Boris Johnson was accused of being ‘checked out’ as the Prime Minister missed an emergency Cobra meeting about the heatwave and attended the Farnborough Air Show where he gave a whimsical speech about completing a loop and a cylinder on a fighter jet Typhoon jet. National Rail said on Tuesday most services across England and Wales would be affected by the hot weather, with customers told to only travel if “absolutely necessary… There will be delays, cancellations and last-minute changes to train services services due to the unprecedented heat record in those days.” There will be no Thameslink or Great Northern trains running to any location north of London from London Blackfriars via St Pancras or from London King’s Cross or London Moorgate on Tuesday. Merseyrail said the number of trains and journey times would be severely affected, with some routes being closed entirely. The LNER will not run trains from south of York and south of Leeds to London King’s Cross. Southern, South Eastern, South Western Railway and Great Western Railway are among dozens of train companies running significantly reduced services across the country. Transport for London (TfL) said London’s rail network will also run reduced services on Tuesday due to safety restrictions put in place to deal with the heat. Elsewhere, council crews were on hand to spread sand on melting roads. On Monday, Wales was the first to break records by recording a temporary new high of 35.3C in Gogerddan near Aberystwyth, which was surpassed a few hours later when 37.1C in Hawarden, Flintshire. By 4pm, England had hit a high of 38.1C at Santon Downham in Suffolk, just short of the record 38.7C set in Cambridge in 2019. Scotland is set to experience its hottest her day recorded on Tuesday. Operations and medical appointments were canceled because of the heat, NHS leaders said, and a fourth person died after experiencing difficulties in the water. The body of a 16-year-old boy was pulled from Loch Bray in Berkshire just before 11.45am when the temperature was already 31C. A 13-year-old boy who died on Sunday in a river near Ovingham, Northumberland, was named on Monday afternoon as Robert Hattersley. On Saturday a 16-year-old boy died in Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, and a 50-year-old man died in a reservoir near Leeds. On Monday night, the Metropolitan Police said a 14-year-old boy was missing and believed to have drowned after getting into trouble in the Thames in west London. A man carries a fan home as he tries to stay cool in London. Photo: Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Luton Airport has been temporarily closed to flights after a fault was discovered on the runway. Passengers on an easyJet flight from Catania were told by the captain that they could not land in Luton because parts of the runway had actually melted. The runway at RAF Brize Norton was also closed. An RAF spokesman said: “During this period of extreme temperatures, flight safety remains our top priority, so aircraft are using alternative airports.” On the roads, car breakdowns rose by 10% as a result of the heat, the RAC said. Miriam Deakin, interim deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said some trusts had cut back on scheduled surgeries because operating theaters were too hot. Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the combination of “outdated” health facilities and increasingly common record temperatures increasing demand for care could mean summer is harder for the NHS to deal with than winter. “Our buildings and estates are ill-equipped to cope with these kinds of temperatures and the lack of funding in the NHS over the last 10 years means we have very little resilience to deal with crisis situations like this,” he said. Vehicles cross a bridge over Woodhead Reservoir in West Yorkshire, where the water level has plummeted. Photo: Jon Super/AP Dozens of schools were closed and many others cut their days short. Many will remain closed until Wednesday, when temperatures are expected to drop into the mid-20s. Care home operators said staff are working hard to ensure their vulnerable residents stay cool and hydrated. NHS hospital kitchens made lollipops for patients, while zoos in London and Bristol did the same for primates and other animals. But with Johnson missing Cobra meetings while in Farnborough on Monday and partying at Checkers over the weekend, Labor leader Keir Starmer said voters were “seeing a prime minister who is effectively vetted, so he does nothing ». Cabinet Office minister Keith Malthouse, who chaired the latest Cobra meeting, said it was “very unfair criticism” and that the prime minister “appoints foreign ministers to do this kind of work and that’s what I did”. He said the criticism was “a political attempt to create an air of panic” about the heat wave. The heat drove millions of people to work from home, with traffic jams in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, according to figures from satnav company TomTom. Rail passenger numbers fell by 20%, Network Rail said, after significantly reduced journeys and speed restrictions put in place to prevent rails from buckling. The East Coast Main Line from York and Leeds to London will be closed on Tuesday. A woman rests her head in her hands as she races in the heat in Manchester. Photo: Joel Goodman/The Guardian Water use rose, particularly in the south, where Southern Water said demand was near record levels. Industry body Water UK has urged people to “carefully consider” their use in order to reduce the risk of shortages later this summer. Downing Street gave an upbeat assessment of the country’s resilience, with a spokesman saying: “There is no sign of mass school closures, for example the NHS is doing well… and Network Rail and others have already taken some mitigation measures with some reduced services and speed limits apply’. Asked about deaths from extreme heat, they said it “hasn’t been reported to us centrally at this time”. Several thousand additional deaths are expected to be caused by the heatwave, but numbers are unlikely to be immediately available. Meanwhile, the Met Office predicted temperatures like these would be seen between one in 15 and one in three years by the end of this century, depending on the “emissions pathways” they follow over the coming decades. After Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday that people should be hardy enough to “enjoy the sunshine”, Met Office chief executive Penelope Endersby said: “The heat is undoubtedly causing many hundreds, thousands of excess deaths due to heat. so people should be careful and follow the advice we’ve given about staying in the shade, staying cool, staying hydrated.” Professor Hannah Cloke, climatologist at the University of Reading, said: “We know heat waves are killers. We still have people who shrug their shoulders and say that’s it [just] summer.” Britons have been urged to stay inside during the hottest part of the day, between 11am. and 4 p.m., and wear sunscreen, a hat, stay in the shade, and hydrate with water. There are also wildfire warnings, with people not to use barbecues or leave rubbish that could start wildfires.
