The UK Met Office recorded a temporary reading of 40.2C at London’s Heathrow Airport — beating the record of 39.1C set in Charlwood, England, just an hour earlier with several hours of daylight remaining. Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Tuesday that the fire service in the capital was under “huge pressure”. The blazes include a grass fire in Wennington, in the east end of the city, which is being tackled by 100 firefighters. London Fire Brigade said it had declared it a “major incident”, meaning it can call on resources from other emergency services. WATCHES | Wildfire in South London burns on Britain’s hottest day:
A wildfire is burning outside London as Britain records its hottest day on record
A bushfire is burning in the Shirley Hills on the outskirts of South London as Britain sets a record for the hottest temperature ever. The stormy weather has disrupted travel, healthcare and schools in a country unprepared for such extremes. Many homes, small businesses and even public buildings, including hospitals, don’t even have air conditioning, reflecting how unusual this heat is in a country best known for rain and mild temperatures. Met Office forecaster Rachel Ayers said Tuesday’s highs would be “unprecedented”. A huge swath of England, from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north, is under the country’s first “extreme” heat warning, meaning even healthy people are at risk of death.
Many train routes are not operating
Millions of Britons woke up to the country’s hottest night. The Met Office said provisional figures showed the temperature stayed above 25C overnight in parts of the country for the first time. Average July temperatures in the UK range from a daytime high of 21C to a nighttime low of 12C and few homes or small businesses have air conditioning. People flocked to the beach in Bournemouth, England, on Tuesday despite temperatures that officials said could be dangerous. (Steve Parsons/PA/The Associated Press) Before Tuesday, the highest temperature recorded in Britain was 38.7C, a record only set in 2019. Electric fans fanned the traditional mounted troops of the Household Cavalry as they stood guard in central London in heavy ceremonial dress. Other guards reduced their duties. The capital’s Hyde Park, usually busy with walkers, was eerily quiet – apart from the long queues to take a dip in the Serpentine Lake. “I go to my office because it’s nice and cool,” said geologist Tom Elliott, 31, after taking a dip. “I ride a bike instead of taking the subway.” From Britain’s Met Office, around 3:00 p.m. local time: Temperatures have now risen above 40°C in some parts of the UK, however cooler conditions are now reaching across the western side of the country 👇 pic.twitter.com/WiLpsoAMvi —@metoffice London Luton Airport has been forced to close its runway due to heat damage. The airport said on Tuesday that it was “fully operational” but warned that some train services leading into the city were not operating due to the heat. Trains run at low speed due to concern about bent rails or none at all. London’s King’s Cross station, one of the country’s busiest rail hubs, was empty on Tuesday, with no trains on the busy East Coast line linking the capital with the north and Scotland. Britain’s Supreme Court was closed to visitors after an air conditioning problem forced it to move hearings online. The British Museum planned to close early. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Britain’s transport infrastructure, some of which dates back to the Victorian era, was “simply not built to withstand this type of temperature – and it will be many years before we can replace the infrastructure with the kind infrastructure that we could”.
Deadly consequences in UK, Europe
At least five people were reported to have drowned across the UK in rivers, lakes and reservoirs while trying to cool off. Climate experts are warning that global warming has increased the frequency of extreme weather events, with studies showing that UK temperatures are now 10 times more likely to reach 40C than in pre-industrial times. Drought and heat waves linked to climate change have also made fighting fires more difficult. A view of the low water level in Lake Roadford in Devon, England is seen on Tuesday. The average temperature in July in Britain is 21 C. (Andrew Matthews/PA/The Associated Press) The head of the United Nations’ meteorological agency has expressed hope that the heatwave gripping Europe will serve as a “wake-up call” for governments to do more on climate change. “I hope that even in democratic countries, these kinds of events will have an impact on the conduct of elections,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petri Taalas told reporters on Tuesday in Geneva. WATCHES | Half of humanity ‘in danger zone’ due to extreme weather: UN chief:
UN issues dire warning as extreme heat and wildfires ravage Europe
As fires are fueled by extreme heat in France, Spain, Italy and Greece, there was a dire warning from the head of the UN at a meeting on climate change in Berlin: take collective action now or risk “collective suicide ». Unusually hot and dry weather has gripped large parts of Europe since last week, sparking fires from Portugal to the Balkans and leading to hundreds of heat-related deaths. In the Gironde region of southwestern France, wild fires continued to spread through pine forests, frustrating the efforts of more than 2,000 firefighters and water-bombing planes. More than 37,000 people have been evacuated from their homes and summer vacations since the fires broke out on July 12 and burned 190 square kilometers of forest and vegetation, Gironde authorities said. A smaller third fire broke out late Monday in the Medoc wine region north of Bordeaux, further straining firefighting resources. Five campsites were engulfed in flames on the beach on the Atlantic coast, where flames raged around the Arcachon sea basin, famous for its oysters and resorts. However, weather forecasts offered some solace, with heatwave temperatures expected to ease along the Atlantic coast on Tuesday and a chance of showers in the late afternoon.
