Northern Ireland has provisionally broken its temperature record for the second day in a row – and the third time in a week.

Armagh reached 31.4C (88.52F) at 3.20pm this afternoon, according to the Met Office, beating the 31.3C (88.34F) in Castlederg in County Tyrone on Wednesday.

The record was first broken on Saturday when 31.2C (88.16F) was recorded in Ballywatticock.

Northern Ireland has once again provisionally broken its highest #temperature on record 📈

Armagh reached 31.4 °C at 1520 this afternoon🌡️

This beats the 31.2 °C that Ballywatticock recorded on Saturday and the 31.3 °C that Castlederg recorded yesterday #UKHeatwave #heatwave pic.twitter.com/lItf4fwt8Z

An amber warning for extreme heat remains in force today and tomorrow in Northern Ireland, but the same warning in parts of southern England, the Midlands, and most of Wales ends later.

The forecast for your area

The UK heatwave will start to break up from Friday, when it will turn cooler in the East and South East, but western will stay hot.

It’s all change at the weekend though, when there’s a yellow warning for heavy rain and thundery showers in central and southern parts of England and Wales.

The Met Office says these could be “widespread and torrential” on Sunday.

Heavy #rain and #thunderstorms will bring an end to the #heatwave in many central and southern areas this weekend 🌡️ ⛈️ ⚠️

A rain warning comes into effect from Friday night with flooding possible in places over the #weekend

Stay #WeatherAware 👉 https://t.co/QwDLMg9c70 ⚠️ pic.twitter.com/KGp5SmJBG3

Some parts could see up to 10cm (3.9in) of rain, and the Met Office said “lightning and hail are expected to be additional hazards”.

Looking further ahead, a mix of sunny spells and heavy showers is expected from the middle of next week into August, according to the Met Office.

But towards the middle of the month it should become more settled, with drier and warmer conditions forecast.

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