LIVING in Bucks has been like living in the tropics as temperatures soared to 31.9C.

Over the past week places like The Rye in High Wycombe have been full of scantily clad bodies hoping to catch the rays of sunshine to top up their tans.

The sizzling weather has reached record temperatures according to pupils at The Beaconsfield School, Wattleton Road, Beaconsfield.

They recorded a staggering 31.9 degrees centigrade on their hi-tech weather station at the school on Tuesday.

Nigel Dudding, head of sixth form and a geography teacher at the school, said normal levels for the time of year would be around 20 to 22 degrees.

Carnival-goers celebrated the Caribana on Sunday and could not believe they were in High Wycombe as they drank coconut milk and ate mangos.

Jim Dale, from the British Weather Services, in Hazlemere, said they predicted last year this summer would be hot.

He said: "We recorded 30.9C in Hazlemere and the average for this time of year would be about 21 to 22.

"This hot weather comes from two factors, the homegrown heat because the sun is over head at this time of year and also importing of heat with the hot air coming up from northern Africa. That air gains in temperature when it comes over the Med and then it reaches us."

Jim confirmed May and June this year are the hottest we have had since 1995 and Tuesday was the hottest day of the year.