Updated: 2026-08-08
That afternoon, the mercury at the Met Office station climbed to 40.3°C, the highest reading in the station's entire period of record. It remains the benchmark against which every summer since is measured. The previous two days were no less striking: 18 July 2022 reached 36.0°C, placing it second in the all-time list.
How many extreme heat days does Waddington actually get in a typical year? The answer depends on what you call "extreme." Using the Met Office's long-term daily temperature records for this Lincolnshire station, we can separate three thresholds: days reaching 28°C (extreme heat days), days reaching 23°C (warm days), and days reaching 26°C (strong heat days). The data, drawn from the Met Office MIDAS archive, run from 1 January 1949 through 7 August 2026.
In 2022, the year of the record, Waddington logged 12 extreme heat days above 28°C, 46 warm days above 23°C, and 22 strong heat days above 26°C. But 2022 was not the most frequent year for heat at this station. That distinction belongs to 2018, which recorded 55 warm days at or above 23°C and 22 strong heat days at or above 26°C, with 9 extreme heat days above 28°C. The year 2025 came close, with 54 warm days and 22 strong heat days. The summer of 1976, legendary across Britain, gave Waddington 50 warm days and 25 strong heat days, the highest count of strong heat days in the series.
Extreme heat above 28°C is not spread evenly through the year. The monthly averages below show the typical count of days above 28°C for each month, using all complete years in the series. August leads with 2.6 days, followed by July with 2.5 and June with 1.9. September and October still manage a presence, with 1.5 and 2.0 days respectively, which underscores how late in the season a hot spell can arrive in eastern England.
| Month | Average days above 28°C |
|---|---|
| June | 1.9 |
| July | 2.5 |
| August | 2.6 |
| September | 1.5 |
| October | 2.0 |
Ranking every daily maximum since 1949, the top five hottest days at Waddington are:
Notice that four of these five extremes occurred after 1990, and three of them within the last decade. The 2022 heatwave stands apart: the gap between the top two dates, 40.3°C and 36.0°C, is larger than the gap between second and fifth place.
The table below gives the complete annual breakdown for Waddington: warm days at or above 23°C, strong heat days at or above 26°C, extreme heat days above 28°C, and the highest daily maximum recorded that year. Some early years stand out — 1949 opened the series with 40 warm days and 19 strong heat days; 1959 reached 49 warm days and 18 strong heat days. At the other end, 1956 managed only 3 warm days, and 1972 just 2.
The chart shows the complete annual series. The table lists the most notable years; the full series comes from Met Office.
| Year | Days ≥ 23°C | Days ≥ 26°C | Days > 28°C | Max temp (°C) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1953 | 14 | 6 | 1 | 33.3 |
| 1974 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 23.7 |
| 1990 | 38 | 15 | 6 | 34.8 |
| 2015 | 21 | 5 | 2 | 33.1 |
| 2019 | 30 | 10 | 8 | 35.1 |
| 2020 | 35 | 12 | 7 | 33.7 |
| 2022 | 46 | 22 | 12 | 40.3 |
Note: 2026 is a partial year, with data through 7 August 2026. Its low counts reflect the incomplete season.
Look at the last two decades and a pattern emerges. Years with 9 or more extreme heat days above 28°C — once rare — appear in 2006, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2025. The early series, by contrast, saw only 1949 and 1976 reach that level. The 1976 and 1995 summers, with 50 and 48 warm days, remain benchmarks of twentieth-century heat, but they no longer stand alone: 2018 and 2025 have since surpassed both, with 55 and 54 warm days respectively.
For anyone planning an outdoor event in Lincolnshire, the data offer a practical rule: August is the month most likely to deliver an extreme heat day above 28°C, averaging 2.6 such days per year. July is a close second at 2.5. If you want to avoid extreme heat altogether, no month in the series is completely free of it — even October averages 2.0 days above 28°C, a reminder that Waddington's inland position can generate late-season warmth.
These figures come from the Met Office's long-term station record for Waddington, covering 1949 through 2026. The station has measured daily maximum temperatures continuously over that period, providing one of the most complete heat climatologies for the East Midlands. The 40.3°C reading of 19 July 2022 stands as the definitive extreme, but the surrounding years show that such heat is no longer an outlier — it is becoming part of the expected summer pattern.
Source: Met Office, Waddington station, 1949–2026.
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