
“We’re seeing more and more extreme events, not just in the UK, but all over the world, with more and more records being broken, more and more frequently,” Dewhurst says, calling this “a good indication of climate change in action”.
“I’ll close the shutters, I won’t go out”
“We thought we were in Spain,” described her experience with the heat, 23-year-old Irishwoman Chloe O’Brien Kaminski, who was on Monday (25/05) in St. James’s Park, London, near Buckingham Palace.
“It’s nice to have summer, but I guess when we think about climate change, it’s not so good,” added the nursing student.
Lindy Brand-Daloz, 66, from Australia, who has lived in London for 12 years, never remembers such heat in May again: “I wish the new generation would take it seriously and change their habits. But when we see the leaders of the whole world completely indifferent, that’s really worrying.”
It is noted that in 2025, the UK experienced its warmest year on record.
Parallel to England, in France, on the streets of Rennes, in Brittany (west), 74-year-old Danielle Dupont, sweating, was looking for shade, surprised by “such heat in May”. “I’ll close the shutters, I won’t go out in the afternoon,” he said.
This “episode of early and increased heat” will “initially last until the weekend,” Francois Guran, a meteorologist at Météo-France, told AFP.
Eight departments in western France were placed on Tuesday (26/05) in orange heat alert (the second level out of a total of three in the ranking).
🟠🌡 Orange alert Heat wave in several departments of the North-West from midnight next night.
Temperatures on Tuesday afternoon will be between 33 and 36 degrees most often, remarkable temperatures for the end of May.
👉
— Météo-France (@meteofrance)
The Ministry of Sports called on Sunday, a day in which many high temperature records were broken, such as in Brest (in the west, with 29.8 degrees Celsius), “for maximum vigilance during sports.”
In Italy, in the Lazio region, which includes Rome, authorities have decided to limit work “with prolonged exposure to the sun” between 12:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. This regulation, which is valid until September 15, came into effect last year on May 30.
