Great news, kids! There’s a broccoli shortage
After a roasting end to June, high pressure means the heatwave will continue for at least another week – and it’s due to hit 27C today
IF YOUR children aren’t enjoying the heatwave already, they will now – the high temperatures and lack of rain are causing a shortage of broccoli. Growers say if it doesn’t start raining soon, the iron-rich vegetable that many children love to hate will soon be missing from supermarket shelves. David Simmons, from Riviera Produce, one of the country’s largest producers of broccoli, said: ‘We need a lot of rain and cooler conditions to keep these crops going through the summer, otherwise the situation will get progressively worse and we could see a real shortage. These crops need a lot of water regularly and we simply have not had it.
‘Unless there’s a change in the weather soon, it will have an impact on availability and quality.’
There will be no help from growers in Europe, with conditions across the Continent leading to a widespread low broccoli yield. The weather has also led to a cauliflower shortage, and the British Leafy Salad Growers Association has raised an alert, saying the heat was wreaking ‘havoc’ on harvests.
Britain suffered a broccoli shortage earlier this year, when crops were blanketed by heavy snow and then sweltered in the hottest April in 70 years.
SCOTLAND’S record-breaking summer heatwave is set to continue for at least another week, say forecasters.
Sun worshippers can thank an area of high pressure that remains firmly anchored over the UK, deflecting any rainbearing Atlantic weather systems towards Iceland.
Parks, beaches – and, remarkably even a ski slope – were packed yesterday.
The south and south-west enjoyed the best of the weather, with temperatures reaching 26C (78.8F) in Glasgow, Ayr and Dumfries. The mercury is expected to reach 27C (80.6F) in these areas today.
Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness can expect temperatures to remain a few degrees cooler with some clouds.
The high temperatures have led to hosepipe bans in Northern Ireland and the Midlands, with people warned to avoid filling garden pools, using lawn sprinklers or washing cars.
However, Scottish Water confirmed last night that reservoir levels remain ‘normal’. Only those in Moray and Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis were being advised to ‘use water wisely’ as water levels dropped slightly.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has also warned people to be alert as the prolonged dry spell has caused a surge in wildfires across the country.
Last night crews were battling almost a dozen significant grass, gorse and peat blazes in Aberdeenshire, Inverness-shire, Fife and West Lothian.
The wider wildfire warning across Scotland remains in place until tomorrow.
SFRS area manager Bruce Farquharson, chairman of the Scottish Wildfire Forum, said: ‘Grass and wildfires are a common risk at this time of year when warmer weather dries out vegetation which offers an ample fuel source.
‘Just one heat source can cause it to ignite and if the wind changes direction even the smallest fire can spread uncontrollably and devastate entire hillsides.’
Met Office forecaster Filotas Paschos said: ‘More or less the whole of Scotland will enjoy dry and settled conditions for the rest of the week. Cloud may keep eastern coastal spots a bit cooler but elsewhere things are looking sunny, dry and very warm.
‘Today, places like Glasgow, Moray and Dumfries and Galloway can expect up to 27C (80F).
‘Even going through the week, temperatures by day should be between 20 to 22C (68-72F).’
Almost 50,000 revellers flocked to the TRNSMT music festival at Glasgow Green yesterday.
Former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher headlined the main stage last night, with the Arctic Monkeys set to close the event tonight. The festival – which replaced T in the Park – will return next weekend, with acts such as The Killers and Texas.
Festival-goers – who donned shorts and sandals rather than the
‘Things are looking sunny, dry and warm’
usual festival staple of Wellington boots – said the weather made it feel like one of the top Mediterranean summer music events.
Linda Parker, 23, from Glasgow, said: ‘Today and yesterday were so sunny that I think the festival now tops Primavera and Benicassim in Spain for me – and they’ve always been my favourites.’
Daniel Gibson, 27, from Edinburgh, said: ‘It’s like we’re abroad, but it’s on our doorstep. The music is amazing – but the sunshine has definitely made it for me.’
Natalie Rodriquez, 30, from Madrid, said: ‘This is like heaven. It’s sunny, it’s energetic, and the people are all having so much fun. I was told by my friends I’d need to buy wellies or boots, but I’ve been able to wear a bikini the whole weekend so far.’
Shops and pharmacies in Glasgow reported a run on sun cream. A manager at a city centre Boots store said: ‘It has been our busiest weekend for sun cream sales.’
One area people were still dressing for the cold was the Lecht Ski Centre in Aberdeenshire. Despite temperatures exceeding 20C (68F), skiers and snowboarders arrived in full kit to make the most of unseasonal snow, generated by a snow-making machine.
‘Busiest weekend for sun cream sales’
I’M ON top of Saddleworth Moor, and my socks are on fire. The soles of my boots have melted. I’m wearing a face mask, but my throat is burning, my eyes streaming. I’m embedded with A Company of 4th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland – the Highlanders – and have just completed an hourlong march across a landscape as barren as the moon.
I assume it’s safe, given I’m being led by Major Phil Morgan, but even he admits the fire is unpredictable.
The ferocious flames might have died down on this, day six, but an even more dangerous inferno is raging just a few feet below us.
Sudden tongues of flame lash out from the blistered ground, as if from nowhere, making us look as though we’re dancing, not fighting the worst wild fire in living memory.
The burning heather was a sideshow. As one soldier told me: ‘It’s the peat that’s the problem.’
Several feet of it. Its only purpose in life, it seems, is to burn.
As Fred Worrall, professor of environmental chemistry at Durham University, said last week: ‘It’s like setting fire to your compost heap.’
It’s an environmental disaster, too: unlike an oil slick, the detritus is harder to see. But millennia of stored carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere. The fire is travelling horizontally, in secret. When a flame bursts through, a team of Greater Manchester firefighters armed only with paddles try to put it out. It looks an impossible task.
‘Look at that, it’s so beautiful,’ the Major says during a brief moment of respite, indicating the Peak District National Park. This is a famous beauty spot, teeming with wildlife and sheep.
Not any more. The part we’re on, right in the thick of the fire, is privately owned. Every hillside is smoking for more than four miles and counting. The gamekeeper visited the day before, doubtless blaming the smoke for his tears.
Due to the intensity of the fire it will take ten years for the moorland to recover. There will be no shoots, grouse or green, come August 12th.
The Fire Brigade – not just from Manchester but other counties, including Yorkshire and Gloucestershire – has been helped by 100 soldiers.
As the Major says: ‘Firemen are good with hoses. Soldiers are good at digging trenches.’
While I can see firemen from 25 engines or ‘pumps’, each with 25 litres of water on his back, trying to cool the peat, it just isn’t enough. Water turns to steam. Even a helicopter dropping 65,000 gallons of water on the flames on Tuesday was a wash-out.
The fire is still raging out of sight, biding its time.
Deployment of eyes in the sky – several drones – is pointless when you can’t see below the ground. And so it is back to oldfashioned methods. Digging. And sweat. And more digging.
I join one shift of 31 men. They started at 3pm, and will finish at ‘2300 hours’. Copy that. They are digging trenches – between 100 yards and 200 yards an hour – to cut off the subterranean flames. It’s harder than it looks: there are roots and roasting-hot rocks. But the boys are in good spirits. How are they getting on with the firemen? ‘Great,’ says Lieutenant Mike Weir, team commander. ‘We share a similar sense of humour, which helps. They’ve taught us a lot.’
It’s now almost 30C. ‘This is cold,’ jokes Joe Stirling, a 24year-old Highlander. ‘In Iraq, it was 50 degrees.’ Do they resent the manual labour? ‘I wouldn’t say it’s enjoyable, but it’s different. I joined the Army to help people. It’s our job. We have a laugh. You don’t realise the time has gone by.’
After three hours, I can’t take any more. We head back to base camp, passing a Land Rover belonging to wild fire specialists from South Wales. They look worried.
‘Manchester has had enough sorrow,’ says one.
I return on Saturday afternoon. As I approach the small town of Stalybridge, I can see the smoke, even thicker than yesterday. It’s still hot but the wind has picked up. The last thing we need.
As I arrived at base camp on Friday, I was reassured to see a Co-op delivery van leaving, having disgorged Snickers bars and sausage rolls and endless, endless bottles of water.
This is Britain, I remember thinking. Not California. Not Sydney. Natural disasters (the cause of the fire is still unknown and the subject of a criminal investigation) don’t happen here.
It’s deemed too dangerous for me to go up on the moor. I wonder at two cyclists, undeterred. Do they not realise the world is changing, faster than we think?
Manchester’s Mayor Andy Burnham, has pledged the 4 Scots for three more days, but no one thinks that’s enough. Secretly, I think everyone is praying for rain. Or a miracle.