BRITAIN was split between those hot and those not yesterday as the North cooled but the South continued to swelter.
And there was no end in sight to the record-breaking heatwave now stretching into a third week.
The heat will gradually ease off over the next few days but temperatures were forecast to begin to rise again in time for the weekend, weathermen said.
But it will not hit the record 100F it reached on Sunday, forecasters predict.
A cooler front yesterday split Britain in two stretching from the North East to the South West.
All areas enjoyed more bright summer sunshine while the South East and London had more scorching 90F heat.
The top temperature was 34C (93F) reached in central London and Gravesend, Kent - cooler than Sunday but still putting Barbados (86F) and Honolulu (78F) in the shade.
The new weather front meant big temperature differences to the North and Midlands which were refreshingly cooler though still warm.
Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester reached 23C (73F), Liverpool 20C (68F) and Newcastle 17C (63F).
North of the border, Edinburgh reached 19C (66F), over in Belfast it was 21C (70F) and in Cardiff it was 26C (79F).
The heat meant summertime smog levels broke government-set health limits at 76 out of 80 pollution monitoring sites across Britain last week, according to new data released yesterday.
Tony Bosworth, spokesman for Friends of the Earth, said: "The Government must do more to tackle the source of the pollution by cutting the amount of traffic on our roads. Widening motorways won't help us breathe more easily. The Government should be spending more on giving people real alternatives to using cars."
Bookies yesterday began paying out some of the £500,000 in bets taken on the weather breaking records.
But in some areas residents were clearing up after the freak weather caused flash floods and thunderstorms.
Tragedy struck when a man died off the coast of Hartlepool. His fishing boat was smashed to pieces after a freak storm hit Tees Bay.
