Cambridge stakes claim to hottest UK day on record
New weather data from the Met Office suggests Cambridge may have broken the UK temperature record for the hottest day ever on Thursday 25 July.
Initial indications are that the weather station at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden in the centre of the city reached 38.7°C (101.7°F) breaking the UK record by 0.2°C.
The new provisional temperature reading will still need to be verified by weather experts over the coming days.
On Thursday, Cambridge was already confirmed to be the hottest place in the UK setting a new record for the warmest July day ever when a reading of 38.1°C was recorded at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in the city.
If the thermometer reading of 38.7°C at the Cambridge Botanic Garden is accepted it will become the new UK high temperature record.
The previous record for the hottest day ever in the UK was set on 10 August 2003 at Brogdale near Faversham in Kent when it reached 38.5°C
But even that reading was not officially confirmed until some time after the date it was set.
The Cambridge University Botanic Garden was created on its current site between Hills Road and Trumpington Road in 1831 and has a collection of 8,000 plants, trees and shrubs from all over the world.
There had been an earlier Botanic Garden on another site as early as 1762.
The current 40-acre garden has been open to the public since 1846.