The hottest place to be is at the coast this weekend, according to the forecasters.

Experts promise temperatures in Brighton will rise to 30C (86F), matched by similar heatwaves along the coast in places such as Bournemouth.

The summer of 2003 is running as the third warmest since records began almost 350 years ago, said forecasters.

As much of the country basked in more sunshine yesterday, meteorologists were predicting even higher temperatures for the weekend.

The tens of thousands of people at today's Pride festival in Brighton and Hove can expect to celebrate in blazing sunshine.

Summer is officially measured as the beginning of June until the end of August and forecasters will know if records have been broken at the end of the month.

In 1976, the hottest summer, the country basked in 15 consecutive days at 32C (90F) and above. The second warmest summer for England and Wales was in 1995.

Britain has already seen the third warmest June and July for the past 100 years.

It is predicted an extra three million pints of beer could be downed across Britain during the weekend because of the good weather.

There are warnings of possible high air pollution levels throughout the weekend.