In recent days and weeks, you will have seen a lot of talk about the UK breaking its temperature records and hitting 40C - a heat more commonly associated with north Africa than our green Valleys. Yet the projection of 40C, while still only one of a range of options for the weather in the coming days, is not just scaremongering.
Long-term weather forecasting is not a precise science, there are a number of different computer models which project where temperatures and weather conditions may head in the coming weeks and months. All of them have to incorporate so many variables and uncertainties that none alone is ever fully accurate.
When it first popped up on the computer screens of weather forecasters, the model projecting that in mid July temperatures might head as high as 43C looked like it was at outlier among many more milder forecasts. This is especially true given the fact that currently, the highest officially recorded temperature in the UK is 38.7°C, recorded at Cambridge Botanic Garden on 25 July 2019. Find out where and when it's going to be hottest in Wales this week here.
