A drought is expected to be declared in more parts of England, as temperatures are set to soar to 36C later this week.

Half of England and Wales have already been plunged into drought but more regions could be declared on Monday afternoon when officials - including regulators, government officials, water companies and agricultural bodies - meet at the National Drought Group.

East Anglia, Hertfordshire, London, Thames Valley, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Devon, Cornwall, the West Midlands and Wessex (Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, and south Gloucestershire) are already officially in drought.

However, north-west England, which is already classed as being under the less severe “prolonged dry weather” status, could be added to the list of areas where drought will be declared.

A drought usually refers to a period of prolonged unusually dry weather that impacts nature, the environment and people.

Where droughts have been declared:

In July, 19 counties across England recorded effectively no rainfall – 1mm or less – across the whole of the month, the Met Office figures show, causing river levels to fall and leaving ground dry and at risk of wildfires.

It comes as firefighters have worked through the night to tackle a wildfire in the New Forest - where drought has already been declared.

Smoke plumes were visible for miles after a van caught fire on the A31 near Ringwood, Hampshire at about 5.30pm and the flames spread to heathland forcing some motorists to abandon their vehicles.

The summer of extreme weather has seen two record-breaking heatwaves, in May and June, that led to more than 2,800 excess deaths, and two more heatwaves in July which have fuelled drought and wildfires.

But the hot weather is set to continue as temperatures are forecast to soar into the mid-30s across the country on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Yellow heat health alerts issued by the UK Health Security Agency are in place for the East Midlands, West Midlands, South East, South West, East of England, Yorkshire and the Humber, and London.

The alerts continue until 9pm on Tuesday, but may well be extended as the hot weather continues.

Meanwhile, the Met Office is considering issuing rare extreme heat warnings ahead of the scorching temperatures forecast later in the week.

“We sometimes issue extreme heat warnings, amber and red warnings, which we did back in June, so that’s under consideration at the moment,” Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said.

More than 25 million people have restrictions on water use, the Environment Agency said, with millions under hosepipe bans, including all South East Water and Thames Water customers.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski criticised the Prime Minister for failing to convene a meeting of the Cobra crisis committee to deal with the impact of the summer heatwave and drought.

He said: “This is the greatest crisis this country has faced since the Second World War and to complacently dismiss the demands for immediate action by saying everything is under control is gross negligence, blatantly untrue and misses the severity of the crisis.”