Parts of U.K. Brace for the Hottest Day of the Year
Large portions of England and Wales braced for considerable heat on Tuesday, with government officials issuing an alert for vulnerable people and meteorologists warning it would be hottest day of the year so far.
Temperatures in London and along the southern and eastern coastlines are expected to climb to nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit, or 32 Celsius, which may be typical weather this time of year for many parts of the world but is unusual for Britain, where the weather this summer has been especially cool and rainy.
The heat in Britain may also stir up sweaty memories of a string of brutally hot days across the country in July 2022, when schools, doctors’ offices and museums shut their doors while the government urged people to work from home. In Britain, few people have air conditioning at home, and much of the country’s housing stock was built to retain heat. Transport delays in very hot or very cold weather are not uncommon.
“Much of the U.K. is entering a warm or even hot interlude of weather, with some places in England and Wales likely to meet heat-wave criteria in the coming days,” Frank Saunders, the chief meteorologist at the Met Office, Britain’s national weather service, said in a news release on Tuesday.
Britain’s health security agency issued a yellow alert, a level one out of three, for most of England, from the southern coast through the Midlands. Yellow indicates weather conditions were unlikely to affect most people, but could bother those who are particularly vulnerable.
On Monday night, when temperatures were relatively warm by Britain’s standards, the line to enter an outdoor pool in East London extended out of the facility. Robyn Landau, an interdisciplinary scientist, said that hot weather in London feels much hotter than in other cities that are better designed to cope with it.
“The reality is that London just can’t handle any sort of extreme weather conditions at all,” said Ms. Landau, 37. “It’s used to one climate. Or two, at most.”
She added: “We have been complaining there’s been no summer, and then the summer comes, and people say it’s too hot. It’s classic.”
Just before 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday in North London, a steady drip of people filed into the Finsbury Park train station, walking past towering signs that read, “Please carry water with you in hot weather.”
Farther into central London, Kedra Coffey and Tyler James, visiting from Australia, were beginning a day of sightseeing around 7 a.m. Mr. James, 27, said that no one he had seen appeared to be dressed for the hot weather, noting that some people were wearing long pants, denim jackets and full suits.
As the morning rush hour kicked into high gear, commuters squeezed into hot train carriages around the city. Some passengers brought hand fans to keep cool, while others took advantage of the sun and chose a morning walk or lounge at one of London’s plentiful parks.
Noah Smith, 31, said that his partner, who is from Wales, where it rains often, had suggested that Mr. Smith wait until the evening to take their puppy out for a walk because it was too hot in the afternoon. “I was like, ‘What are you on about?’”
Mr. Smith, who lives in London and is from Los Angeles, took the dog out anyway. “British people are really not used to it,” he said. “But I love the euphoria that comes with British summertime when you do have the odd day like this.”
Will Ockmore, 32, a London resident from the coastal town of Eastbourne, said he was looking forward to a spell of warm weather — that is, as long as it didn’t get too hot.
He said over the past few years he had noticed the weather seemed to be less consistent. “That’s probably more concerning for me than the heat increase,” he said. Still, he was planning to go swimming and spend time outside in a park this week. “In Britain, lots of people complain about it when its raining and cold — and then they complain about it when it’s hot,” he said. “You’ve got to try and be a bit positive when it’s nice.”
While tying a single heat wave to climate change requires analysis, scientists have no doubt that heat waves around the world are becoming hotter, more frequent and longer lasting. As the burning of fossil fuels causes average global temperatures to increase, the range of possible temperatures moves upward, too, making sizzling highs more likely.
A scientific study in the wake of a record-breaking heat wave in 2022, when temperatures soared as high as 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit in Britain, found that those brutally high temperatures would have been “extremely unlikely” without the influence of human-caused climate change.
Those hoping Tuesday evening would bring cool relief will be disappointed. “It is going to be another warm night,” said Alex Burkill, a meteorologist with the Met Office. “A difficult, sticky night for sleeping for some of us.”
Mr. Burkill expected temperatures to settle around the mid-60s overnight but again climb into the high 80s Fahrenheit, or around 30 Celsius, on Wednesday, with a chance of thunderstorms.
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