Almost three decades on, 1990 is often remembered as one of the hottest summers on record. Temperatures in early August peaked at 37.1C (98.9F), in the Gloucestershire town of Cheltenham, beating the previous record set in the summer of 1911.

Elsewhere across the UK records were set too, including the highest temperature for Wales : 35.2C in Flintshire.

Perhaps because of this unprecedented hot spell, an earlier heatwave that year may not be remembered as well.

The opening week of May 1990 was the warmest of the 20th century, with monthly records broken not just in England, with 28.6C in Worcestershire, but also Scotland, where in the town of Rothes, Speyside, the mercury soared to 28.3C.

But the early May bank holiday fell on 7 May, by which time the temperatures had begun to drop, though the weather remained sunny and warmer than the long-term average.

The rest of 1990 turned out to be the year of the heatwave, with one of the hottest summers of the 20th century, including that record-breaking spell in early August.

However, that figure lasted only another 13 years – it was smashed by the 38.5C (101.3F) high reached in the town of Faversham, Kent, in August 2003.