London swelters in Indian summer

It looks like Palm Beach on a holiday weekend. It feels like Calcutta. But this is London in September. Enjoy it while you can. Hard though it may be to credit, this was the scene in Brixton yesterday - and without wishing to indulge in too much careless optimism, it looks like we could be in line for more of the same for the next few days.

After the washout that was August, London is set to swelter in hot sunshine for the rest of week. Yesterday the mercury hit 28C; today the forecasters were reckoning we would see around 26C - five degrees above the seasonal average.

An Indian summer, they call it, but without wishing to be smug we would just like to point out that yesterday London was hotter than Bombay. And Sydney, Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro.

Thousands took to London parks and bars to enjoy the sunshine. Café³ and ice-cream sellers reported a massive surge in sales.

Britain's beaches were packed with 100,000 people reported on Brighton's sea front and hotels fully booked in Bournemouth.

The hottest place in the UK was Heathrow Airport which baked in 29C while south of the Humber Estuary enjoyed 27C.

Brendan Jones, of the PA WeatherCentre, said: "There is a ridge of high pressure so it's going to be a very hot week with lots of fine and dry weather.

"An easterly wind will make the temperature drop a few degrees by Friday and there may be the odd light shower but even then it will still be feeling very warm and humid."