Will London get a late-summer heatwave this September?

Londoners who have already started digging out their autumn wardrobes and swapping their lighter duvets for thicker ones might want to hold off a little longer, according to the Met Office forecast.

The mercury is expected to rise over the next few days, reaching around 25C in the capital on Monday. There should be plenty of sunshine too, although the odd shower could pop up.

While there is likely to be a brief return to summer-like conditions, the warm temperatures will not officially count as a heatwave.

For that to happen, temperatures need to reach a certain level for three days in a row.

The threshold varies across the UK, ranging from 25C in parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland to 28C in London.

And the warmer weather isn’t expected to stick around for too long.

Temperatures will climb across London this weekend

Met Office

After Monday, temperatures will gradually ease, dropping to around 19C by the end of next week.

The weather is also likely to stay fairly changeable, with dry and settled spells mixed in with showers.

Looking further ahead, high pressure could have more of an influence later in the month, bringing longer stretches of dry weather and some warmer-than-average days.

The later warm weather follows a record-breaking summer in which the UK recorded 40 days with temperatures exceeding 30C.

Weeks of hot, dry weather also took their toll on the capital’s green spaces. Parks including Greenwich Park were left yellow and parched, while drought was officially declared across more than two-thirds of England.

Dr Amy Doherty, who leads the National Climate Information Centre at the Met Office said: “The conditions we’ve seen this summer have broken UK climate records once again. These records are now breaking with increasing frequency, reflecting the influence of human-induced climate change on the temperatures we’re experiencing in the UK.

“Particularly notable is how much we’ve exceeded the previous summer mean temperature record, set just last year. The figures also knock the infamous summer of 1976 down to seventh for average summer mean temperature, with the top five warmest summers all occurring since 2003.”

After such a long and unusually hot summer, the arrival of cooler, crisper autumn days may be welcome news for many, but they might have to wait a little longer for them.