THE blazing sunshine is set to come to an end with the Met Office warning of gales and heavy downpours over the next couple of days.
Wisley, Surrey, reached 30.5C on Wednesday, making it the hottest location in the country as Brits basked in the sun.
Yellow heat alerts were in force for every region of England yesterday except the north east, which was covered by a green alert.
But the warm spell is set to come to an abrupt end today with gales, thunderstorms, and heavy downpours expected.
Met meteorologist Clare Nasir said: "The winds will pick up further through Thursday night and into Friday morning even with the risk of some gales along the coastline."
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The forecaster also warned of a "risk of thunderstorms" from Friday through to the weekend, as a period of "cloudy, humid weather" affects parts of the UK.
Temperatures were set to be "fresher" today, she added, as cloud and rain is set to hit the country from the west, buffeting Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland.
Those areas will face unseasonably strong winds and rain, while Wales and the east of England will remain sunny.
Clare continued: "Further west it is going to turn wet, with outbreaks of rain.
"Down towards the north east of England as well as Wales and you can see spots of rain extending towards Cornwall, Somerset, as well as Devon."
Those areas will see outbreaks of rain this morning, while eastern parts, including eastern Scotland, will wake up with the sun.
Music festival Glastonbury saw showers this morning with festival goers putting up umbrellas and donning rain jackets.
The south east is expected to remain the warmest part of the country today, with the capital set to hit 25C.
Norwich is also forecast to reach 25C, while western areas and cities like Glasgow and Belfast are only set to reach the high teens.
Manchester is forecast to hit 20C, while Inverness further north will hit 18C.
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Into the evening and overnight, rain and wind will pick up mainly affecting Scotland and northern England.
But the front will bring temperatures down for the whole country with the south east expected to reach temperatures only in the low 20s.
The north of the country could see heavy rain and temperatures will finish off the working week in the mid teens.
Met Meteorologist Aidan McGivern said: "A midweek peak in the heat but then temperatures closer to average from Thursday onwards.
"Much more agreeable temperatures, and although there will be a few spots of rain on Thursday afternoon as that cold front goes through, Friday, Saturday, Sunday we're back to sunny spells, light winds and highs of 21C."
Glastonbury fans started arriving at the legendary festival at Worthy Farm yesterday during the scorching heat.
Motorists headed to the event have been warned to ignore their sat-navs and follow official signs to Glastonbury Festival to prevent further gridlocked roads.
A spokesperson for RAC Breakdown said: "It's far better to follow the official directional signs to get to the right car park.
"You don't want to end up at the wrong entrance - this creates more delays for everyone and is a sure-fire way of arriving at anything but the 'Speed of Sound'."
Many people will enjoy the cooler weather with the heat potentially dangerous for the public's health.
Figures from NHS England, which runs the NHS website, show that there were 28,116 visits to the heat exhaustion page on June 24 and 25, compared with 13,598 over the weekend.
This amounted to an 107 per cent increase, with an average of one visit every six seconds.
