The UK Met Office said provisional figures showed temperatures stayed above 25C overnight in parts of the country for the first time. Met Office forecaster Rachel Ayers said Tuesday’s highs would be “unprecedented”. “The temperature will be very hot throughout the day before rising to 40C, perhaps even 41C in isolated places, across England in the afternoon,” he said. 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. WATCHES | “Unprecedented event”: Few areas of Britain escaped the heatwave:
The UK issues its first extreme heat warning as temperatures reach record highs
Parts of the UK are under an extreme heat warning for the first time. Scorching temperatures have brought much of the country – unused to such high heat – to a standstill. Hot, dry weather has gripped southern Europe since last week, sparking fires in Spain, Portugal and France before moving north.
Many train routes are not operating
The temperature on Monday reached 38.1 degrees Celsius in Santon Downham in eastern England, just short of the highest temperature ever recorded in Britain — 38.7 C, a record only set in 2019. Tuesday is expected to be hotter . 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. 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 ». Many people braved the heat wave by staying put. Road traffic was reduced from normal levels on Monday. Trains were running at low speed due to concerns about bent rails or not running at all. 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. London’s Kings 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. 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”. 📢Due to extreme heat next week, we are offering most train ticket holders no charge or compensation if they are unable to travel on Monday & Tuesday. Stay cool & safe by carrying water with you on your trip.https://t.co/bmfTPM9urd —@grantshapps
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. The dangers of extreme heat were appearing in southern Europe. Almost 600 heat-related deaths have been reported in Spain and Portugal, where temperatures reached 47C last week. 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.
