UK breaks record for its hottest day ever; London sees huge surge in fires

The UK broke an unwelcome record on Tuesday (July 19) when Heathrow in south-west London recorded 40.2 degrees Celsius on the hottest day ever experienced in the country.

The reading came soon after Surrey in south-east England had broken the record of the highest temperature ever since records began at 39 degrees Celsius.

The previous record high temperature was 38.7C, set in 2019 at Cambridge Botanic Garden in eastern England.

At least five people are believed to have drowned after attempting to escape the heat in rivers and lakes.

Surge in number of fires

The mayor of London said the heatwave is causing a huge surge in the number of fires in the city.

Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Tuesday the fire service is 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.

The London Fire Brigade said it had declared a “major incident”, which means it can call on resources from other emergency services.

The typically temperate nation was just the latest to be walloped by unusually hot, dry weather that has gripped the continent since last week, triggering wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans and leading to hundreds of heat-related deaths.

We have declared a major incident as firefighters battle several significant fires across the capital during today’s record-breaking heatwave. For the latest on those, follow this account @londonfire https://t.co/1ThCGrc33K pic.twitter.com/Tp4J0l2Zkr

— London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) July 19, 2022

Images of flames racing toward a French beach and Britons sweltering even at the seaside have driven home concerns about climate change.

The sweltering weather has disrupted travel, health care and schools in a country not prepared for such extremes.

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.

London streets saw less traffic, as many heeded advice to stay out of the sun, and trains ran at low speed out of concern rails could buckle, or did not run at all.

The British Museum which has a glass-roofed atrium planned to shut its doors early. And the Supreme Court closed to visitors after a problem with the air conditioning forced it to move hearings online.

Many public buildings, including hospitals, don’t even have air conditioning, a reflection of how unusual such extreme heat is in the country better known for rain and mild temperatures.

Today: Record temperatures.

Tomorrow: Thunderstorms and warnings of flash flooding.

It’s not “just the summer”.

It’s a climate emergency.

— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) July 19, 2022

The capitals Hyde Park, normally busy with walkers, was eerily quiet except for the long lines to take a dip in the parks Serpentine lake.

Wake-up call

The head of the UN weather agency says he hopes a heatwave sweeping Europe and setting record-high temperatures in Britain serves as a wake-up call for governments and voters to do more on climate change.

World Meteorological Organisation Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said Tuesday a negative trend of increasing heat waves is expected to continue for decades, at least until the 2060s independent of our success in climate mitigation efforts.

He said the world has been doping the atmosphere by injecting more and more greenhouse gases into the air.

UN officials said the same people most vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic were likely to be particularly affected: the elderly, the sick and people with compromised respiratory systems.