UK breaks 40ºC barrier

A TEMPERATURE of more than 40ºC was provisionally recorded for the first time in Britain, the Met Office said on Tuesday (19).

Authorities put the country on a state of “national emergency” over the unprecedented temperatures.

Train routes from London up the east and west coast of the country were cancelled, electricity companies reported mass outages and normally busy city centres appeared quiet. Network Rail tweeted pictures showing bends and kinks in the tracks.

To the east of London, a large fire engulfed homes in the village of Wennington, with flames tearing across neighbouring fields and approaching a historic church as Eastern Eye went to press on Tuesday. Elsewhere large

grass areas around the capital were on fire.

“We are seeing more frequent heatwaves, and the heatwaves are hotter than they would have been without climate change,” said Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London.

The current heatwave should act as a wake-up call for countries pumping ever more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said.

“Thanks to climate change we have started breaking records... In the future these kinds of heatwaves are going to be normal,” WMO chief Petteri Taalas told reporters in Geneva.

“Emissions are still growing and therefore it’s not sure that we would see the peak in the 2060s if we are not able to bend this emission growth development, especially in the big Asian countries which are the largest emitters,” Taalas added.