With temperatures hitting 30 degrees on Monday, one resident driving up Lannock Hill between Gravely and Weston said “it was like driving on a wet road” as the surface became sticky in the heat.

“That was what it sounded like,” Sandra Chambers of Trajan Gate, Stevenage said, “some parts were really bad.” Adding: “The road was breaking up in some areas. Where the cars were going over it, it was lifting the surface away.”

A spokesman for Herts Highways, the authority responsible for the county’s roads, said they had not had any other reports of roads in a similar state, but advised caution.

She said: “We’re going to take a look at Lannock Hill, but generally hot temperatures do not do any long-term damage to the roads. Sometimes in very hot weather the bitumen in the road rises to the surface, creating some stickiness. If road users should encounter this, we ask them to take care and drive as if they were in wet conditions. Once temperatures start to drop, the road surface should return to normal.”

Have you had any similar experiences with melting roads? Call the newsdesk on 01438 866200.