Birmingham revelled in the warmest July for nearly a century but can now settle down for a cool month, fore-casters said yesterday.
Maximum temperatures in the city were almost 6C above average, making it the hottest July since 1914, the Met Office said.
It would usually experience mean maximum July temperatures of 20.4C (68.7F), but over the last month the average had been a scorching 26C (78.8F), plus 67 per cent more sunshine, according to PA WeatherCentre forecaster Paul Knightley.
However, Mr Knightley said he doubted whether August would be as hot as July.
He said: "August would never be as hot as July because we are already going into autumn at the end of August."
With figures still being compiled yesterday, Nigel Bolton, national forecaster for the Met Office, said the chances of July not beating the previous record for average temperatures were "very slim".
He said: "It would have to be remarkably cool for this month not to break the record.
"We would need record low temperatures for a particular day to stop the record."
But Mr Bolton also ruled out speculation that August would be even hotter.
He said: "We've probably had the highest temperature for the year.
"There has been a lot of speculation that August is going to be warmer but we are not going for that.
"There is a warming trend for this weekend but we are not forecasting extreme temperatures.
Mr Bolton said the temperature had "some way to go" to beat the UK's hottest temperature on record, set on August 10, 2003, at Brogdale, Kent, when the mercury hit 38.5C (101.3F).
He said: "This week it will be quite cool with showers, with temperatures around 23C (73.4F) and 24C (75.2F)."
Last week, climate historian Philip Eden said the Central England Temperature (CET) series would see the month's average fractionally beat the all-time record since the information was first compiled in 1659.
On July 26 the CET stood at 20.0C (68F).
