Parts of U.K. Forecast to Hit 100 Degrees Fahrenheit
Extreme heat warning triggers national emergency alert level
A heat wave set to hit the U.K. has prompted the country’s first red extreme heat warning, triggering a national emergency alert level.
Temperatures in coming days are expected to exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit in some parts of the U.K., a country where umbrellas, gray skies and mild temperatures are comfortably familiar.
“I can say that the extreme heat we are forecasting right now is absolutely unprecedented,” said Penny Endersby, chief executive of the Met Office, the country’s national weather service.
“Here in the U.K., we’re used to treating a hot spell as a chance to play in the sun. This is not that sort of weather,” Ms. Endersby said in a video. “Our lifestyles and our infrastructure are not adapted to what is coming.”
The hottest weather is expected on Monday and Tuesday in parts of central, northern, eastern and southeastern England, said the Met Office. But high temperatures are also forecast for much of Wales and parts of southern Scotland.
It is the first time the Met Office has forecast temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, in the U.K. The country’s current record of 38.7 degrees Celsius was set in July 2019, at the Cambridge Botanic Garden.
On Friday, some models showed a 50% chance of maximum temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius in isolated parts of the U.K. Officials have warned of possible disruptions to trains and roads, and urged people in England and Wales to only travel if necessary. The National Health Service said the hot temperatures were dangerous, especially for older and disabled people, and encouraged people to check in on others.
Homes with air-conditioning systems are rare in Europe and the U.K. Many buildings are centuries old and rely on heavy stone walls to insulate their interiors from hot air.
Supermarket chain Aldi said it had its biggest sales of ice cream in the U.K. in one day this past Monday. Sales of electric fans and deodorant are reaching record levels, the company said.
Swaths of Europe are already experiencing an intense heat wave this summer, with the temperature in some parts of Portugal reaching 115 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday, according to the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere. It was the highest temperature recorded by the agency.
Firefighters in the country are battling blazes, and the Portuguese government on Thursday extended a state of emergency to Sunday.
Heat waves have become more frequent in Europe, with record temperatures in some places becoming an almost yearly phenomenon. In 2003, soaring temperatures killed more than 70,000 people across 16 countries, according to a 2008 report. Some 15,000 of those deaths came in France alone, many of them among the elderly.
The long-term trend of rising global temperatures is being driven by greenhouse-gas emissions, according to scientific studies.
“Climate change has already influenced the likelihood of temperature extremes in the U.K.,” Dr. Nikos Christidis, with the Met Office, said in a statement Friday. “The chances of seeing 40°C days in the U.K. could be as much as 10 times more likely in the current climate than under a natural climate unaffected by human influence.”