There have been several articles in the Daily Express over the last couple of days reporting ‘Summer is on the way at last’ with temperatures set to reach 34 Celsius this week and ‘Tropical storms set for Wimbledon’.

These headlines are unfortunately wide of the mark and rather misleading, both by implying that hot and sunny weather is on the way and that Wimbledon will be hit by tropical storms.

Although the Met Office has spoken to the Daily Express, the forecasts featured in the stories have not come from the Met Office, but from an independent forecaster.

The Met Office forecast for this week is for a couple of days of warm, humid and rather cloudy weather across much of the UK, with temperatures reaching 26 or 27 Celsius in any sunshine. For more detail you can find the latest weather forecast on our website.

It is our understanding that the temperatures of 34 deg C referenced in the articles are actually feels like temperatures taken from the website of an independent forecaster rather than actual air temperature. This is not made clear within the article and is potentially misleading.

The inference – through the lack of reference to the original source of the forecasts – that these forecasts have come from the Met Office is very misleading for the public, and potentially damages the reputation not only of the Met Office, but the wider weather forecasting community.

The Met Office is a world leader in meteorological science and our forecasts are recognised the world over as some of the best in the world. We are proud to be trusted to give the best possible guidance on the weather by the public and we report the weather exactly as it is.