UK heatwave: 40°C in June must be wake-up call on climate crisis, scientists warn

Scientists warn politicians are failing to appreciate the magnitude of the climate crisis after the Met Office predicted temperatures in the UK could reach 40C for the second time since records began.

Rare red warnings have been issued this week for extreme temperatures set to reach record levels in June, breaking the record set in 1976 by several degrees.

Hot conditions will have major impacts on health, schools, workers and transportation; Experts warn that predicted temperatures are “incredibly worrying” and should be considered a threat to public health.

“Our first 40C day was supposed to be a wake-up call, but it’s clear someone pressed snooze,” said Professor Friederike Otto of Imperial College London, referring to the last time the UK hit 40C in 2022.

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“Hitting 40C again – this time in June – would be incredibly worrying.”

Professor Otto continued: “There’s a sad inevitability to it all, with scientists like me making the same quotes year after year. Yes it’s climate change, yes it’s us, no it’s not El Niño.

“Currently, children are struggling to finish their exams in sweltering classrooms and the elderly are enduring dangerously hot homes and care facilities with little relief,” he added.

“This heat is not a nuisance, it’s a growing public health threat. Every heat wave puts lives at risk, and it’s been a long time since we treated it with the urgency it requires.”

Rising temperatures caused by human-caused climate change, intensifying the impact of the “heat dome” settling over Western Europe, come as people gather for London Climate Action Week. Excessive heat warnings are emailed to delegates at the event, while venues are equipped with air conditioning units and encourage attendees to drink plenty of water.

Organizers of events at Mansion House, the Mayor of London’s official residence built in the 1740s, said the venue had improved its air cooling systems since last year and the supply of ice and soft drinks would increase.

But there is only so much that can be done to cover up the fact that buildings and infrastructure in the UK are not built for the extreme climate conditions we experience today. A. important new report Last month he warned that Britain was not doing enough to adapt to the escalating climate crisis.

Findings from the government’s advisory body the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) include warnings that more than nine in 10 homes are not insulated well enough to keep heat out. By 2050, it is expected that there will be a shortage of 5 billion liters per day in water supply.

UK ‘not built for these conditions’

Bill McGuire, honorary professor of geophysics and climate hazards at University College London, said temperatures above 43 degrees were now possible in the UK’s current climate and heatwaves could last for days.

He warned that the country’s healthcare, energy infrastructure and transportation were also “not entirely built for these conditions.”

“As temperatures above 40°C become ever more common, you can expect thousands of people to sleep on the streets as poorly insulated homes become uninhabitable heat traps, widespread power outages as power cables sag and break, transport chaos due to rail, overhead cables and signaling failure, and emergency and response departments to be overwhelmed by the elderly, very young and vulnerable due to overheating,” Professor McGuire said.

‘Global warming is showing its effect’

Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading’s department of meteorology, said the current weather pattern showed “the global warming that I talked about when I was young in the 1980s is now playing out.” He added that much more needed to be done now to both decarbonise and adapt to new weather conditions.

“The greater thirst of a warmer atmosphere for water also means a quicker onset of drought, but it also means an intensification of extreme precipitation and the resulting floods as the excess water drawn from the land and oceans is channeled into storms that can often be triggered by summer heat,” he said.

“Yet the solution to preventing further dangerous climate change remains the same: developing our industry, transport and agriculture to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors of society.”

Forecasters warn that high humidity will make this heat wave particularly difficult to deal with.

It is now widely expected that the current highest recorded temperature for June in the UK, of 35.6°C recorded in Southampton in June 1976 and Camden Square in June 1957, will be broken by the weekend.