The hottest weather of the year may hit Kent this week thanks to a delayed heatwave which could send temperatures above 30C and has triggered a heat alert warning.

While autumn may have officially started on September 1, much of England is being transported back to the summer thanks to a shift in the jet stream which is dragging a plume of hot air across most of the country.

The Met Office has confirmed that many areas in England will experience a heatwave this week, with the very best of the weather in southern and eastern areas.

Here, say forecasters, temperatures could now go above 30C between Wednesday and Thursday.

This could beat the highest temperatures of 2023 recorded so far, which were on June 10 and June 25 when the mercury rose to 32.2C.

As a result, the UK Health Security Agency has issued a yellow heat health alert for large parts of the UK, which highlights the risk that such sustained high temperatures can pose to the vulnerable such as the elderly and very young.

The unseasonably hot weather co-incides with a return to school for most pupils while on Thursday - which could turn out to be the hottest day of the year - thousands of Year 6 children will sit their 11 Plus test.

Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist Mark Sidaway said: “While the highest temperatures are expected in the south, heatwave conditions are likely across much of England and Wales especially, with parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland also likely to see some unseasonably high temperatures.”

“An active tropical cyclone season in the North Atlantic is helping to amplify the pattern across the North Atlantic, and has pushed the jet stream well to the north of the UK, allowing some very warm air to be drawn north. It’s a marked contrast to the much of meteorological summer, when the UK was on the northern side of the jet stream with cooler air and more unsettled weather.”

Alongside very high daytime temperatures it is also expected to be ‘uncomfortably warm’ overnight, says the Met Office, where night time temperatures could hover above 20C.