The Met Office said a top temperature of 22.2C was reached at Portglenone in Co Antrim, just eclipsing this year’s highest temperature in Northern Ireland which had been the 22.1C recorded at Giant’s Causeway on June 15.

Temperatures in the Aberdeenshire village of Aboyne reached 24.3C topping Scotland’s previous high of the year which was 23.6C recorded at Dunstaffnage on June 5.

Met Office forecaster Greg Dewhurst said “it just shows you that the warmth is still around and it is going to become warmer across the whole of the UK” across the week.

The heat is set build again in the coming days but will not be as high as last week when temperatures soared to 32.7C at Santon Downham, in Norfolk, on Friday as the UK recorded the hottest day of the year so far.

The warmth will be a little more widespread.

It will be sunny and dry from Tuesday to Thursday with temperatures reaching about 25C in London, before they rise to about 27 in the east on Wednesday 20 and peak at 29C on Thursday throughout the east and south east England.

It will be cloudier for Scotland and Northern Ireland where there will be some sunshine and temperatures may reach low to mid-20sC in the south.