The fierce heat sweeping across Europe over the bank holiday weekend has beaten the UK’s all-time temperature record for May, with scorching highs of close to 35C.
A temperature of 33.5C was recorded at Heathrow airport on Monday lunchtime, according to provisional data from the Met Office, beating the previous May record that was set in 1922 and reached again in 1944. Later in the afternoon a temperature of 34.8C was recorded at London’s Kew Gardens.
Temperatures above 33C were recorded across the south-east, including 34C in Teddington, Middlesex, 33.6C in Benson, Oxfordshire, and 33.3C in Wisley, Surrey.
The heat is expected to persist through the week, with a 35C peak expected again on Tuesday. The Met Office has forecast highs of 31C for Wednesday and 30C on Thursday.
Overnight temperatures on Sunday broke the UK’s highest minimum temperature for May, with Kenley airfield recording a low of 19.4C. Meanwhile eight areas across Europe were put on heatwave alert with temperatures of up to 35C expected in Brittany, France, and between 36C and 37C in the south of the country. In Spain, the state meteorological agency (Aemet) warned the “extraordinarily high temperatures for this time of year” would continue across the country all week, with “widespread tropical nights” forecast south-western Spain from Wednesday.
The warm weather across western Europe may be welcomed by many enjoying time off work and school but it is also expected to worsen illness and increase mortality rates. Last week the UK government’s climate advisers warned that British homes would need air conditioning as global heating reaches intolerable levels.
Dr Chloe Brimicombe, a climate researcher at the University of Oxford, said: “The record-breaking heat is a reminder of how climate change is impacting our lives in the UK. It highlights the urgency of recent calls for heat adaptation.”
People who are old, pregnant or ill are at particularly greater risk when temperatures stray outside a comfortable range. High heat stresses the body and uncomfortably warm nights prevent it from resting. Amber heat health alerts were issued on Friday, indicating a possible risk to life.
Heat is known as a “silent killer” because it claims vast numbers of lives that go uncounted in official statistics. Last summer, scientists attributed two in every three heat-related deaths in European cities to climate breakdown.
Drawing curtains, opening windows and planting trees for shade can save lives, but the UK’s Climate Change Committee said last week that even these measures were likely to be insufficient to cope with the projected rise in temperatures.
It recommended installing air conditioning in all care homes and hospitals within the next 10 years and in all schools within 25 years. It also called for maximum temperatures for working indoors and outdoors.
The Met Office said the warm spell over the weekend was driven by the development of high pressure over the country that caused air to sink, compress and heat.
The risk of unnaturally hot extremes has risen with average global temperatures, which have been pushed higher by a blanket of carbon pollution smothering Earth.
Gareth Redmond-King, of the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, a thinktank, said: “Scientists are clear that cutting those emissions to net zero is the only way to halt climate change and limit the danger. But we also know we’ve got more extreme heat coming this year if, as expected, El Niño joins forces with climate change to break more heat records.”
He added: “The Climate Change Committee was clear last week that alongside cutting emissions to net zero, adapting to our already warmed climate is far less costly than dealing with its ever more dangerous impacts.”