It was preceded by an unprecedented red alert for “extreme heat” from the weather service.
London: Thanasis Gavos
Warning of the fourth and highest tier for risks for public health in England issued for next Monday and Tuesday by the UK Health Protection Service, due to the high probability of historic record temperatures.
The fourth level of public health alert recommends declaring a state of emergency in England.
It comes after the Met Office issued an unprecedented red “extreme heat” alert for England for Monday and Tuesday, with forecast models insisting there is a chance of the country’s first ever record temperature 40 degrees Celsius or more.
THE meteorological alert accompanied by the warning that this is “an extremely hot period (…) that may lead to widespread impact on people and infrastructure”.
It is noted that possible health problems due to the very high temperature are expected to affect even healthy citizens and not only the vulnerable. The UK Health Protection Agency even warned of the risk of deaths among healthy citizens.
“We are talking about a potentially very serious situation,” Met Office spokesman Graham Madge said, noting that it was the first time in Britain’s history that a red alert for extreme heat had been issued.
The alert covers an area from London in the south-east to Manchester in the mid-west and York in north-east England.
The British temperature record is the 38.7 degrees Celsius recorded in Cambridge in July 2019. The chance of that record being broken has now risen to 80% and for the mercury to reach 40 degrees to 50%, with parts of London potentially reaching 41 degrees Celsius.
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