An extreme heat weather warning for the South West and other parts of the UK has been issued for the first time by the Met Office.

The amber warning covers all of South West England, large parts of Wales and parts of southern and central England and will be in place until Thursday evening, when temperatures are expected to peak.

Steven Ramsdale, from the Met Office, said: ’The high temperatures are going to continue through a large part of this week.

’Many areas will continue to reach heatwave thresholds but the amber extreme heat warning focuses on western areas where the most unusually high temperatures are likely to persist.’

The Met Office has warned of the potential impact of the heat on people’s health and also warns that more people are likely to visit coastal areas, lakes and rivers leading to an ’increased risk of water safety incidents’.

The UK’s highest temperature of the year so far was recorded on Sunday at Heathrow, where it reached 31.6C (88.9F), while on the same day Wales hit a high of 30.2C (86.4F) in Cardiff.

On Saturday, Northern Ireland saw its hottest day since records began with 31.2C (88.1F) in Ballywatticock, County Down, while Scotland reached 28.2C (82.8F) in Threave, in Dumfries and Galloway.