‘Give names to heatwaves so public will treat them seriously’
More people have died from recent heat than storms, experts warn
HEATWAVES should be named in the same way as storms to encourage the public to treat them more seriously, the London School of Economics has suggested, as Britain remained on track to experience record-breaking temperatures this week.
The country could see its hottest day since records began tomorrow with the mercury forecast to soar past 100F (38C).
The Met Office also warned that night-time readings may surpass the record of 75F (23.9C), set in Brighton on Aug 3 1990, making sleeping difficult.
Already, rising temperatures have prompted school closures, while the Environment Agency has deployed drones to prevent people draining water from lakes and rivers, and organisations have relaxed dress-codes – including the MCC, which told members they would not have to wear a jacked in the Lord’s pavilion for the first two days of the England-ireland Test match.
Some homeowners have reported windows shattering in the severe heat, while roads have melted in Manchester and trains were cancelled due to overheating.
But the LSE warned that not enough was being done to warn of the severity of heatwaves and called for official names for periods of extremely hot weather like those brought in for storms by the Met Office in 2015.
This year has already seen storms Freya, Gareth, Hannah batter Britain and next up will be Idris.
“Far more people have died from recent heatwaves than from storms, so it should be uncontroversial to start applying names to both,” said Bob Ward, of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
Public Health England has estimated that there were 863 deaths attributable to three heatwave periods last summer.
It has issued a level-two “alert and readiness” warning with older people urged to close their curtains and avoid going outside during the hottest part of the day. ♦ A body has been found at Cotswold Water Park, Glos, after reports that a swimmer had disappeared in a lake at 1.40pm yesterday. A man’s body was retrieved just before 9pm. Meanwhile, a search began at Shadwell Basin, an east London dockland, last night after a man, believed to be 22, was swimming with friends and did not resurface.
‘Government and its agencies, including the Met Office, must lead the way in [relaying] the growing dangers of heatwaves’