An office worker carries a large fan in central London on July 12, 2022. On Friday, the Met Office issued a red extreme heat warning for parts of the country.
Yui Mok | PA Pictures | Getty Images
The UK issued a ‘Red Extreme’ heat warning on Friday, with authorities saying temperatures could potentially reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) next week.
In a statement, the Met Office said the alert would cover parts of east, south-east, central and north England on July 18-19.
“Extraordinary, perhaps record-breaking, temperatures are likely early next week, well above the red warning area on Monday and a little more to the east and north on Tuesday,” said Paul Gundersen, the Met Office’s chief meteorologist.
“Currently there is a 50 percent chance that we could see temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius and an 80 percent chance that a new high will be reached,” Gundersen said.
Friday’s new heat warning came on the same day that the UK Health Security Agency issued a Level 4 heat warning for England. The alert will run between midnight Monday and midnight Wednesday next week.
According to the Met Office, Level 4 is a national emergency and occurs “when a heatwave is severe enough and/or prolonged that its impacts extend beyond the health and welfare systems”.
“At this level, disease and death can occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups,” she adds.
People are advised to take a number of measures to deal with the heat. These include:
- Watch out for young children and babies, the elderly, and those with underlying health conditions.
- Closing curtains in rooms facing the sun.
- Dress appropriately for the weather.
- Avoiding excessive alcohol.
- And drink lots of fluids.
The record high temperature in Britain is 38.7 degrees Celsius. This was achieved in Cambridge on July 25, 2019.
Parts of the UK have experienced uncomfortably hot weather in recent days, with an Amber Extreme Heat Warning already issued for a significant part of England and Wales between 17th and 19th July.
“Temperatures are expected to return closer to normal for the season from the middle of next week as cooler air moves through the country from the west,” the Met Office said.
In January 2022, the World Meteorological Organization said 2021 had been “one of the seven warmest years on record.” The WMO based its finding on the consolidation of six international datasets.
In a statement at the time, the WMO said global warming and what it calls “other long-term climate change trends” “are likely to continue as a result of record levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.”
Back in the UK, Nikos Christidis, climate attribution scientist at the Met Office, said climate change had “already impacted the likelihood of temperature extremes in the UK”.
“The likelihood of seeing 40°C days in the UK could be up to 10 times more likely in the current climate than in a natural climate unaffected by human influences,” added Christidis.