The normally temperate nation was just the latest to be battered by unusually hot, dry weather that has sparked fires from Portugal to the Balkans and led to hundreds of heat-related deaths. Images of flames racing towards a French beach and Britons drowning — even on the beach — have sparked concerns at home about climate change. The UK Met Office recorded a temporary reading of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahrenheit) in Coningsby in eastern England – breaking the record set just hours earlier. Before Tuesday, the highest temperature recorded in Britain was 38.7 C (101.7 F), which occurred in 2019. By later afternoon, 29 places in the UK had broken the record. As the nation watched with a combination of horror and fascination, Met Office chief scientist Stephen Belcher said such temperatures in Britain were “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change. He warned that “we could see temperatures like this every three years” without serious action on carbon emissions. The bad weather has caused problems for transport, health care and schools. Many homes, small businesses and even public buildings, including hospitals, in Britain do not have air conditioning, reflecting how unusual this heat is in a country best known for rain and mild temperatures. Intense heat since Monday has damaged the runway at London’s Luton Airport, forcing it to close for several hours, and disfigured a main road in eastern England, leaving it looking like a “skatepark”, police said. Major train stations were closed or nearly empty on Tuesday as trains were canceled or run at low speeds due to concerns that rails could buckle. London has experienced what Mayor Sadiq Khan called a “huge increase” in fires due to the heat. The London Fire Brigade listed 10 major fires it was battling across the city on Tuesday, half of them grass fires. Images showed several houses engulfed in flames as smoke billowed from burning fields in Wennington, a village in the eastern suburbs of London. Fan sales at one retailer, Asda, increased by 1,300%. Electric fans fanned the traditional mounted troops of the Household Cavalry as they stood guard in central London in heavy ceremonial dress. The duration of the changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace has been shortened. 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 his swim. “I ride a bike instead of taking the subway.” Queen Elizabeth II continued to work hard as always. The 96-year-old monarch had a virtual audience with new US ambassador Jane Hartley from Windsor Castle security. A huge swath of England, from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north, remained under the country’s first “red” warning for extreme heat on Tuesday, meaning even healthy people are at risk of death. Such dangers could be seen in Britain and across Europe. At least six people were reported to have drowned while trying to cool off in rivers, lakes and reservoirs across the UK In Spain and neighboring Portugal, hundreds of heatstroke deaths have been reported in the heat wave. Climate experts warn that global warming has increased the frequency of extreme weather events, with studies showing that the chance of temperatures in the UK reaching 40C (104F) is now 10 times higher than in pre-industrial era. 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. Other scientists used the landmark moment to underscore that it was time to act. “Although still rare, 40C is now a reality of British summers,” said Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change. “Whether it becomes very common or remains relatively rare is in our hands and is determined by when and at what global average temperature we reach net zero.” Extreme heat also hit other parts of Europe. In Paris, the thermometer at the French capital’s oldest weather station – opened in 1873 – topped 40C (104F) for just the third time. The 40.5 C (104.9 F) measured there by weather service Meteo-France on Tuesday was the station’s second-highest ever, topped only by 42.6 C (108.7 F) in July 2019. Drought and heat waves linked to climate change have also made forest fires more frequent and harder to fight. In the Gironde region of southwestern France, wild forest fires continued to spread through dry pine forests, frustrating the efforts of more than 2,000 firefighters and water-bombing planes. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes and summer vacation spots since the fires broke out on July 12, Gironde authorities said. A smaller third fire broke out late Monday in the Medoc wine region north of Bordeaux, further taxing 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. In Greece, a large forest fire broke out northeast of Athens, fueled by strong winds. Fire officials said nine firefighting planes and four helicopters were deployed to stop the flames from reaching residential areas on the slopes of Mount Penteli, about 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of the capital. Smoke from the fire covered part of the city’s skyline. However, the weather forecast offered some solace, with temperatures expected to cool along the Atlantic coast on Tuesday and a chance of showers in the late afternoon.
Associated Press writers Sylvia Hui and Jo Kearney in London, John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this story.
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