Britain recorded its hottest day ever on Tuesday, with the temperature exceeding 40C as a heatwave gripping Europe intensified, forcing train tracks to buckle and fuelling a spate of fires across London.
A large fire engulfed homes in the village of Wennington, England, amid an intense heatwave. Photo: Getty Images / Leon Neal
The Met Office said a new provisional record temperature of 40.3C was recorded in Coningsby, in central England, with 34 sites across the country experiencing temperatures in excess of the previous high of 38.7C recorded in 2019.
Stephen Belcher at the Met Office said he had not expected to see such temperatures in Britain in his career.
"Research conducted here at the Met Office has demonstrated that it's virtually impossible for the UK to experience 40C in an undisrupted climate but climate change driven by greenhouse gases has made these extreme temperatures possible," he said.
Train services on major 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 a number of pictures showing large bends and kinks in rail tracks.
London Fire Brigade declared a major incident and urged people to stop having barbecues, as hundreds of firefighters battled blazes across the capital.
To the east, a large fire engulfed homes in the village of Wennington, with flames tearing across about 40 hectares of neighbouring tinder-dry fields. Elsewhere large grassland areas around the capital caught fire, billowing smoke over major roads and nearby areas.
Women walking on a London street use umbrellas to protect against the sun. Photo: AFP / Anadolu Agency
London's Ambulance Service said it had been dealing with 400 calls an hour because of the extreme heat.
"We are seeing an increase in the number of patients experiencing heat exposure, breathing difficulties, dizziness and fainting," said Peter Rhodes, the deputy director of ambulance operations.
Britain, which can struggle to maintain key transport services in extreme heat or snow, had been put on a state of national emergency over the unprecedented temperatures.
Transport minister Grant Shapps said there had been a considerable amount of travel disruption. "Infrastructure, much of which was built from the Victorian times, just wasn't built to withstand this type of temperature," he said.
Operator Network Rail advised passengers to only travel if absolutely necessary. "Extreme Heat: All services stopped. Do not come to the station," Avanti West Coast, which runs services from London to cities such as Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow, said on Twitter.
Rail services in the UK were cancelled and operators advised passengers to travel only if absolutely necessary. Photo: AFP / Anadolu Agency
Climate scientists said the once-unthinkable temperature in London was likely to become more common in coming years.
Sony Kapoor, a climate and macro-economic professor at European University Institute, said he had long thought that people underestimated the physical impacts of climate change in contemporary times. "But even I never thought we would see 40 degree Celsius in London in 2022," he said.
After Tuesday's heat, the Met Office said the temperature would fall on Wednesday, however it warned there could be heavy thunderstorms.
France
In southwestern France, the wine-growing Gironde region saw its biggest wildfires in over 30 years and authorities said a man had been detained on suspicion of arson.
The fires have spread across 19,300 hectares in the countryside surrounding Bordeaux since 12 July, forcing 34,000 people to evacuate their homes.
About 2000 firefighters, supported by eight water-bomber aircraft, were battling the blazes.
With human-caused climate change triggering droughts, the number of extreme wildfires is expected to increase 30 percent within the next 28 years, according to a February 2022 United Nations report.
"We are seeing more frequent heatwaves, and the heatwaves are hotter than they would have been without climate change," Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London, told Reuters.
Southern and western Germany and Belgium were braced for potentially record-breaking temperatures as the heatwave, which scientists attribute to climate change, edged north and east.
Fire trucks burn in a wildfire on the Mont d'Arrees, outside Brasparts, western France on 19 July 2022. Huge wildfires also raged in southwest France. Photo: AFP / Loic Venance
Portugal
The health impact of the heatwave has been in focus, with particular care given to the elderly and vulnerable.
The head of Portugal's health authority DGS, Graça Freitas, told Reuters that 1063 excess deaths due to the heatwave, above normal levels, were recorded from July 7 to 18.
"Portugal ... is among one of the areas of the globe that could be (more) affected by extreme heat," Freitas said. "We have to be more and more prepared for periods of high temperatures."
Carlos Antunes, a researcher at Lisbon University's faculty of sciences, said the data showed the elderly were most likely to die due to heatwaves.
Hot night time temperatures are also hindering firefighting responses across Europe and worsening health conditions as the night hours fail to provide a cooling reprieve, experts said on Tuesday.
Italy
Numerous wildfires were reported in Italy. One of the biggest blazes broke out on Monday night in the hills of Massarosa in Tuscany, and was still raging on Tuesday afternoon.
Fires were also reported in woods near Rome, as well as on the shores of Lake Orta north of Milan and near the northeastern city of Trieste.
Temperatures were expected to hit 40C across a swathe of the north and centre this week, as well as the southern heel of Italy's boot, Puglia, and the islands of Sardinia and Sicily.
Five cities were placed on the highest red alert because of the heatwave on Tuesday. The alert, which warns of serious health risks tied to the weather, will cover nine cities on Wednesday, rising to 14 on Thursday, including many of Italy's largest metropolitan areas such as Rome, Milan and Florence.
Spain
More than 30 wildfires continued to ravage parts of Spain, with authorities paying special attention to four blazes in Castile and Leon and Galicia.
In Losacio, in northwestern Zamora province, where two people have died and three were critically injured, more than 6,000 people in 32 villages have been evacuated.
So far this year 70,000 hectares have been burned in Spain, around twice the average of the last decade, official data showed before the heatwave.
In Greece, a wildfire fuelled by strong winds raged on a mountainous area near homes on the outskirts of Athens, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of at least one area.
- Reuters
