Today has been the hottest July day ever with temperatures reaching 36.3C in Surrey - surpassing the previous record which has been held since 1911.

At 3pm, Charlwood in Surrey was the hottest place in the country, with Heathrow close behind, recording 35 degrees, and extreme heat also felt in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Hampshire.

The previous July record of 36C was set at Epsom, Surrey, on July 22, 1911, while 35.9C was recorded at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, on July 3 1976.

The full results will not be analysed until tomorrow morning, but it seems unlikely now that temperatures will be higher than the all-time record, 38.5 degrees reached in Faversham, Kent, in August 2003.

Police confirmed that a 14-year-old boy who drowned in a canal at Glen Parva near Leicester had indirectly been a victim of the hot weather. “The assumption is that, because of the heat, the boy entered the water to cool down,” said a spokeswoman.

Within central London the hot weather prompted primary schools to adopt continental hours and many school children were sent home at 1.30pm.

Transport was also a problem, and trains on the West Coast line shuffled along slowly, with the speed limits in force between London Euston and Lancaster because of the softening effect of the extreme heat on the rails.

The Ambulance service had severe difficulties getting to an accident in Essex because motorist had abandoned their cars to find some shade. A rescue service used quad bikes to deliver water to motorists stuck on the A14 in Cambridgeshire following two accidents, police said.

Gritter lorries have been out to spread rock dust on roads across five counties to prevent them from melting.

A disabled man was stuck on a British Airways plane at Heathrow for more than 90 minutes today after “a communication breakdown “ over fetching a mobile lift meant that he could not disembark his flight from Tel Aviv. The airline apologised.

Walkers in national parks such as the the Peak District were banned from leaving recognised paths for fear of starting fires in dry woodland.

Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, relaxed the strict dress code which compels reporters to wear jackets in the Press Gallery. Journalists were told they could attend in shirt-sleeve order.

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