UK records hottest day of the year as fifth summer heatwave reaches peak
The UK has recorded its hottest day of the year so far with a provisional temperature of 38.1C in southern England as Europe sweltered under
The UK has recorded its hottest day of the year so far with a provisional temperature of 38.1C in southern England as Europe sweltered under a major heat dome. As temperatures on the continent approached 40C at the peak of the summer’s fifth heatwave, the thermometer at Kew Gardens in west London surpassed the previous high of 38C on 28 June, the Met Office said. In France, which has recorded 17 days of extreme heat – one of the longest periods ever – Bordeaux and Nantes recorded 38C, Paris 36C and Montpellier 34C. Temperatures were expected to hit highs of 40C in Spain and 41C in France later on Thursday, triggering fresh fears of wildfires in the two countries. View image in fullscreen A plane drops retardant over a wildfire in Aznalcollar, Spain Photograph: Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters In the UK, Charlwood in Surrey recorded 37.1C, the second highest August maximum temperature since 2003. Teddington in London reached 36.1C Pershore College in Worcestershire36C and temperatures in Wales reached 35C, according to provisional Met Office figures. An amber extreme weather warning was issued on Thursday across east and south-east England, including London, the Midlands, north-west England, south-west England and parts of Yorkshire and Humber. An extreme heat alert warning of significant impacts to health and social care services across the whole of England is in place until 9pm on Friday. The Met Office has said this summer is on course to be the UK’s hottest since records began, with 2026 likely to be the first year in which the country has recorded four separate days with temperatures of 36C or above.
Spain has broken its burned area record for this time of year, data published by the European forest fire information system on Thursday shows, while in France, the area burned by the third week of July already surpassed that of any full year on record. Fire weather in the EU since the start of the year has been more severe than ever before. The fires in many regions have been exacerbated by unusually dry conditions as heatwaves sap moisture from plants. Firefighters in the UK continued to tackle a blaze in the New Forest in Hampshire, with warnings across parts of eastern and southern Scotland about a very high risk of wildfires. 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. Record-low water flows on the Danube have deprived thermal power plants of cooling water and forced some to curb output as electricity demand for cooling grows. Romania stopped the second of two reactors in its only nuclear power plant, which supplies about a fifth of the country’s electricity, on Thursday. The plant’s director told Agence France-Presse he did not foresee a restart within the next 10 days. In neighbouring Hungary, one of a number of central European countries to break its national daily heat record last week, engineers have resorted to laying stones to boost the water level of the Danube by the Paks nuclear power plant, which avoided a full shutdown in July but is only producing 25% of its usual output, up from 10% earlier this month.
The BriefWire