Several parts of Europe are facing an intense heat wave that is setting record temperatures into the mid-40s Celsius in regions. The weather is also causing wildfires across the tinder-dry countryside of Portugal, Spain, and France.
The UK is facing its hottest day on record on Monday, with the temperature predicted to reach 40 degrees Celsius for the first time, making health authorities put more ambulances on standby.
The British government pulled the trigger on a “national emergency” alert as temperatures were forecast to surpass the 38.7 degrees Celsius recorded in the Cambridge University Botanic Garden in 2019 on Monday and Tuesday.
“We’ve got a difficult 48 hours coming,” Kit Malthouse, a minister in charge of government coordination, told the BBC.
The famous London Underground metro imposed temporary speed restrictions on the network for Monday and Tuesday, meaning it would run a reduced service with journeys taking longer than normal. It urged commuters to only travel if essential.
Some schools were also due to close earlier than usual on Monday. The Health Security Agency also raised the heat health warning to Level 4 for England for Monday and Tuesday.
Britain’s Meteorological Office defines a Level 4 alert as a national emergency and is used when a heat wave “is so severe and/or prolonged that its effects extend outside the health and social care system. At this level, illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups.”
Malthouse said the government was prepared for the extreme weather and would seek to learn lessons from it.
“We definitely need to adapt the way we build buildings, the way we operate and look at some of our infrastructures in the light of what seems to be an increasing frequency of these kinds of events,” he told BBC Radio.
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