As the county sizzled in the high temperatures on Saturday, it eclipsed many popular European holiday destinations.

Temperatures in Barcelona struggled to reach just 15C, while resorts in Portugal recorded temperatures of 18C and it was 20C in Athens and 22C in the Canary Islands.

Britain's hottest place was Norwich, where it got to 27C to make it the hottest day of the year so far.

Other parts of South and Eastern England also enjoyed temperatures in the mid-twenties, while Northampton was set to be just as hot - if not hotter - today.

But not everywhere enjoyed heatwave conditions as storms and flash floods struck some areas.

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Brendan Jones, forecaster with MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "Several places in the UK will have reached 27C, or very close to that.

"It's been very warm everywhere, apart from Northern Ireland and North Wales."

He said this was "significantly" higher than the average for this time of year, by nine or 10 degrees.

Warm air coming from the Mediterranean has caused the good weather, but comes at the expense of western areas of the UK, where the weather front is sitting.

Mr Jones added: "There are some really nasty storms across Scotland however. Strathallan, in Perth and Kinross, recorded 12.2mm of rain in one hour.

"Those sorts of volumes are capable of causing flooding."

Scotland was not the only place affected, with London, Manchester and Milton Keynes experiencing thunder storms.