But in 1976 the high pressure system was centred further to the east of the UK than now. That had the effect of drawing up hot humid air from the south, making night-time temperatures even hotter than they have been this year.
A lot of people have said they remember the summer of 1976 being hotter than this year. Looking at the distribution of the hottest days, we see that 1976 won hands down, with seventeen days of 28C and over, compared to just five this year. Temperatures peaked at 33.2C in 1976, still a record for CET.
But if I'm honest, what I remember most about 1976 was the snow! Believe it or not, the Midlands was struck by a dramatic snowstorm on June 2 — right at the supposed start of summer. Such was its ferocity that it forced the cancellation of a cricket match in Buxton, Derbyshire.
In 1976, the average house price was £12,704. The average wage was £72 a week. A pint of beer cost 32p. A loaf of bread was 19p.
Much of the UK's hot weather comes from the jet stream, which is a narrow band of high speed winds. The warm air that's being brought up to us is originating in northern Africa, and this week the winds will change and bring it through Europe and up to us from France, meaning the air we're getting is exceptionally hot.
The Met Office considers the summer of 2018 to be tied with 1976, 2003 and 2006 as the hottest summer on record for the United Kingdom as a whole, with average temperatures of 15.8 °C (60.4 °F).
1976 was also a year of strikes and raging inflation. Inflation raged at around 17%. The industrial unrest and economic crisis led within a few years to the winter of discontent and then the Thatcher revolution.
Is the UK warmer? According to the Met Office, 2019 was warmer, wetter and sunnier across the uk than the climate average. It is likely that 2019 will fall into the top 15 warmest, wettest and sunnier years since 1910.
In England and Wales, school ends in mid-July and resumes again in early September; in Scotland, the summer holiday begins in late June and ends in mid- to late-August.
To be a heat wave such a period should last at least one day, but conventionally it lasts from several days to several weeks. In 1900, A. T. Burrows more rigidly defined a "hot wave" as a spell of three or more days on each of which the maximum shade temperature reaches or exceeds 90 °F (32.2 °C).
Last year was by a narrow margin the hottest ever on record, according to Nasa, with the climate crisis stamping its mark on 2020 through soaring temperatures, enormous hurricanes and unprecedented wildfires.
But during that week in 1913, while other sites were around 8 degrees above normal, the Death Valley readings were 18 degrees above normal. As a result, most extreme weather experts conclude the "real" hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth is 129.2 degrees in 2013, for which there is photographic evidence.
The summer of 2003 was among the warmest in the last three centuries, and the maximum temperatures of July and August remained above 30 °C (86 °F).
1 - For the sixth day in a row the high temperature was 32° or colder. The average high during these days was 26°, fourteen degrees below average. This morning's low was 15°, the coldest reading on New Year's Day since 1968 began with a low of 11°.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Ireland was 33.3 °C at Kilkenny Castle, on 26 June 1887.
The most recent drought in the UK occurred between 2010 and 2012 when below average rainfall for central and eastern parts of England between late 2010 and early 2012 and a dry 2011-12 winter resulted in record low soil moisture deficits, river flows and groundwater levels.
