THE hottest day of the year was recorded on Saturday - putting a strain on emergency services and water supplies.

Worcester was sweltering in heats between 30.5C and 31C as the recent heat wave continued to brighten up the city with sunshine and blue skies.

But as the temperature was rising so were the number of calls to West Midlands Ambulance Service which received a 24 per cent increase in 999 calls compared to the same period last year.

The service received 3,168 emergency calls on Saturday - 570 from West Mercia - and 2,890 on Sunday putting ambulance crews under pressure.

Daren Fradgley, WMAS assistant chief ambulance officer, said: “With the heat wave continuing across the West Midlands, the ambulance service once again recorded high levels of demand over the weekend.

“The figures are similar to the previous weekend with demand on the service remaining extremely high.

“High temperatures are expected to remain with us this week and we are appealing to members of the public to stay safe in the sun to avoid the need to dial 999.”

Severn Trent’s water supplies were also put under pressure with people using an extra 350million litres of water this weekend compared to two weeks ago.

Marcus O’Kane, water resources manager for Severn Trent said: “That’s enough to fill 175,000 children’s paddling pools.

“Our water stocks are still looking healthy for the time of year and we are working night and day in these exceptionally hot weather conditions to get that water to our customers.”

Gardeners have been asked not to leave their hosepipes or sprinklers running at night as it was causing storage reservoirs not to refill overnight as much as Severn Trent would have wanted.

Mr O’Kane added: “Some of our customers are seeing lower pressure than normal and there is more risk if we have a problem somewhere on our network.

“The more steps we can all take now – both as a company and as individuals – then the better placed our water supplies will be if the dry weather continues.”

Many schools around Worcester are preparing to break up for the summer holidays this week and parents and children will be pleased to learn the hot weather is set to stay around until at least the end of July.

Ian Michaelwaite from Netweather.tv, based in Pershore, said: “We used to say that the one thing guaranteed to end a hot spell of weather was the ringing of the last school bell of the year - but not this year.

“The high temperatures are continuing into the last week of July before we could see anything changing which is good news if you like summer weather.

“In 2006, we had a decent summer and before that 2003 was when Britain had a really consistent summer that set records.

“Usually we are relying on good weather in September.”

This time last year the city was still experiencing grey clouds and rain with a scheduled horseracing meeting having to be cancelled because of a waterlogged track after 9mm of rain fell in just 30 minutes onto saturated ground.

But there will be no repeat this year, Mr Michaelwaite continued: “There are strong signs that the weather will cling on at least for the rest of this week and we could well see consecutive days creeping up to the 30C mark as well.

“Tomorrow [Tuesday] should be high 20Cs, Wednesday same again with the upper end of the high 20Cs and some areas creeping over 30C.

“It will be a little bit warmer on Thursday, 31C to 32C in some parts of the area and Friday will be a degree or two cooler.

“Come the weekend there’s a little bit more cool air around and temperatures will be around 25C to 26C which should make it feel quite fresh.”