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It's officially the hottest day of the year so far, and today is expected to be the peak of the current hot spell. But for some places, we've also seen torrential downpours and thunderstorms.

Temperatures have already reached 34.8C at Cambridge in England, making it the hottest day of 2024 so far. The previous highest temperature was 32C in London on 30th July.

The jet stream is sitting to the north of the UK - in part due to the influence of ex-Tropical Storm Debby - allowing hot southerly winds to bring us air originating from southern Europe and North Africa. High pressure close by has meant a few days of clear skies and a day on day build of warmth.

The past 24 hours have brought some very lively thunderstorms across northern and western parts of the UK. More than 15000 lightning strikes have been observed since yesterday. The earlier warning for thunderstorms is no longer in force, as the storms are forecast to ease for the rest of the day, although we could see the odd thundery downpour in the east later on.

Thunderstorms are most frequent during the summer months as hot, humid air adds more energy to the atmosphere.

After the peak of heat on Monday, temperatures will start to ease, but we'll have a few more warm, humid days in the south-east. Tuesday could see highs again close to 30C, but by Wednesday, we'll all be back to more typical temperatures for mid-August.