Third heatwave ends, but more warm weather still to come

Jersey's third heatwave of the year is over, but there is more very warm weather to come this week.

Strong winds and some early cloud on Sunday (12 July) kept the high at 27° Celsius, one below the 28°C that defines a heatwave.

The island had six days running of very hot weather, and five consecutive days 30°C - equaling the Jersey record.

Fresh force 5 east/northeasterly winds on Saturday pegged the temperature at 29°C.

Today (Monday) is much cooler, with more strong winds and perhaps some showers before it gets warmer again from midweek.

The windy conditions over the weekend made for difficult sea conditions.

The RNLI in Jersey says it was  'exceptionally' busy for rescues.

On Saturday alone it helped two broken down boats, kite surfers in difficulty near Bouley Bay and were part of a search for children who'd been seen on a paddleboard that was found washed ashore. 

That operation was later called off and police said no children had been reported missing.

Washed up paddle board sparks major sea search for two children

The weather conditions also brought a large plume of smoke drifting over the island from Port Bail on the French coast, where a wildfire had broken out.

50 people were evacuated and 35 acres of vegetation were destroyed.

There was also a wildfire in Guernsey, at La Corbiere headland, which took fire crews seven hours to extinguish.  That followed a blaze on Little Sark on Friday, which was declared a major incident for the tiny island.

Guernsey Fire Service assisted and five firefighters were injured.  An area the size of a football pitch was scorched. 

Jersey Fire and Rescue continues to warn of the 'extreme' risk of fires on open land.

Jersey at 'extreme' risk of wildfires

BBQs have been banned at La Mielle de Morville National Park in St Ouen's Bay.

The hot, dry and windy weather has prompted Jersey Water to make a plea for islanders to reduce the risk of wildfires to help protect water supplies.

BBQs and fires are not allowed on Jersey Water's land.

Mark Bowden, Jersey Water's Head of Water Resilience and Emergency Planning, said:

"Fires can take a lot of water to put out, and we really need all the water that we've got at the moment to be able to provide for the public water supply, so it wouldn't be a good use of water anywhere across the island to be using it in unnecessary emergency situations.

"We've had wildfires on various areas of our land and we've seen people having barbecues out on our land. It's that really careless disposal and irresponsible use of barbecues, that's all we're trying to avoid, we're just asking the public to use their common sense."

Sea conditions have forced the cancellation of fast ferry sailings.  Light winds are forecast on Tuesday.