Temperature hits 40 degrees in Britain for first time on record
- Threshold was hit at 12:50pm as much of Britain sweltered in a heatwave, with parts of England and Wales under a red warning for extreme heat
- Unusually hot, dry weather has gripped large swathes of Europe, triggering wildfires and leading to hundreds of heat-related deaths
Britain on Tuesday recorded its first ever temperature exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), with the mercury provisionally registering 40.2C at Heathrow Airport, the country’s meteorological agency the Met Office said.
It comes within an hour of the UK smashing its previous all-time temperature record – of 38.7C, set in Cambridge in eastern England in 2019 – and comes amid a fierce heatwave sweeping northwest Europe.
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UK and Europe swelter as record-breaking temperatures grip the continent amid heatwave
A huge chunk of England, from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north, remained under the country’s first warning of “extreme” heat on Tuesday, meaning there is danger of death even for healthy people.
Britain’s Supreme Court closed to visitors after a problem with the air conditioning forced it to move hearings online. The British Museum planned to close early. Many public buildings, including hospitals do not have air conditioning, a reflection of how unusual such extreme heat is in the country better known for rain and mild temperatures.
Unusually hot, dry weather has gripped large swathes of the continent since last week, triggering wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans and leading to hundreds of heat-related deaths. Images of flames racing toward a French beach and Britons sweltering – even at the seaside – have driven home concerns about climate change.
The UK’s Met Office weather agency also reported that provisional figures showed the temperature remained above 25 C (77F) overnight in parts of the country for the first time.