BRIGHTON is set to sizzle in temperatures hotter than the Sahara Desert on Thursday. 

According to the Met Office, the mercury is set to rise to a sweltering 34 degrees in the afternoon. 

The highest recorded Brighton and Hove temperature is 32.8 degrees which was recorded in June, 1976.

The sizzling temperature means the city will be hotter than Ibiza, Marbella, Rio de Janeiro and Hawaii. 

The sweltering heat is also predicted to hotter than Nouakchott, Mauritania.

If the Met Office's predilections are correct, it will also make the day the hottest the city has ever seen.

A status of “Heatwave Action” has been declared, which is the second most severe heatwave alert that can be given, behind “National Emergency”.

The weather service warned people to “stay out of the sun” and “keep drinking fluids”.

The alert was issued at 9.20am today and is set to last until 9am on Friday.

The current July record is 36.7C set at Heathrow in 2015, while the all-time UK temperature record is 38.5C, recorded in Faversham, Kent, in August 2003.

This was recorded during a heatwave which lasted ten days and resulted in more than 2,000 deaths.