When will it rain again in London? Capital facing longest dry spell in years

After nine days of heatwave conditions in London, is there any sign of a change in the weather?

The heat goes on. London has basked in nine days of heatwave conditions with daily temperature highs above 28C since Sunday, July 5. The third heatwave since May has seen the thermometer reach 34C in the capital and continued a long spell of dry weather stretching back 16 days to June 27.

The hot and dry weather has fuelled the spread of two fires in London in recent days that have caused major disruption to the capital. London Fire Brigade has warned of an "extreme" risk of wildfires in the capital, as the city basks in what looks like another week of warm sunshine. With parks and gardens turned into tinder boxes - and the threat of a widespread London hosepipe ban seemingly growing by the day - the question people will be asking is: When is it going to rain again?

What's the forecast for this week? Tuesday looks set to be another dry and hot day, with temperatures potentially topping 30C, according to the Met Office. That would mean ten straight days of heatwave in the capital, which is defined as at least three straight days of highs of at least 28C. The rest of the week also looks warm and dry, with daytime temperature peaks of 29C on Wednesday, 29C on Thursday and 28C on Friday.

Is there a change in the weather coming? The Met Office sees little change to the drought-like conditions in it's seven-day forecast for London,. BBC Weather gives us a longer two-week view.

But even there, as of Tuesday morning, zero rain is forecast until Saturday, July 25, and even that appears far from nailed on with around a 30% likelihood of precipitation. After that, it is forecasting a return to dry and sunny weather through to the end of the 14-day window, on Monday, July 27. If it does rain next on July 25, that was mean London will have gone 28 days without rain.

That would be the longest dry spell in London since 2018, when the capital went 47 days without rain, according to Wanstead Meteo. Could thunderstorms break the dry weather? On Monday morning, BBC Weather was predicting thunderstorms for London on Saturday, July 25, giving a likelihood of up to 60% of that happening.

It comes after two spectacular waves of thunderstorms hit London on June 27 and June 23, causing thousands of lightning strikes and flash flooding. However, the latest forecast makes no mention of thunderstorms.