First heatwave of 2025 likely as temperatures to surge above 30^c

Temperatures are set to soar to more than 30C (86F) this week as an area of high pressure builds across the UK.

It will become increasingly hot later this week and by the weekend some places could easily beat the highest temperature recorded so far this year - 29.4C (85F) in Suffolk on 13 June.

For a heatwave to be declared by the Met Office we need to reach a threshold temperature for at least three consecutive days, and that varies from 25C across the north and west of the UK, to 28C in parts of eastern England. Whilst we have seen temperatures exceeding these figures in recent weeks, the warm spells have not been long enough to qualify as a heatwave - but that could be about to change.



The warm weather will be concentrated across East Anglia and south-east England on Monday and Tuesday before spreading across the Midlands, east Wales and north England by the weekend.

On Monday we are likely to reach 26C, by Wednesday the heat becomes much more widespread with highs of 28C, and by the weekend the hot spots surge somewhere between 30 and 33C. Meanwhile, it will become warmer in Northern Ireland and Scotland later in the week, but it will be more comfortable here with temperatures mostly in the low 20s.



By Sunday things become more uncertain and we may see fresher air move in from the Atlantic with a risk of thundery downpours. However, some forecast models keep the heat for longer, especially in East Anglia and south-east England with temperatures continuing to stay above the 30C mark.

Heatwaves are becoming more common due to climate change, with a greater chance of seeing extreme heat.

They can cause problems for our infrastructure, such as trains running at reduced speeds due to the risk of train tracks expanding and buckling in the heat.

We also see more heat-related health problems which can lead to an increase in excess deaths in those with underlying health conditions.

Heat-health alerts are issued to warn health providers of the risk of a heat causing adverse impacts to the health and wellbeing of the population.

Do we need an aircraft board as well as a bus board - coz there was an emergency that closed the airport today too. And what about all the other emergency landings that the media are covering these days?

Indeed ... this is a balancing act for the moderator / admin team. At the very raw and early point I think it's right not to wildly speculate, but yet as evidence comes out and is discussed in the specialist press and by experts, we can and should move towards reflecting on that evidence.

Drivers are all adults and are fully aware of their responsibilities.

Nothing here beyond what has been postulated in the spcialist aviation media, aviation forums and general news media.

Investigators find cockpit voice recorder from crashed Air India flight



Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from the crashed Air India flight, a key step in uncovering what caused last week's deadly accident.

The London-bound Air India aircraft, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed soon after taking off on Thursday from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. At least 270 people have been killed, most of them passengers.

The CVR captures audio from the cockpit, including pilot conversations, alarms and ambient sounds. The flight data recorder (FDR), which logs crucial flight parameters like altitude, speed and engine performance, had been recovered from the debris on Friday.

Both the CVR and FDR collectively form what is commonly known as the "black box" of a plane. It is a vital tool in air crash investigations, helping experts reconstruct the flight's final moments and determine the cause of the incident. The black box, unlike the name suggests, is actually two bright orange devices - one for the CVR and the other for the FDR - painted with reflective strips for easier recovery after a crash. Both these devices are designed to survive a crash.

India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is leading the inquiry into the cause of the crash, helped by teams from the US and the UK.

On Sunday, officials from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) surveyed the site of the plane crash.

"The AAIB has launched a detailed investigation, and the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting a parallel probe under international protocols, since the aircraft is American-made," a statement released on Sunday said.

Indian media outlets have reported, citing sources, that officials from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) - the US aviation safety agency - also visited the site.

Separately, a high-level committee set up by the Indian government to examine the reasons behind the crash is expected to hold its first meeting on Monday. The committee will submit a preliminary report within three months, the All India Radio said, and will propose new standard operating procedures (SOPs) to help prevent similar incidents in future.

As the investigation continues, families on the ground are still grappling with disbelief and trauma. Less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, the AI171 flight crashed into a doctors' accommodation building at the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital.

All but one of the 242 passengers and crew members were killed. Officials have also been trying to establish how many people were killed on the ground and continuing the slow process of matching DNA samples to confirm the victims' identities. Over the weekend, doctors said 270 bodies had been recovered from the site of the crash.

More than 90 victims have been identified, external through DNA matching, Dr Rajnish Patel of Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital said on Monday. He added that 47 of the identified bodies have been sent to their families.

Among the identified victims is Vijay Rupani, the former chief minister of Gujarat, whose funeral will be held on Monday. Rupani, whose political career spanned more than 50 years, will be laid to rest with full state honours in Rajkot city.

For many other families, the agonising wait continues. Officials told the BBC that the identification process has been slow and painstaking, as many of the bodies were badly burned in the crash and are being processed in small batches.

Mistry Jignesh, waiting outside the hospital for updates on his niece, told the BBC on Saturday that officials told him that it might take longer for them to hand over his niece's remains as the search for bodies is still ongoing. He had earlier been told that the body would be handed over by Sunday, after the 72 hours it normally takes to complete DNA matching. "When people are still missing, how can they complete the DNA process by tomorrow? What if my niece's remains haven't even been found? The wait is killing us," he said.

A UK-bound plane was forced to make an emergency landing after passengers reported a smoke smell mid-flight.

The EasyJet service from Paphos, Cyprus, to Bristol on Saturday evening had to divert to Izmir in Turkey as a result of a technical issue, a company spokesperson said. They confirmed the flight, which had 169 customers and six crew on board, was met by emergency services after landing as a "precautionary" measure.

"All passengers disembarked as normal," the spokesperson added, explaining that those on board were provided with meals and hotel accommodation "where required". "The safety of our customers and crew is EasyJet's highest priority and EasyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with all manufacturers' guidelines," they continued.

Grounded passengers were later taken to Bristol on a replacement flight on Sunday evening.

I thought we'd agreed it was best not to speculate?