Weather updates: Britain hits record-breaking temperature as it tops 40C

Our reporters and photographers bring you the latest news on Tuesday as racing grapples with the heatwave

Racing's yards, studs and participants are negotiating another scorching day in Britain with temperatures forecast to reach 41C.

Musselburgh's fixture is the only one going ahead, with meetings at Southwell, Chelmsford and Wolverhampton called off on Friday due to the forecast heat. Ballinrobe in Ireland also races, with its card due to start at 4.30.

The Met Office has issued a red warning for extreme heat in much of England, from London and the south east up to Manchester and York, while an amber warning covers the remaining parts of England and Wales and part of Scotland.

Britain hits record 40C

The United Kingdom has hit its hottest temperature on record, with 40.2C recorded at Heathrow in London, according to provisional Met Office data.

The Met Office tweeted: "For the first time ever, 40 Celsius has provisionally been exceeded in the UK. London Heathrow reported a temperature of 40.2C at 12.50pm today."

Charlwood, in Surrey, hit 39.1C on Tuesday shortly before midday – beating the previous record of 38.7C at Cambridge Botanic Garden in 2019.

Much of England remains under a red extreme heat warning and forecasters warn that it is likely to get hotter throughout the day, with temperatures as high as 41C predicted.

Britain's heatwave has already broken several weather records, with Monday night seeing the highest daily minimum temperature ever recorded.

Temperatures didn't fall below 25C in places, exceeding the previous highest daily minimum record of 23.9C recorded in Brighton on August 3, 1990.

Ice water and coffee for the staff at Richard Hughes stables in Upper Lambourn this weekCredit: Edward Whitaker

Posted at 1.30pm

What's happening at Musselburgh?

Musselburgh hosts the Lucas Ice Cream Family Day – aptly named with the predicted weather – and racecourse manager Bill Farnsworth is expecting a great day on and off the track.

There are funfair rides, lots of ice cream and chill-out areas for when the heat becomes too much. Extra staff will be on course with lots of drinking water and enough to ensure the horses get a sufficient cool down after racing.

Farnsworth said: "It should be an exciting day's racing out on the track. It's a big family day so we're very fortunate with the weather. It's beautifully sunny, summer weather.

"There will be lots of ice cream, ice lollies and there's funfair rides for the children as well. It's a brilliant day to come out and enjoy the space, we should get a good crowd but there will be lots of space for the children to enjoy the summer weather.

"We're quite used to racing in these sort of temperatures during the summer at Musselburgh, it's not uncommon for the temperatures to get up to 29C, 30C. We're quite used to managing the track in dry conditions and the track is actually in fantastic shape for the horses.

"On the horse welfare front, we always have this first and foremost, when the weather gets hot it's important to keep the horses cool. They're very good at acclimatising to their environment, horses can race in high temperatures and in low temperatures, if the horses acclimatise they'll have absolutely no problem with it.

"It's the summer months and obviously they would be training in this weather. We'll have plenty of water for them after the race for them to drink and also additional staff to throw water over the horses to get them cooled down straight after the race.

"It's no different for a human going for a run in this sort of weather and when you get home you want to put your head under the tap to cool down. We're looking forward to a really good day."

Posted at 11am

How are the work-riders coping?

A lot of talk has focused on how the horses will cope in this extreme weather and rightly so, but with the unprecedented heat how will the staff fare?

Britain's record temperature (38.7C) was almost broken on Monday in Santon Downham and in nearby Exning, trainer Julia Feilden was not taking any chances with her string finishing work at around 9.30am.

Feilden took to Twitter at 9.39am to share a video of amateur jockey Ross Birkett hopping into a water trough to cool down following a hot morning's work, captioning it 'morning over to beat the heat but Ross Birkett not coping so well, thank goodness for water troughs!!'

In nearby Newmarket, there was more excitement as trainer Phil McEntee shared a video of his stable staff enjoying the sun after an early finish with the caption 'TEAM MCENTEE having some fun in the sun this morning'.

Updated at 10am

Early-morning starts for trainers

The fixture at Musselburgh went off at 1.50, just as Ayr did on Monday, with forecast temperatures between 29C and 30C and a potential peak of 32C.

Due to conditions, many trainers headed for the gallops early in the morning. Suffolk-based trainer Gay Kelleway began at 3.45am and tweeted after her last lot was finished at 7.30am thanking her team.

In Newmarket, temperatures had reached 30C by 9am and are predicted to reach as high 39C on Tuesday afternoon, while other major training bases Lambourn and Malton are set to experience similar.

Newmarket trainer John Berry finished his lots by 9.30am on Monday but was out even earlier on Tuesday. He worked his horses on the Heath just after daybreak when temperatures were around 22C, which he described as "relatively cool or very warm, whichever way one likes to look at it" on Twitter.

Updated at 9am

Read this next:

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