UK shatters record for highest temperature as Europe sizzles – Major incident declared in London as fires burn – Dozens of temperature records fall in France as fires rage in southwest
By Danica Kirka and Jill Lawless
19 July 2022
LONDON (AP) – Britain shattered its record for highest temperature ever registered Tuesday amid a heat wave that has seared swaths of Europe — and the national weather forecaster predicted it would get hotter still in a country ill prepared for such extremes.
The typically temperate nation was just the latest to be walloped by unusually hot, dry weather that has triggered wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans and led to hundreds of heat-related deaths. Images of flames racing toward a French beach and Britons sweltering — even at the seaside — have driven home concerns about climate change.
The U.K. Met Office registered a provisional reading of 40.2 degrees Celsius (104.4 degrees Fahrenheit) at Heathrow Airport in early afternoon — breaking the record set just an hour earlier and with hours of intense sunshine still to go. Before Tuesday, the highest temperature recorded in Britain was 38.7 C (101.7 F), set in 2019.
As the nation watched the mercury rise with a combination of horror and fascination, the forecaster warned temperatures could go higher still.
The sweltering weather has disrupted travel, health care and schools in a country not prepared for such extremes. Many homes, small businesses and even public buildings, including hospitals, don’t even have air conditioning, a reflection of how unusual such heat is in the country better known for rain and mild temperatures.
The intense heat since Monday has damaged the runway at London’s Luton Airport, forcing it to shut for several hours, and warped a main road in eastern England, leaving it looking like a “skatepark,” police said. Major train stations were shut or near-empty on Tuesday, as trains were canceled or ran at low speeds out of concern rails could buckle.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Tuesday that the heat wave has caused a “huge surge” in the number of fires in the city, putting the fire service under “immense pressure.” The blazes include a grass fire in Wennington on the eastern edge of the city that is being tackled by 100 firefighters.
Electric fans cooled the traditional mounted troops of the Household Cavalry as they stood guard in central London in heavy ceremonial uniforms. Other guards reduced their duties. The capital’s Hyde Park, normally busy with walkers, was eerily quiet — except for the long lines to take a dip in the Serpentine lake. […]
A huge chunk of England, from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north, remained under the country’s first “red” warning for extreme heat Tuesday, meaning there is danger of death even for healthy people.
Such dangers could be seen in Britain and around Europe. At least six people were reported to have drowned across the U.K. in rivers, lakes and reservoirs while trying to cool off. Meanwhile, nearly 750 heat-related deaths have been reported in Spain and neighboring Portugal in the heat wave there.
The highest temperature previously recorded in Britain was 38.7 C (101.7 F), a record set in 2019. Tuesday’s reading was provisional, which means they are produced as near to real time as possible with final readings issued after data quality-control, the Met Office said.
Climate experts warn that global warming has increased the frequency of extreme weather events, with studies showing that the likelihood of temperatures in the U.K. reaching 40 C (104 F) is now 10 times higher than in the pre-industrial era.
The head of the U.N. weather agency expressed hope that the heat gripping Europe would serve as a “wake-up call” for governments to do more on climate change.
“I hope that also in democratic countries, these kind of events will have an impact on voting behavior,” World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told reporters Tuesday in Geneva.
Combatting climate change head on is the only solution for Britain, said Professor Myles Allen, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford, because continually refurbishing the country’s infrastructure to cope will be “extremely expensive.”
“We cannot afford to live in an ever-changing climate,” he told the BBC. “We have to stop this, turn this around.” [more]
UK breaks record for highest temperature as Europe sizzles
Record high temperatures registered around France as fires rage in southwest
19 July 2022 (AFP) – Record high temperatures were registered in 64 different areas around France on Monday as a heatwave peaked in the country, the national weather service confirmed on Tuesday.
Most of the highs were recorded along the western Atlantic coast where temperatures have soared above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) and several forest fires are raging.
Record temperatures were also set to hit France on Tuesday, exacerbating the risk of wildfires, according to the country’s meteorological office.
“Tinder dry conditions and extreme heat are exacerbating the risk of wildfires,” according to a statement from the Copernicus monitoring service.
The organisation’s emergency management service has warned that a large proportion of western Europe is in “extreme fire danger” with some areas of “very extreme fire danger”.
Météo-France on Tuesday morning lifted a red heatwave vigilance alert on 15 départements (administrative units) along the Atlantic coast, but 73 remained on orange alert, with temperatures rising to between 37 and 40°C in the east, and potentially violent thunderstorms expected in the southwest.
Nearly 1,700 firefighters from across France, supported by significant air resources, are battling two wildfires that have burned 4,700 hectares of forest in the Gironde, according to local officials.
For nearly a week now, armies of firefighters and a fleet of waterbombing aircraft have battled blazes that have mobilised much of France’s firefighting capacity. […]
The European heatwave is the second to engulf parts of the southwest of the continent in recent weeks.
European Commission researchers, meanwhile, said nearly half (46 percent) of EU territory was exposed to warning-level drought. Eleven percent was at an alert level, and crops were already suffering from lack of water.
Pine trunks ‘bursting’
Blazes in France, Greece, Portugal and Spain have destroyed thousands of hectares of land.
An area nine kilometres (5.5 miles) long and eight kilometres wide was still ablaze near France’s Dune de Pilat, Europe’s highest sand dune, turning picturesque landscapes, popular campsites and pristine beaches into a scorching mess.
The blaze was literally “blowing things up”, such was its ferocity, said Marc Vermeulen, head of the local fire service. “Pine trunks of 40 years are bursting.”
A total of 8,000 people were being evacuated from near the dune Monday as a precaution, as changing winds blew thick smoke into residential areas, officials said. [more]
Record high temperatures registered around France as fires rage in southwest
