How does the heatwave compare with the summer of 1976?

A warning for extreme heat is in place for the weekend and the first half of next week, with the Met Office saying the heatwave could pose a danger to life.

But how does the current warm weather compare with the heatwave in the summer of 1976, which triggered the most significant drought for more than a century?

The country saw temperatures exceed 32C for more than a fortnight, with temperatures on July 3 that year hitting close to 36C in southern England.

The heatwave came in the middle of a strike by bin workers in Brighton, with sunbathers pictured near huge piles of rotting rubbish along the seafront.

Uncollected rubbish piled up on Brighton seafront as beachgoers soaked up the sun

In an interview with The Argus at the time, then-general manager at the Royal Albion Hotel Eddie Waters said that guests had been complaining about the smell from the growing piles of refuse.

He said: “It’s not really a very good advert for Brighton. I am really quite worried from the hygiene point of view.

“Our bins very quickly get filled up over the weekend and some guests on the first floor complained about the unpleasant smell.”

Sunbathers on Brighton beach

However, the rubbish didn’t put off residents and visitors heading to the beach to soak up the sun, with trains at Brighton Station said to be “heavily loaded” and traffic in the town described as “hectic”.

Sunbathers queued outside the now-demolished Black Rock bathing pool, with a rationing system put in place after the venue hit capacity.

Eight-year-old Gregory McDermott cooled off at Worthing paddling pool

Meanwhile, firemen across the county were put on high alert after a record-breaking spate of heath fires, with crews in East Sussex dealing with as many as 70 blazes in 24 hours.

One fire near Midhurst spread across 150 acres of common land, with ten fire engines called out to tackle it.

Police officers in the city were allowed to take their ties off during the warm weather, after an order from the chief constable. However, workers at the offices of the Department of Health and Social Security, then in Edward Street in Brighton, staged a walk-out after temperatures inside soared above 32C.

PC Mick Holford on point duty in North Road, Brighton, after being allowed to take his tie off

Some schools in the county even opted for open-air classes under the trees after pupils complained they were unable to concentrate due to hot classrooms.

Brighton and much of Sussex saw a hosepipe ban enforced after a deterioration in water stocks, with river flows said to have been down to 20 per cent of normal levels. However, residents were left up in arms after thousands of gallons of water were sprayed on to Brighton Racecourse ahead of a meeting.

Residents were left red-faced after Brighton Racecourse used thousands of gallons of water to spray the course during a hosepipe ban

Tomato pickers in Littlehampton adopted a novel approach to keeping cool in the warm weather - with a light aircraft brought in from Shoreham to spray whitewash over glass greenhouses.

Manager of the Van-Heyningen Nurseries Anthony Gardener told The Argus at the time: “The staff have been really good, working in these temperatures. We must hand it to them.

“They have done their bit for us, so now it is up to us to make life a bit more comfortable for them.”

An aircraft completes part of its whitewash run over greenhouses in Littlehampton during the 1976 heatwave

The heatwave and drought came to an abrupt end when severe thunderstorms swept across the country, with September and October of 1976 bringing lots of rain.

The warm weather brought with it one of the UK’s hottest summer average temperature, as well as one of the driest, sunniest and warmest summers of the 20th century.

The impact of the drought on water supplies led to water rationing, with rivers in parts of the country running dry.

The summer was so hot that it has become part of the country’s national psyche, with subsequent heatwaves using 1976 as a benchmark for their severity.