HOTTER THAN THE CANARIES

10:59am Wednesday 19th July 2006

DORSET is set to put the Canary Islands in the shade today as Britain was braced for rocketing record temperatures.

It's likely to be hottest in parts of London and the Midlands (around 96.8F), but the sweltering south coast is outstripping the Spanish holiday hotspots of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

However, holidaymakers flying out from Bournemouth airport to Lanzarote and Tenerife later this week may be comforted by predictions that cooler conditions will spread across the UK during Thursday and Friday with the prospect of some rain showers.

While the mercury will reach 27C (81F) on Thursday in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura will see highs of 28C (82F).

Bournemouth weather expert Dr Richard Wild has forecast that Bournemouth's highest temperature of 31.5C set on July 12, 1983, could be broken today. Temperatures in inland areas are set to be slightly higher than on the coast.

There is also a chance that the highest July temperature of 36C ever recorded at Epsom, Surrey, on July 22, 1911, could be shattered with some inland areas, particularly London, set to bask in temperatures of up to 37C tomorrow.

However it is unlikely that the all-time highest temperature ever recorded in the UK of 38.5C (101.3F) at Brogdale, Kent on August 10, 2003, will be broken.

Superdrug expects record sales of allergy relief remedies and sun care products. Spokesman Phil Wells said: "The key day for sufferers is expected to be today as high temperatures, linked with a concentration of ozone, heightens allergies such as hay fever."

Royal Bournemouth Hospital based Macmillan skin cancer nurse Jane Freak, who educates children on the dangers of too much exposure to the sun, said: "You shouldn't go out in the sun without protection and you shouldn't sunbathe during the hottest part of the day. I want people to be pale and interesting."

Education chiefs in Bournemouth advise that children should stay out of the sun between 11am and 3pm while the hot weather continues.

An education authority spokesman said: "The advice is simple. Avoid the sun and if children are out in it they should wear a hat, sunscreen and have plenty of fluids to drink as should adults."

A road melted in Bournemouth on Sunday, with council workmen struggling to repair recently resurfaced Whitelegg Way in Northbourne.

Bournemouth Borough Council's engineering services manager Geoff Turnbull said: "We have recently applied a thin road surface coating on Whitelegg Way to improve the skid resistance in wet weather.

"Unfortunately the recent very high temperatures have caused the new surface to soften as the material has not been down long enough to stabilise properly.

"The contractor has been laying an additional layer of grit to stabilise the road surface. Drivers are advised to drive at a reduced 20mph speed limit as there may be some loose chippings present on this section of the road."