The Met Office meteorologist Jonathan Vautrey said 29C was “certainly possible and we may also climb towards 30C” by midweek in the first week of meteorological autumn as many schools open after the summer break.

The summery conditions can be tracked to a jet stream, which has been delivering largely unsettled spells of weather to the UK. It is continuing to shift north, allowing higher pressure to build widely across the UK during the weekend and into next week, according to the Met Office.

There is also the influence of the former tropical cyclone Franklin, which is still moving into the north Atlantic and amplifying the buildup of high pressure.