After the latest heatwave of the summer hit the UK, rain and cooler temperatures are finally forecasted for next week.

From Monday, rain is predicted to fall across Scotland and Northern Ireland, reaching parched southern regions.

“By the end of Tuesday, I think most places should have seen some rainfall,” Niamh Murray, operational meteorologist at the Met Office, told The I Paper.

However, the much-needed showers could be short-lived. A long-range weather forecast predicts there is a “potential for late season hot spells or heatwaves, especially in the south” at the end of August and into the first twelve days of September.

Murray said it was too soon to say “with any real confidence” and as we head towards autumn temperatures will naturally drop, but “it can’t be ruled out”, she added.

Although its hard to predict another heatwave, the Met Office’s chief meteorologist Will Lang warned autumn rains were unlikely to spell the end of drought conditions after a record-breaking summer. Up to two-thirds of the country is now in drought.

On Friday evening, UK residents were startled by an alarm and emergency alert sent to mobile phones warning the country there was a nation-wide threat of wildfires.

The public was urged not to do anything that could spark a blaze, specifically using barbecues, lighting campfires or setting off fireworks due to a “serious risk” of wildfires.

This was the first time the government’s emergency alert system, which was set up in 2023, has been used to send an alert to the whole of the UK with firefighters battling multiple wildfires.

Personnel from the Armed Forces were deployed on Friday to help freighters tackling a wildfire in southern Wales, while 19 homes were completely destroyed in the Stourbridge, West Midlands, on Thursday.

A fire whipped through grass and woodland in the West Midlands town, severely injuring 19 people who were hospitalised. A further 54 people were treated by paramedics.  

Andrew Reynolds, 42, said he watched his childhood home in Highters Heath, Birmingham, be torched to the ground on Thursday. He told The i Paper his mum was a “wreck”, adding: “My mum’s lost everything. Absolutely everything. There’s nothing saveable.”

Another wildfire was also detected in Kettering while on Friday firefighters spent a sixth day tackling a blaze in the New Forest. These were just some of several fires reported across the country.

Natural England’s Fire Severity Index map, which assesses how severe a fire could become if one started, shows south Wales and most of England, up to Newcastle is currently at “very high” risk.

Areas across the borough of Havering in London have been plagued with severe fires, and residents live in fear that their homes will be destroyed.

Fires are a “daily” occurence in Havering this summer, Rainham resident Chris Read, 78, told The i Paper.

Read lives near a park that overlooks the infamous Launders Lane site – a former illegal landfill dump with contaminated waste that frequently bursts into flames, but has never been cleared away.

From 2022 to 2025, firefighters were called 150 times to fires at the “Rainham volcano”.

Read said the fires are “getting really scary now”.

“I think there’s one in the borough every day, sometimes twice a day,” she said.

“The Launders Lane fires are getting worse. Normally it’s just Launders Lane though and now there’s a hell of a lot round here.”

One fire two weeks ago came dangerously close to her house.

She said: “There was smoke, the winds blowing it our way. it’s just a case of shutting the windows, shutting the doors, and hope to God the fire goes. It’s like being in prison.”

On Friday afternoon, a major wildfire hit Hornchurch Country Park, about a 10 minute drive from Read’s home. It was tackled by 90 firefighters.

Last Saturday, Rainham residents started a weekly protest about the recurrent fires at Launder’s Lane.

Military deployed to help firefighters

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has launched a package of measures to respond to wildfires, including ordering retailers to remove portable BBQs from the shelves and repurposing the army.

Up to 100 logistic and engineering personnel from the army have been deployed in South Wales to support firefighters battling wildfires across southern Wales.

A “major incident” was declared in Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, after scores of homes were urgently evacuated and roads shuttered due to a nearby fire.

First Secretary Louise Haigh said on Friday: “The government will continue to provide every assistance to communities being impacted by these fires, including the deployment of 100 additional military personnel in major incident areas.”

None of Britain’s 49 fire and rescue services currently has direct access to a firefighting aircraft or helicopter to drop large quantities of water.

It was revealed by this paper the UK does have RAF Chinook helicopters which are capable of dropping up to five tonnes of water at a time from a huge bucket suspended below the aircraft.

But these and their specialist crews are currently based at  in Cyprus on standby to help with wildfires on the island.

How else will the drought and fires be tackled?

The Prime Minister will announce a £65m package to support struggling farmers.

The majority, £50m, of the funds will be directed towards supporting environmentally friendly food production methods through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).

All of the remaining £15m will support the construction of on-farm reservoirs to provide supplies during future dry summers.

A growing number of water reservoirs across the UK have reached critically low levels this summer.

Five reservoirs are now classed as being “exceptionally low” by the Environmental Agency – including the Somerset sites of Wimbleball and Blagdon, running at just 50 per cent and 54 per cent respectively.