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A red warning for extreme heat in parts of England and Wales, lasting until 23:59 BST on Thursday, has been extended to cover more of southern England
It's the Met Office's most severe level of alert and means there could be a risk to life as well as transport delays
Rail passengers are being warned to avoid non-essential travel, with a new amber heat warning issued for Saturday in southern and eastern England
Johnny, a construction worker in London, says the heat is "horrible" but "there's work to be done" - while in Shetland, Helen tells the BBC it's woolly dress and vest weather
At least 13 schools in Staffordshire have been forced to close as a result of the hot weather
The schools, mostly primaries based in the south of the county, shut on Wednesday either for the full day or from about midday, according to Staffordshire County Council.
All gave the extreme heat as the reason for closing and referred to the amber and red warnings issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
The closures came as temperatures continued to reach highs of more than 30C in the area, with the UKHSA issuing a red heat-health alert for parts of the West Midlands.
The schools listed on the county council's website, as of about 13:20 BST on Wednesday, were:
Anna Seward Primary School, Lichfield
Chadsmoor Community Infant and Nursery, Cannock
Coton Green Primary School, Tamworth
Dunstall Park Primary School, Tamworth
Greysbrooke Primary School, Lichfield
Norton Canes High School, Cannock
Norton Canes Primary Academy, Cannock
Scotch Orchard Primary School, Lichfield
St Chad's CofE Primary School, Lichfield
St Michael's CofE Primary School, Lichfield
St Modwen's Catholic Primary School, Burton
Two Gates Primary School, Tamworth
William MacGregor Primary School, Tamworth
Meanwhile, a message on Stoke-on-Trent City Council's website said information on closures in its area can be found via schools' social media accounts or websites.
Why are we seeing more heatwaves?
EPA Two women with an umbrella walk past a green fence. A beach with lots of people on it is visible in the background.EPA
Temperatures in some parts of the UK have soared above 30C this week
We are going to have to get used to coping with higher temperatures as a result of climate change, according to BBC West Midlands environment correspondent David Gregory-Kumar.
He said when he started in his role, heatwaves were the sort of thing we could expect with climate change, though we could not be sure it was the definite cause.
"Twenty-five years later, the science is very different," he added. "Not only can we say climate change is making this heatwave worse, scientists can say by how much."
He said studies from scientists at Climameter, a consortium of researchers that puts weather events in a climate change context, found it was making current weather patterns 2C to 4C warmer than what was typical in the 20th Century.
Gregory-Kumar said they found this out by searching records for previous similar weather events and comparing them to what was happening now.
"One worry is heat events like this week seem to be happening more often than models predicted," he added.
"It raises the prospect of the impact of climate change on us when it comes to intense heat being worse than we thought."