In Britain, the temperature is predicted to rise to over 40 degrees. Especially for risk groups, record heat would be life-threatening.
16:16•Updated 16:39
The temperature is expected to rise to more than 40 degrees in Britain, which is known for sparing rain and cold weather.
It would be the second heat record in three years. The previous record that was broken in the country’s 200-year measurement history is from 2019, 38.7 degrees.
Due to the exceptional heat, the British Weather Service has issued a red weather warning for the first time. The temperatures are especially dangerous for risk groups, such as children, the elderly and those with long-term illnesses.
For example, Britons are advised to avoid traveling by train. Attempts have been made to protect the necessary journeys by painting the train tracks white, so that they would not bend from the heat.
Many schools have closed their doors or allowed children flexibility in school uniform requirements. However, the British government has urged schools to remain open in principle.
The Public Health Service of England has raised the health threat due to the heat to the fourth level. It means that the threat does not only apply to risk groups in poor health, but also to basic health and young people.
– Basic health can probably still withstand such high temperatures, because the air humidity is low enough, says ‘s meteorologist Joonas Koskela.
When the humidity gets too high, a person is no longer able to cool himself by sweating, in which case the temperature would be dangerous, explains Koskela.
According to the British broadcasting company BBC, more than a thousand people have already died from the heat in Portugal and Spain. The heat is reaching Britain precisely from Southern Europe, whose devastating forest fires were reported by last week.
However, according to Koskela, forest fires are not expected in Britain, because the country has not been affected by drought like in Southern Europe. The heat is also predicted to ease at the end of the week.
The heat is a sign of climate change
Researcher at the British Meteorological Institute Mark McCarthy told the Guardian on Sunday that the record heat shows that Britain is getting hotter as a result of climate change.
Those who doubt the effects of climate change in Britain have remembered the very hot summer of 1976, when similar temperatures were measured.
Published by NASA, the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration maps (you switch to another service) however, show that globally the difference between the June months of 1976 and 2022 is significant.
This year in June, it is exceptionally hot in a much wider area, and almost nowhere is cooler than normal.
The above tweet shows NASA heat maps from June 1976 and 2022.
According to Ylen Koskela, record heat could be reached in Britain even if climate change did not occur, but it would be much less likely.
The fact that nine out of ten of the hottest days in Britain have been measured since 1990 also shows that hot temperatures are becoming more common.
The matter was corrected on 18 July 2022 at 16:37. The nine hottest days since 1990 have been measured in Britain, not a heat record as stated earlier in the article.