IT PROBABLY comes as no great surprise — this month is about to become the hottest July since records began in Central England in 1659, the longest-running weather archives in the world.

Average temperatures for the month will probably come out at 19.8C (67.6F).

Temperatures would have to plunge to unforeseen wintry depths today to rob this July of the record set in July 1983 with 19.5C (67.1F). They will not, but the country will still be entering a brief cooler spell as the record is broken.

A Met Office spokesman said last night: “It’s going to be less hot than during the past few days with sunshine and, especially on Monday, showers. In the east of the country we will even see temperatures drop below average but as we head into the weekend it’s going to be warming up again and by Sunday it looks as though it will be warm or very warm again.”

It is touch and go whether the combined temperatures for June and July will beat the 17.85C record set in 1976. July 2006 would need 19.9C to beat that.

The scorching temperatures brought buckled railway lines, shrivelled vegetables, increased air pollution, soaring sales of fans and water, and exotic new fish to the English coast.

The blue skies this month also set a new record for sunshine. It would take dull and gloomy conditions today to prevent the sunshine total exceeding 300 hours, breaking the previous record for England and Wales of 285 hours in June 1957, with records going back to 1929. However, it would take a lot to beat the highest single sunshine record for one area, 384 hours in Eastbourne and Hastings, in July 1911.

The reason for the heat and sun is stubborn blocks of high pressure remaining anchored over Britain and much of Europe, sweeping the skies clear of clouds, and wafting in hot winds off the Continent, where heat waves have been breaking new records.

High temperature records also have hit large parts of North America this summer, adding to fears that this is another sign of global warming. Although one summer’s weather makes little difference to the climate, the number of new temperature records being shattered adds to the overall picture of dramatically rising global temperatures over the past 20 years.

The continuing drought raises the threat of even higher temperatures in August, but whether this will break any more records is not certain.

The heat wave has been driven even higher, particularly in urban areas, because of the hot nights. In London temperatures have rarely dipped below 20C at night.

The reason is that urban areas behave like storage radiators. During the day buildings, roads, pavements and other structures soak up heat from the sunshine. At night, the air begins to cool off, but the bricks, concrete and tarmac release their stored heat and keep temperatures high.

Despite this weekend’s rains, rainfall for the month over England and Wales is below half the norm, and the drought in southern England remains critical. All it needs is for more stifling hot air to waft over from Europe and we can expect temperatures to soar again.

And who knows, they may even break the UK highest record of 38.5C (101.3F) in Brogdale, Kent, on August 10, 2003.

MONTH FOR THE RECORD BOOKS

July 17 Aberdeen recorded a high of 29.8C (85.6F)

July 18 33.2C (91.4F) at Heathrow was a record high for the date, beating the previous record set on July 18, 1901

July 19 British record high for July of 36.5C (97.7F) set at the RHS Gardens at Wisley in Surrey, the fourth-highest British temperature

July 25 34.1C (93.4F) at Charlwood, in West Sussex, broke the record temperature for this date, set on July 25, 1900

July 30 The Met Office said that 2006 had so far been the fourth warmest summer on record, beaten only by 1976, 1995 and 2003. As at July 27, the month had produced 266 sunshine hours, 12 short of the July 1911 record

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