SUMMER may have officially passed but the last gasps of the season were felt last week with temperatures soaring to 29c - a 40-year October high.

The sweltering heatwave was recorded by Royston’s own weather man Richard Barker, who said the last day in September was also the warmest he had seen.

Mr Barker said: “It’s quite remarkable really - you would normally expect it to be about 18 degrees at this time of year, so it’s about 10 degrees warmer than it should be.

“It’s completely unprecedented, it wasn’t expected.”

According to Mr Barker, September was an incredibly dry month - just 30 per cent of what would be normal rainfall fell locally.

“We had a very dry spring, which meant we couldn’t recover in the summer which was also below average, and now we’ve had a very dry September too,” he added.

Those who are hoping the hot weather will last, however, will be disappointed.

“I think it for the remainder of the week, it will cool down,” said Mr Barker.

“We could be looking at a more normal temperature by the end of the week, as it will probably get colder gradually.”