A police officer gives water to a British soldier on duty outside Buckingham Palace in London on July 18. Matt Dunham/Associated Press
Britain is bracing for an unprecedented heatwave expected to send temperatures above 40C this week and cause rail chaos lines, schools and other public services. And scientists are warning that this kind of heatwave could become the norm in the UK due to climate change.
The Met Office, or Met, has issued its first red warning for extreme heat. Temperatures across much of central England, an area stretching from London to Manchester and York, could reach 43C on Tuesday.
“We were hoping we wouldn’t get to this situation, but for the first time we’re forecasting over 40C in the UK,” said Dr Nikos Christidis, Met climatologist.
The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK was 38.7 on 25 July 2019 in Cambridge.
What are the health risks of extreme heat?
Several schools closed on Monday and trains across the country faced cancellations and delays after Network Rail warned the heatwave could cause rails to bend or warp. Parts of the London Underground were also affected and some hospitals canceled operations because operating theaters were too hot.
Britain is the latest European country to experience a sharp rise in temperatures this summer. The scorching heat caused hundreds of deaths and forest fires in Portugal, Spain and France. In Luza, Portugal, the thermometer exceeded 46 last week, while in southwestern France thousands of people had to be evacuated from their homes due to raging forest fires. Heat alerts were issued in France and Spain as temperatures hovered around 40 degrees for days.
“Every heat wave we experience today has become hotter and more frequent because of human-induced climate change,” said Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London. “We know this now after decades and centuries of climate research.”
Dr. Otto said at a press briefing on Monday that recent heat waves in Canada, the United States, India and Europe have been much more intense than in the past. “We know how greenhouse gas molecules behave. We know there is more in the atmosphere. The atmosphere is getting warmer and that means we expect to see more frequent heat waves, hotter heat waves,” she said.
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People sit, covering their heads from the sun, after a scaled down version of the Changing of the Guard ceremony took place outside Buckingham Palace during hot weather in London. Matt Dunham/Associated Press
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A police officer gives water to a British soldier wearing a traditional bearskin hat on duty outside Buckingham Palace during hot weather in London. Matt Dunham/Associated Press
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A man walks along a dry bank of a tributary of the Dowry Reservoir near Oldham, UK, as the UK heatwave continues. Danny Lawson/Associated Press
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People swim in the sea as a wave crashes behind them during hot weather at Perranporth Beach, Cornwall, UK. TOM NICHOLSON/Reuters
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A man hides from the sun under an umbrella in the sand dunes during hot weather at Perranporth Beach, Cornwall, UK. TOM NICHOLSON/Reuters
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People swim in the tidal pool during hot weather at Perranporth Beach, Cornwall, UK. TOM NICHOLSON/Reuters
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An aerial view shows people swimming outside in the sun at Hathersage Swimming Pool, west of Sheffield in northern England. OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images
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Tourists walk near the London Eye during a heat wave in London, UK. LISI NIESNER/Reuters
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People rest in the shade during a heatwave while visiting the Farnborough Air Show Fair in England. Frank Augstein/Associated Press
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A couple enjoy the sun on Blythe Beach, Northumberland, on the north east coast of England. Owen Humphreys/Associated Press
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A view of a bridge, normally submerged, over the dry bed of Llwyn-on Reservoir during a heatwave in Wales, UK. KARL RETZIN/Reuters
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People cool off in the water fountains next to the Scoop during a heatwave in London, UK. MAJA SMIEJKOWSKA/Reuters
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A man uses a newspaper as a fan as he travels on the Bakerloo line in central London during the heatwave. Yui Mok/Associated Press
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A staff member stands by the gate of the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster, which has been temporarily closed due to the hot weather as record temperatures hit the UK. Danny Lawson/Associated Press
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A polar bear at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster rolls in the grass as the park is temporarily closed due to the hot weather as record temperatures hit the UK. Danny Lawson/Associated Press
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A police horse, Zorro, drinks water from a bucket to cool off during hot weather, on Whitehall in London, UK. JOHN SIBLEY/Reuters
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Commuters pass under a message board warning people of disruption due to extreme heat at London’s Victoria Station. NIKLAS HALLE’N/AFP/Getty Images
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Studies show that “the likelihood of extremely hot days in the UK is increasing and will continue to do so over the century,” Dr Christidis said. He added that “the chances of us seeing 40C days in the UK could be up to 10 times more likely in the current climate than in a natural climate unaffected by human influence.”
Hannah Cloke, a natural disaster researcher at the University of Reading, said while UK temperatures were expected to cool later this week, the heat was likely to return. “I think there’s a big risk of more heatwaves around the world for the rest of the summer,” she said. “For Europe and the UK, this is quite worrying.”
She and other scientists said the public doesn’t appreciate how deadly rising temperatures can be. “When we talk about heat waves, they are really silent killers. I think the scale of the mortality is just not very well appreciated,” she said. “Severe heatwaves will get worse, so we can no longer tolerate poor design in our buildings and cities. We need to think about shading, trees, public cooling spaces.’
Eunice Law, a climatologist at the University of Bristol, told the briefing that over the past 10 years, heatwaves had caused 2,000 extra deaths each year. “We definitely need to be aware of extreme heat,” she said.
But getting the public to equate heat waves with climate change is a challenge, said Mike Tipton, professor of human and applied physiology at the University of Portsmouth. Hot weather is often thought of as just a fact of life in the summer, and people often point to previous heat waves, he said. “Part of the problem is that climate change is still seen as a problem for the future. The problem is that it’s not about the future, it’s about the here and now.
The British government is struggling to respond to the weather warning. This is partly because the ruling Conservative Party is locked in a race to find a successor to Boris Johnson, who resigned as leader. Mr Johnson remains prime minister until a successor is chosen on September 5 and he appoints an interim cabinet.
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