A new highest temperature has been confirmed for the UK, narrowly beating the previous record in Faversham.

While temperatures soared in Kent last Thursday, nowhere was quite as hot as Cambridge Botanic Gardens, which reached a sizzling 38.7C.

This is 0.2C higher than the previous record - 38.5C in Faversham back in August 2003.

The Met Office have been carefully analysing the provisional value over the last few days, but have now confirmed the record has definitely been beaten.

Cambridge Botanic Gardens house a Met Office climate observation site reporting every 24 hours.

Heatwaves are extreme weather events, but research shows with climate change they are likely to become more intense.

The Met Office explains how climate change may be causing record-breaking temperatures

Dr Mark McCarthy from the Met Office National Climate Information Centre said: “The UK climate has been warming since the mid 20th Century, with a similar increase in the hottest day of the year.

"Historically, UK summer heatwaves would typically peak in the low 30s with extreme events reaching the mid-30s.

"Climate change, including human emissions of greenhouse gases, has increased the likelihood and severity of heatwave episodes across Europe, which also increases the risk of the UK reaching 40C."

The A20 Ashford Road in Maidstone was melting on Thursday

During the spell, hot air from north Africa was pulled up through Europe to the UK.

Professor Peter Stott said: “Although the average rise of global temperature is around 1C compared with pre-industrial times, some regions have warmed more than others.

"Temperatures in parts of north Africa, for example, have risen by around 2C.

"This can have a marked effect on UK weather because when the weather patterns, like we saw last week, bring air from this region to our shores, it can bring a stronger signal of climate change with it too, boosting temperatures."

Firefighters helped Sheppey youngsters keep cool in the heat

Despite Kent no longer holding the crown, we still experienced temperatures in the high 30s on Thursday.

Roads were melting, fields were on fire and trains were crawling to reduce the chance of rails buckling in the heat.

And with the heat came plenty of thunderstorms.

The Met Office has since decided to offer people the chance to name next season's storms.

'Name our Storms' was first introduced in 2015, and aims to raise awareness of severe weather in the UK.

You can send your suggestions in this week to the Met Office - look out for instructions on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

People can also send their ideas to nameourstorms@metoffice.gov.uk.

To find out how else the county was effected by the heatwave click here

Read more: All the latest news from Kent