Ooh, Spanish highs
Sahara blast is set to make 120F hols hell on the Costas
HOLIDAYMAKERS heading for Spain this week have been warned to expect unbearable temperatures of 120F.
Hot air from the Sahara will turn the Costas into a furnace, and temperatures could top the 48C (118F) European record set in 1977.
Parts of Britain will also be baking by the weekend, with temperatures above 30C (86F) in the South by Friday. The Met Office expects the 35.3C (95.5F) record for 2018, set last Thursday, to be beaten in August.
The heat can be a major health risk and Richard Miles of the Met Office said: “With 48C expected in Iberia, tourists in Spain and Portugal clearly need to take care.”
At home, United Utilities has still to say if a hosepipe ban, due in the North West on Sunday, will go ahead after the recent rain.
The Scilly Isles may need water delivered by ship to cope with demand. In Hamburg, Germany, five metric tonnes of fish killed in the heat have been removed from ponds. Police dogs in Zurich, Switzerland, have special shoes to stop their paws burning on hot pavements.
A study by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine predicts that heatwaves will on average kill 2,160 people every year in Britain between 2031 and 2080 if nothing is done to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
You can probably still smell the barbecue smoke from the last heatwave – so let’s hope you have the stomach for more of the same.