Europe heatwave live: Temperatures of 40C expected in Spain; rare warning for ‘extreme heat’ expanded across England | Climate crisis
Key events
Ninth day of temperatures above 35C reported in England
The Met Office said that by midday temperatures had reached 36.4C at Charlwood in Surrey, while at Wisley temperatures had hit 35.1C, and a number of other spots were above 34C, including Westonbirt in Gloucestershire and Heathrow, west London, PA reported.
It makes it provisionally the ninth day in 2026 where temperatures are above 35C, the Met Office said, extending this year’s record number of days at or above 35C.
Fifth heatwave of summer hits England – in pictures
Meanwhile, Le Figaro is reporting that with the current heatwave extending into its 17th day, it is now the third longest period of extreme temperatures ever recorded in France.
It’s 38C in Bordeaux and Nantes, 36C in Paris, and 34C in Montpellier at the moment.
The temperatures are only expected to start falling over the weekend, it said.
Amber heat warning expanded into north west England
And a rare amber warning for “extreme heat” has been expanded to cover more of England, as the UK could see the hottest day of the year so far, PA said.
The warning, already covering large part of the country, has been expanded into North West England to cover parts of Cheshire and Greater Manchester, into Gloucestershire and Wiltshire in the south-west and Shropshire and Herefordshire in the west.
Even the athletes taking part in the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham are feeling the heat today…
Temperatures already reaching 30C in parts of England
Met Office has just offered an update on temperatures across the UK, with several stations already reporting temperatures above 30C – and it’s not even 11am.
It’s 30.4C in Wych Cross, 30.3C in Charlwood, 30.2C at Kenly Airfield.
‘Shattering’ heat this summer is only a sign of things to come, former government scientific adviser warns
Damian Carrington
Environment editor
Amidst the “shattering” heat in Europe, a UK government former chief scientific adviser has warned of worse to come and how climate actions protect – not damage – economies.
“The heat we are seeing today, and right through this summer, in the UK and across Europe has been shattering. This is the shape of our climate now, and we are still only in the foothills of what is to come,” says Sir David King, now chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group.
“And yet we are so often told, by parts of the media and in the softer corridors of debate, that net zero costs too much, that we should talk more about jobs and the economy and less about climate. I am here to say the two cannot be separated. Any plan for growth that does not put climate first, or at the very least on an equal footing, can only undermine the future it claims to protect.
This has to be the moment for brave leadership. More action, not less. Hold the line, do not row back. If not now, then when?”
135 million people in Europe are set to experience temperatures above 35C today
More than 135 million people – particularly in France, Italy, Spain and the UK – are set to experience temperatures over 35C on Thursday as the continent’s latest heatwave intensifies, according to AFP calculations.
Temperatures are set to surpass 30C for nearly three out of five European residents (excluding Turkey), amounting to around 340 million people.
That’s according to an AFP analysis based on German weather service forecasts and 2025 population projections from the Joint Research Centre, with results consistent with the Austrian NGO Klimadashboard.
Drought across Europe as extreme temperatures continue – in pictures
Black Sea resort of Burgas picked to host 2027 Eurovision
Lisa O’Carroll
In other news, Burgas, a coastal city on the Black Sea, will host next year’s Eurovision song contest, the European Broadcasting Union has announced.
The Bulgarian holiday resort, the most western city on the Black Sea, has been selected for the 71st annual competition that was mired in controversy last year over Israel’s participation.
Five countries, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia, boycotted last year’s competition in protest against the continued war on Gaza.
The EBU announced reforms to the voting rules reducing the number of votes cast by any individual member of the public from 20 to 10 but it wasn’t enough to lure the five countries back.
Last night, it what looked like another move to address continued disquiet over Israel’s participation, the EBU separately announced that countries involved in conflict may not automatically have the right to host the final if their entry won the contest.
Countries at war will not be automatically barred however.
“Under the new rules, winning Eurovision will no longer automatically guarantee the right to host the next edition if an armed conflict, sensitive geopolitical situation or any other circumstance materially affects the security, safety or stability of the winning country or its immediate region,” the EBU said.
With record dry conditions in July and a dry start to August, nearly three-quarters of England and the whole of Wales are in drought, heaping pressure on water resources for households, agriculture and the environment, PA reported.
And England and Wales have already seen as many wildfires this year as in the whole of 2025.
Some 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data shared by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), the same as last year’s record-breaking total, PA said.
Temperatures in England could reach highs up to 38C, forecasters say
Over in England, the amber warning by the Met Office stretches from London to Sheffield, covering parts of the South East, East Midlands, East of England, West Midlands and South Yorkshire and is in place from 9am to midnight on Thursday, PA reported.
Met Office forecaster Alex Burkill said:
“Temperatures [in areas covered by the amber warning] could reach highs of around 36, 37, possibly 38C.
Now when you get these sorts of high temperatures, well that’s when we could see impacts to our infrastructure, our railway lines, our roads, they are not designed for this sort of heat.
And more people are likely to be impacted by how hot it is with regards to their health.
It could be the hottest day of the year so far if we get above 38C, and if we get above 38.5C, well it could be the hottest August day on record, but that’s actually pretty unlikely.”
PA noted that the UK is facing increasingly extreme conditions such as heatwaves, drought and wildfires fuelled by climate change, which is mostly driven by greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels for power plants, vehicles, heating and industry.
Romania begins complete shutdown of its nuclear plant as Danube water levels drop further
Romania began the complete shutdown of its only nuclear plant after water levels in the Danube, used to cool the site, fell to a record low, the national nuclear energy company said.
Nuclearelectrica already shut down last month one of the two reactors at the Cernavoda power plant, which usually generates a fifth of the Eastern European country’s total electricity, AFP reported.
The second needed to shut as well “due to the significant and ongoing drop in the water level of the River Danube”, it said in a statement.
This is despite several measures taken to avert a complete shutdown, including blowing up a rock and sinking four barges filled with rocks to divert its flows.
PM Burnham to consider ban on disposable barbecues as wildfires rage in UK
The government will look at banning disposable barbecues as wildfires continue to rage across the UK, Andy Burnham has said.
Disposable barbecues have been the cause of a number of serious fires over the last few years, but campaigners were critical of the prime minister’s failure to link those fires more broadly to the climate crisis.
Disposable barbecues, which can be carried into public areas, present a number of problems: they remain hot, sometimes for hours, after they are used, making them extremely difficult to dispose of safely, and when they cannot be carried away, people are forced to leave them or place them into bins where they carry on smouldering.
Burying the barbecues, as some try to do, will not stop the danger as these trays of charcoal can reach 450C and will carry on burning underground, where they can still ignite fires long after use. On beaches, the buried coals and metal grills are also a hazard for walkers, and in fields for farm animals.
Over the last few years they have been identified as the cause of a number of serious fires including:
-
Macclesfield, Cheshire, July 2026: a large woodland fire that was tackled by dozens of firefighters. Cheshire fire and rescue service said a discarded barbecue was the probable cause
-
Three separate fires in one day around London, July 2026: in Feltham, 6 hectares of heathland close to houses were damaged. The London fire brigade urged people not to use disposable barbecues and to properly extinguish cigarettes after crews tackled three grass fires.
-
The Trossachs, Scotland, May 2025: covered 2 hectares in the Glen Finglas region of the national park. Glen Finglas is the biggest Woodland Trust site in the UK. The barbecue understood to have sparked that fire was found with a burger still on the grill.
Jakub Krupa
Well, that was quick.
Straight off the back of the solar eclipse last night, we’re heading into a solar inferno as extreme heat returns today, with temperatures above 40C in parts of Spain and up to 38C in London and Paris.
You’ll be wishing for an eclipse today.
An amber weather warning for extreme heat is in place across large parts of the UK, while 80 French departments have been placed on an orange heat warning.
Drink lots of water, stay cool and look after your vulnerable family members, kids and pets. And keep reading Europe Live, obviously.
I will bring you all the updates from the UK and across the continent here.
It’s Thursday, 13 August 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
