The UK is sweltering through the peak of its third heatwave of the year as countries around Europe struggle to recover from an early onslaught of baking summer heat.
Punishing temperatures pushed higher by fossil fuel pollution have broken records across the continent in recent weeks. Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record, scientists confirmed on Thursday, accompanied by high global ocean temperatures that could cause “mass-mortality events” for some species.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Thursday expanded amber heat health alerts to cover all regions of England except the north-east, meaning significant impacts are likely across health and social care services owing to the high temperatures.
The UK Met Office said high temperatures would remain through much of next week, which could make the heatwave one of the longest lasting since the 1976 heatwave that killed 250 people. On Thursday temperatures surpassed 35C (95F) in Surrey, falling short of the provisional high of 37.7C recorded at Lingwood, Strumpshaw Hill, in Norfolk on 26 June.
The Met Office said Thursday was the eighth day this year where temperatures had surpassed 34C, breaking the previous records from 2020 and 1976 by one day.
Friederike Otto, a professor of climate science at Imperial College London, said the climate crisis was making every heatwave hotter, with events such as this month’s heatwave more likely to occur.
“The heat we have seen this summer is only possible because of the 1.4C of climate change we have to date, due to the burning of fossil fuels,” she said.
Otto said it was misleading to use the term “new normal” when describing this year’s scorching summer heat. “The climate we have today is not stable and continues to warm as long as we continue to burn fossil fuels. As a result, what is ‘normal’ keeps shifting and we’re likely to see much hotter heatwaves like this one in the years to come.”
Many countries across Europe are still reckoning with the fallout from the last heatwave. On Thursday, Belgium’s public science institute said its June heat was “exceptionally deadly”, with 1,747 excess deaths, while the Robert Koch Institute reported 5,120 heat-related deaths in Germany this summer. Early academic estimates suggest the death toll across the continent could be higher than 20,000.
In France, where a nuclear reactor reportedly shut down amid high heat on Thursday, scientists said the transformation of homes from “thermal kettles” into decent housing was a public health imperative.
France’s high council on climate, an independent body responsible for evaluating government climate action, urged policymakers to improve housing stock and make the creation of shaded green spaces an integral part of urban regeneration. In hospitals, care homes and schools, it recommended installing shutters, shade structures, ceiling fans, cooling systems, and fixed air-conditioning units.
The annual report, which is in its eighth edition, found France was “not ready” for dangerous consequences of climate breakdown and said current policies were “insufficient” to avoid a sharp increase in risk.
The scientists lamented the slowdown in climate action and called for a consolidated plan to phase out fossil fuels. “The cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of the transition,” the authors wrote, “which makes unilateral decarbonisation by major economies a rational choice that brings considerable welfare gains for societies”.
The NHS in England has warned it is facing a “summer onslaught” with the heatwave and the World Cup to blame. Average A&E attendances exceeded 80,000 for the first time ever in June, a new daily attendance record.
The NHS national medical director, Prof Frankie Swords, said the figures showed that summer was putting the NHS under just as much pressure as winter. South Central ambulance service NHS foundation trust said during the June heatwave there was a 118% increase in the number of times 999 emergency call takers directed members of the public to collect a nearby defibrillator for someone in suspected cardiac arrest.
More than 1,000 schools across the UK were either closed or partially closed during the June heatwave, and some schools have taken similar measures this week as poorly insulated buildings struggle to cope with the long-lasting high temperatures.
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Water companies have reported increased demand, with a hosepipe ban already in force for South East Water customers in parts of Kent. Hosepipe restrictions are also being introduced for about 1 million Southern Water customers across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight from Friday.
Supermarkets across the UK have struggled to keep their fridge and freezer units running in the extreme heat, with many shoppers finding empty shelves at their local store and a hastily erected sign apologising for the inconvenience.
Rupert Ashby, the chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation, said the trade association heard from a number of members who had encountered problems, and shops with older fridge-freezer units were being hit hardest.
In older models, the refrigeration cycle components that pump out hot air are typically stored outside the building and are designed to work in ambient temperature. In an extreme heat event, they do not work as efficiently as they cannot pump the heat away.
“These systems just weren’t designed to deal with this type of temperature because, historically, we rarely had it,” Ashby said. “But a major supermarket chain is probably looking at hundreds of millions of pounds to replace all its older units because they have so many.”
Phil Pluck, the chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, said 50% of cold warehouses in the UK were more than 20 years old with old refrigeration systems, and the hot weather had massively increased energy usage and pressure on the system.
“As an industry we are finding ourselves under more and more pressure,” he said. “I think we’ve got to admit that our climate is now clearly in crisis, and one of the things that will have to change will be our access to food via retail outlets. It will look different.”
He said open fridge-freezers in supermarkets would become less common, and standard practice would shift to using Perspex doors to keep heat out. Some supermarkets have installed pull-down blinds on their fridge units to help keep food cool.
Additional reporting Jessica Murray