Britain wakes up from warmest-ever night, but no relief in day too

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Britain woke up from the country’s warmest-ever night on Tuesday and braced for a day when temperatures are forecast to hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), as a heat wave scorching Europe wallops a country more used to mild weather and rain.

The U.K.’s Met Office weather agency said provisional figures showed the temperature remained above 25 C (77 F) overnight in parts of the country for the first time. Met Office forecaster Rachel Ayers said Tuesday’s highs would be unprecedented. “The temperature will be very hot throughout the day, before rising as high as 40 C, maybe even 41 C in isolated spots across England during the afternoon,” she said.

A huge chunk of England, from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north, is under the country’s first warning of “extreme” heat, meaning there is danger of death even for healthy people. Hot, dry weather has gripped southern Europe since last week, triggering wildfires in Spain, Portugal and France, before moving north.

The temperature on Monday reached 38.1 C (100.6 F) at Santon Downham in eastern England, just shy of the highest-ever temperature recorded in Britain - 38.7 C (101.7 F), a record set in 2019. Tuesday is expected to be hotter. Average July temperatures in the U.K. range from a daily high of 21 C (70 F) to a night-time low of 12 C (53 F), and few homes or small businesses have air conditioning.

Many people coped with the heat wave by staying put. Road traffic was down from its usual levels on Monday. Trains ran at low speed out of concern for buckled rails or did not run at all. London’s Kings Cross Station, one of the country’s busiest rail hubs, was empty on Tuesday, with no trains on the busy east coastline connecting the capital to the north and Scotland. London’s Luton Airport had to close its runway because of heat damage.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Britain’s transport infrastructure, some of it dating from Victorian times, “just wasn’t built to withstand this type of temperature — and it will be many years before we can replace infrastructure with the kind of infrastructure that could.” At least five people were reported to have drowned across the U.K. in rivers, lakes and reservoirs while trying to cool off.

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. Drought and heat waves tied to climate change have also made wildfires harder to fight. The dangers of extreme heat were on display in southern Europe. Almost 600 heat-related deaths have been reported in Spain and Portugal, where temperatures reached 47 C (117 F) last week.

In the Gironde region of southwestern France, ferocious wildfires continued to spread through tinder-dry pines forests, frustrating firefighting efforts by more than 2,000 firefighters and water-bombing planes. More than 37,000 people have been evacuated from homes and summer vacation spots since the fires broke out July 12 and burned through 190 square kilometres (more than 70 square miles) of forests and vegetation, Gironde authorities said.

A smaller third fire broke out late Monday in the Medoc wine region north of Bordeaux, further taxing firefighting resources. Five camping sites went up in flames in the Atlantic coast beach zone where blazes raged, around the Arcachon maritime basin famous for its oysters and resorts. But weather forecasts offered some consolation, with heat-wave temperatures expected to ease along the Atlantic seaboard Tuesday and the possibility of rains rolling in late in the day.

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