UK braces for record-smashing high temperatures

LONDON (AP) – Millions of people in Britain woke from the country’s warmest-ever night yesterday and braced for a day when temperatures are forecast to hit 40 degrees Celsius, as a heat wave scorching Europe wallops a country more used to mild weather and rain.

The UK’s Met Office weather agency said provisional figures showed the temperature remained above 25 C overnight in parts of the country for the first time.

Met Office forecaster Rachel Ayers said yesterday’s highs would be “unprecedented.”

“The temperature will be very hot throughout the day, before rising as high as 40 C, maybe even 41 C in isolated spots across England during the afternoon,” she said.

A huge chunk of England, from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north, is under the country’s first warning of “extreme” heat, meaning there is danger of death even for healthy people.

Hot, dry weather has gripped southern Europe since last week, triggering wildfires in Spain, Portugal and France, before moving north.

The temperature on Monday reached 38.1 C at Santon Downham in eastern England, just shy of the highest-ever temperature recorded in Britain – 38.7 C, a record set in 2019. Today is expected to be hotter.

Average July temperatures in the UK range from a daily high of 21 C to a night-time low of 12 C, and few homes or small businesses have air conditioning.

Many people coped with the heat wave by staying put. Road traffic was down from its usual levels on Monday. Trains ran at low speed out of concern for buckled rails, or did not run at all.

London’s Kings Cross Station, one of the country’s busiest rail hubs, was empty yesterday with no trains on the busy east coast line connecting the capital to the north and Scotland. London’s Luton Airport had to close its runway because of heat damage.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Britain’s transport infrastructure, some of it dating from Victorian times, “just wasn’t built to withstand this type of temperature – and it will be many years before we can replace infrastructure with the kind of infrastructure that could.”