Billions of litres of extra water is being readied to pump into the south of England as Britain faces another heatwave this week.
Thames Water said around 450 million litres of water per day is on standby to meet demand (enough to fill 900,000 paddling pools), with temperatures expected to reach 30C (86F).
Alex Burkill, a meteorologist with the Met Office, said Britain would start to heat up on Monday and peak on Tuesday and Wednesday with temperatures in the high 20s and breaking 30C in some areas.
The south and southeast of England is expected to be the hottest, but temperatures are expected to fall short of July's record this year of 33.5C (92F).
Mark Jenner, head of operations systems at Thames Water said: "We have a team of specialists who weather-watch throughout the year and use their years of experience to estimate how much water our customers will use during a hot spell.
"In some places, demand for water in the evening nearly triples, so it's up to us to do the maths, put more water through our treatment works and get that extra water into supply."
On an average day, Thames Water puts 2,100 megalitres ( one megalitre is one million litres) into London's water supply, and 550 megalitres into the Thames Valley.
On a hot day, water consumption in London increases by around 14%, and this shoots up to 27% in Thames Valley as people escape the capital, Thames Water said.
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