PEOPLE across north Essex are gearing up for another heatwave as extreme hot weather is expected in the coming days.

The Met Office has issued an amber extreme heat warning for all of Essex which begins tomorrow.

It will last from Thursday to Sunday.

Temperatures are expected to be in the region of 28C-29C during this time period.

Thursday and Friday will see the mercury top 28C for Colchester rising to 30C on Saturday and 29C on Sunday.

The warning covers the entire county, as well as large swathes of England and Wales.

Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Dan Rudman said: “Thanks to persistent high pressure over the UK, temperatures will be rising day-on-day through this week and an extreme heat warning has been issued.

“Temperatures are expected to peak at 35C on Friday and Saturday, or even an isolated 36C on Saturday. Elsewhere will see temperatures widely into the high 20s and low 30s Celsius.

“Coupled with the high daytime temperatures there will be some warm nights, with temperatures expected not to drop below the low 20s Celsius for some areas in the south.”

The warning comes as Essex Fire and Rescue asked people not to light barbecues or bonfires in the weather.

Area manager Neil Fenwick, said: “While summer weather usually provides the perfect opportunity to host a barbecue or gather around a chiminea in the evening, we’re strongly discouraging people from having any kinds of fires at the moment.

“The ground across Essex is extremely dry allowing fires to spread easily and quickly. This is true for gardens as well as fields and heathland.

“Please help us to help you.

Please don’t have barbecues or bonfires. Please don’t use fireworks or set off sky lanterns.

Doing so could cause a large scale fire like the one we’ve seen this evening.”

The Met Office’s fire severity index (FSI), an assessment of how severe a fire could become if one were to start, is very high for most of England and Wales, and will reach “exceptional” for a swathe of England by the weekend.

And Gazette readers were not looking forward to the impending heatwave.

Allison Lorraine Griffiths, who works in care, said: “Working in it and trying to keep residents cool, especially people with Dementia who want to be outside isn’t fun.”

Charlotte Harrison said: “As long as it’s a consistent heat great... can’t deal with more of this 35 one day 20 the next.”

Tracey Pool added: “I’ve never liked the heat /sun, like it even less now, snow all the way for me.”

The two main water companies in Colchester and Tendring, Anglian Water and Affinity Water, have not imposed a hosepipe ban in the area for more than 20 years.

And while no ban is imminent, officials confirmed they were closely monitoring water supplies following a sparse amount of rainfall in recent months.

The previous driest year on record for East Anglia was more than 100 years ago, in 1921.

But this year rainfall across England last month was 25 per cent of what is expected for an average July.

The level of rainfall within the first six months of this year was the lowest since the drought of 1976, and the 12th lowest in the 122 years since 1900.