Longer heatwaves, hotter top temperatures and 61 days without rain: Proof that Britain has beaten 'record-breaking' summer of 1976

By MARK DUELL, DEPUTY CHIEF REPORTER (DIGITAL) Published: 00:02, 13 August 2026 | Updated: 00:16, 13 August 2026 The summer of 1976 is a defining national memory for Brits, with generations passing down stories of scorched landscapes, shared baths and standpipes in the street. But maybe in decades to come we will be talking about summer 2026 – as data analysed by the Daily Mail proves it has now beaten that year on almost every metric. From the top temperature to the heatwave length, and the number of heatwaves to the total days of extreme heat, 2026 has had meteorologists updating the record books. Monthly temperature records have been smashed, drought has continued for longer than ever before in some areas – and we are on course to have the hottest summer ever.  Here the Daily Mail confirms why 2026 is the new benchmark for British summers: The UK's highest temperature in the 1976 heatwave was not as high as you might think – with 35.9C recorded at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire on July 3. This was in fact below the record at that time of 36.7C which was set 65 years earlier at Raunds in Northamptonshire on August 9, 1911 – and stood until 1990. The current top temperature for 2026 is 38.0C, which was recorded on June 26 at Lingwood in Norfolk. This was also the UK's joint fifth hottest day on record. The Met Office has said Thursday could also reach 38C in the extreme heat warning area. The all-time UK high is 40.3C on July 19, 2022 in Coningsby, Lincolnshire. Sunseekers enjoy the hot weather on Bournemouth beach in Dorset on May 25, 2026 Your browser does not support iframes. Heatwaves in 1976 were recorded in May, June, July and August - including a 23-day period from June 21 to July 13 and a further 22-day spell from August 6 to 27. The record length for a heatwave was in 1996 where at least one station in the UK met or exceeded its heatwave threshold for 39 days from July 18 to August 25. Despite this year's hot weather feeling never-ending, summer 2026 has just fallen short of the record - with 37 consecutive days recorded between June 30 and July 27. But this summer has brought the second-longest heatwave in history and beat the 23 days in 1976. Other lengthy heatwaves include 26 days in both 1947 and 1990. Sunbathers on the beach at Brighton in East Sussex on June 27, 1976 Your browser does not support iframes. The Met Office defines a heatwave as three consecutive days when a temperature threshold is met or exceeded. That level varies by area, and is 28C in London. The number of heatwaves in a summer is therefore perhaps an anomaly, given that more heatwaves can suggest conditions vary rather than be continuously hot. The summer of 1976 recorded two separate heatwave spells although these ran across the months May, June, July and August. So the official total was only two. This week's latest heatwave is the sixth of 2026 so far. The first was in May, when it was officially still spring – before another in June, two in July and one in early August. Swimmers enjoy the water at Charlton Lido in south-east London on June 26, 2026 Your browser does not support iframes. This summer has also been notable for unusually extreme temperatures in Britain, with new records set for the number of days hitting at least 34C and 35C. The Met Office confirmed last month that there had already been nine days in 2026 where the heat has reached or exceeded 34C. This beat the previous high of seven days set in the summers of 1976 and 2020. The 2026 total will likely hit at least ten this week as extreme heat builds again. 2026 is also the first year to have recorded temperatures of 35C or higher on six separate days. The former record of five was again held by 1976 and 2020. The Met Office believes this week will confirm a temperature above 35C has been recorded in the UK for four consecutive months – also for the first time ever. There were only three days across the entire 20th century where temperatures got above 36C. In contrast, three occurred during the June 2026 heatwave alone. The Serpentine at London's Hyde Park as people enjoy the heatwave on June 27, 1976 Record-breaking temperatures have been observed in the UK for May and June - with 35.1C at Kew in London on May 26 and 38.0C at Lingwood in Norfolk on June 26. The highest temperature last month was 35.5C recorded at Wisley on July 9. This did not beat the July record, which is also the all-time high of 40.3C on July 19, 2022. The hottest-ever day in August was 38.5C on August 10, 2003 in Faversham, Kent. With highs of 38C expected on Thursday, that is also not expected to be broken yet. In 1976, the highest temperatures by month were 29.0C on May 7, 35.6C on June 28 – which stood as an all-time record for June until this year – and 35.9C on July 3. The high in August 1976 was 32.5C on both August 25 and 26. 2026 has therefore beaten 1976 for May and June highs – and is likely to do so for August, given 38C is forecast on Thursday. But 1976 had a hotter July temperature. Sunbathers enjoy the heat on the beach at St Brelade's Bay in Jersey on June 24, 2026 1976 brought the hottest UK summer on record at the time with the average mean temperature reaching 15.7C, beating the previous high of 1933 by just over 0.3C. But provisional statistics from the Met Office released yesterday show that the mean temperature for this summer so far, from June 1 until Monday, stands at 16.48C. Meteorologists confirmed that to equal the existing 16.12C record in 2025, the UK's warmest summer on record, the rest of August would only need to be 0.21C below the long-term average, and any warmer than this would establish a new record for the UK. For England and Wales, which have seen temperatures over 2C above average so far this summer, it is even more likely that June to August 2026 will be record-breaking. A woman uses an umbrella to shade from the sun on Brighton beach on June 27, 1976 A 'tropical night' is defined by the Met Office as a night where the air temperature does not drop below 20C between sunset and the next sunrise. During the June 2026 heatwave, Hastings set a new UK and England record for the highest daily minimum temperature for that month at 23.2C on June 26, 2026. Four nights in June this year saw temperatures remain above 22C somewhere in the UK, compared with three such nights during the entire summer of 1976. Further tropical nights were also recorded this year in May – with Kenley in South London dropping to 21.3C; and in July, with Battersea Heliport falling to 22C. But this year has not come close to the all-time highest daily minimum of 26.8C on July 19 in Oxfordshire – the same day as the all-time UK high of 40.3C was set. Swithland Reservoir in Leicestershire at less than 44 per cent capacity on July 22, 2026 People in Tavistock, Devon, fill buckets from a water standpipe on September 15, 1976 Your browser does not support iframes. The 1976 drought saw Milton Abbas in Dorset and Teignmouth in Devon both go with no rain for 45 straight days in 1976. No rainfall was also recorded for 36 days across the whole of England and Wales between June and August that year. While this year's drought has not been as widespread, with northern England still receiving plenty of rainfall, it has gone on for much longer in some areas. Defra confirmed on Monday that some parts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and West Sussex have not had a 'rain day' for 59 days. Today, this stands at 61 days. Met Office weather stations show Wisley in Surrey has gone 55 days without rain - ahead of London Heathrow and Odiham in Hampshire, both on 49 days. The longest ever dry spell is 73 days, at Mile End in east London from March 4 to May 15, 1893. A woman in the dried-up basin of Pitsford Reservoir in Northamptonshire on August 16, 1976  Your browser does not support iframes. While the continuous period without rainfall has been record-breaking this summer, the 1976 drought went on for a much longer period and was far more serious. This week the Environment Agency said 71.3 per cent of England is now experiencing 'flash drought', as a dry start to August followed the driest July on record. Flash drought is one which develops very quickly because of a combination of very low rainfall and high temperatures – and this year's event follows a wet winter. The 1976 drought, which brought the country's driest summer since 1772, actually started in September 1975, after an already dry summer the previous year. The UK had a 16-month dry spell starting in May 1975 as dwindling water supplies led to the passing of a Drought Act, water rationing and the use of standpipes. In south-east Wales, conditions were so severe that supplies were cut off for 17 hours a day for up to 11 weeks, and 70 companies were told to halve water consumption. An artificial hockey pitch and dry grass in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on August 9, 2026  Your browser does not support iframes. Subsidence became a major problem for many houses in summer 1976 as the ground became increasingly parched and insurance claims rose to £60million. Clay soils shrank deeply, causing foundations to shift and walls to crack – leading to 1976 being the first of seven 'surge' years for subsidence claims. The others were 1990, 1991, 2003, 2018, 2022 and most recently 2025 which saw insurance companies pay out £307million for subsidence claims over the year. Latest figures from the Association of British Insurers show home insurers have paid out £72million for domestic subsidence claims during the second quarter of 2026. The average subsidence claim has reached a record £20,000 and the average payout is more than £2,000 higher than in the same period last year, its data confirmed. The £72million total means 2026 has already beaten 1976, before this year's third quarter data is released – although that is without taking inflation into account. Dried-up banks of the River Thames in London during the drought on August 17, 1976 Groundsmen prepare a wicket on dry grounds in Overton, Hampshire, on August 3, 2026 Some 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales so far in 2026, the same as the record-breaking total for the whole of last year.  The National Fire Chiefs Council said this included 185 in the first ten days of August alone, while July was the busiest month on record for wildfires with 458 incidents. Major wildfires have hit areas such as the Pennines, the Cairngorms in Scotland, Llanwonno in the Rhondda Valleys, South Wales, and Dunwich Heath in Suffolk. The latest major blaze affected heathland in the New Forest, Hampshire, after spreading from a van fire that saw motorists on the A31 abandon their vehicles. There is no total number of wildfires in 1976, but they were regular - with notable blazes on the Surrey heaths, the Peak District and the North Yorkshire Moors. Forest fires were also commonplace in 1976 with more than 2,000 hectares of forest burning – particularly affecting conifer plantations on former heathlands. Smoke rises from a wildfire at Dunwich Heath near Leiston in Suffolk on July 30, 2026