The UK record for the hottest day in June was broken for a third consecutive day on Friday, with the Met Office recording a provisional temperature of 37.3C in Santon Downham, Suffolk – surpassing Thursday’s peak of 36.7C in Merryfield, Somerset, which itself had beaten 36.1C in Gosport, Hampshire, the day before. The 50-year-old record was beaten by more than a full degree, underscoring the intensity of a heatwave that has gripped the country and triggered a rare red extreme heat warning across London, the east and south-east of England until 21:00 BST.
The scorching conditions have brought travel disruption, forced more than 2,000 schools in England and Wales to close this week, and left six NHS trusts declaring critical incidents after being overwhelmed with patients. The London Ambulance Service saw a roughly 50% increase in 999 calls, prompting its head Jason Killens to cancel all non-essential training and meetings to deploy more staff to the front line. Dr Hilary Williams, clinical vice-president at the Royal College of Physicians, said MRI machines and scanners had also been affected by the heat.
“UK June heat record broken for third day as temperatures hit 37.3C, prompting urgent calls for government action amid NHS strain and at least one drowning.”
In Leicestershire, the family of 13-year-old Hayden Jones-Powell paid tribute to him after he became the latest person to drown while swimming in open water during the hot weather. The tragedy came as political pressure mounted on the government to act. Toby Perkins, chair of parliament’s environmental audit committee, warned that a significant number of deaths were likely as a direct result of the current heatwave and said the UK was falling “far short of what is needed”. Perkins demanded answers from the environment secretary, Emma Reynolds, on how the government planned to tackle overheating in buildings, establish maximum workplace temperatures, prescribe air conditioning for vulnerable people and change school timetables.
“This week parts of the UK are facing a level of extreme heat that was once unthinkable,” Perkins said. “The effects of such extreme heat can be disruptive and devastating. Economic productivity will be hit, but more importantly we will likely see a significant number of deaths as a direct result of the current heatwave.” The Climate Change Committee has warned for more than a decade that the UK’s plans to protect people are inadequate, estimating that 92% of existing homes will overheat within about 20 years. In May, the committee said the UK was “built for a climate that no longer exists”.
Relief is expected over the weekend, though an amber heat warning remains in place across south-east England until Saturday evening. Met Office chief forecaster Andy Page said temperatures would gradually shift, with “those to the southeast of England retaining the warmth the longest, though peaks are more likely to be in the low thirties Celsius”. Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at the UK Health Security Agency, warned that a red heat health alert “indicates a risk to life for even the healthy population”. Next week is likely to bring a return to more average temperatures and a westerly influence, but the question of how the country will cope with increasingly extreme heat remains unanswered.