See County Durham's dried up rivers and reservoirs after the hottest Spring ever recorded

The UK has officially enjoyed Its sunniest, warmest and driest Spring since Met Office records began in 1929 leading some areas in County Durham beginning to experience drought conditions despite following the wettest February in over 150 years, with Storms Ciara earlier this year.

We have enjoyed an large increase in the average hours of sunshine, 626 compared to the usual average of 436 hours, with England basking in over 700 hours with a high temperature of 25 °C being recorded in County Durham on May 20th.

It was also the driest May since records began in 1862 in England with an average of just 9.7mm of rain falling over the last 31 days - beating the 11.3mm set in 1896. The total rainfall in England is just 17% of the average for May.

The hot, dry spell is a result of a prolonged spell of high pressure which has stayed in place over Britain as a result of a relatively weak jet stream, the same effect which held a low pressure system in place resulting in the record rainfall and flooding in February.

The unprecedented transition from the wettest February on record to the driest May has astonished weather experts who have predicted we could experience extreme changes in climate like this more often with warmer, wetter winters and drier, hotter summers becoming much more common in the future.