THE UK MET Office has reported what is provisionally the hottest temperature ever recorded in Northern Ireland.

The record is believed to have been broken in Co Down, where a temperature of 31.2 degrees Celsius was recorded this afternoon.

The Met Office wrote on Twitter today: “Today is provisionally the hottest day ever recorded in Northern Ireland. Ballywatticock in County Down reached 31.2 °C at 15.40.”

“Previously, 30.8 °C was the highest temperature recorded in Northern Ireland, reached on 12th July 1983 and 30th June 1976.”

The new record will have to be verified before it is officially deemed Northern Ireland’s hottest day on record.

As well as Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales all recorded their provisionally hottest day of the year so far.

The Republic of Ireland also had its hottest day of 2021 so far, with temperatures of 28.2 degrees recorded in Roscommon.

Today did not mark the island’s hottest day on record, however: the highest temperature ever recorded on the island of Ireland is 33.3 degrees Celsius in Kilkenny in 1887.

England and south Wales are forecast to see temperatures as high as 33 degrees on Sunday.

Today, Wales moved to COVID restriction level one, meaning that rules on the number of people that can meet outdoors have been lifted.

The good weather is set to continue into the lifting of covid restrictions in England on Monday – dubbed “freedom day”.

Tom Morgan, a meteorologist at the Met Office, told Sky News: “We have got quite an extended hot spell of weather to come through the next several days lasting much of this week, nighttime temperatures will be in the high teens Celsius and daytime temperatures will be in the high twenties or low thirties.

“It’s going to mean that people are really going to feel the effects of the heat as we go through this week.”

Earlier this month, meteorologists in the Nordic countries registered near-record temperatures, including highs of 34 degrees Celsius in some places.

The latest figures came after Finland’s national meteorological institute registered its hottest temperature for June since records began in 1844.

Kevo, at the far north of Finland, recorded heat of 33.5 degrees Celsius, the hottest since 1914 when authorities registered 34.7 degrees Celsius.

Several parts of Sweden also reported record highs for last month.

“June 2021 was the hottest June ever recorded in my hometown Stockholm by a large margin,” climate campaigner Greta Thunberg tweeted.

“The second hottest June was in 2020. The third in 2019,” she added.

Several parts of the world have already experienced crushing heatwaves this year.

Canada battled a string of forest fires in the western province of British Columbia after sweltering under temperatures of up to 49.6 degrees Celsius, a new national record.

Commenting on the Canadian heatwave, meteorologist Scott Duncan tweeted: “I didn’t think it was possible, not in my lifetime anyway. Not so, countered climatologist, Prof Robert Brulle, who wrote: “These (2021) records will fall as climate change accelerates! This is just a mild version of what we can expect in the future.”