Britain on Monday activated the country’s first red alert for extreme heat for much of England, as authorities braced for high temperatures already affecting travel, health care and schools.
The alerts would remain in place Monday and Tuesday, when temperatures could reach 40 degrees Celsius for the first time, posing a risk of serious illness and even death to healthy people, according to Britain’s Bureau of Meteorology. The hottest temperature ever recorded in Britain was 38.7 Celsius, a record reached in 2019.
Today thermometers were expected to rise even higher as warm air moves north, according to the director general of the meteorological agency, Penelope Endersby. Extreme heat alerts ranged from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north.
“It will be tomorrow that we will really see more of a chance of 40 degrees and temperatures above that,” Endersby told the BBC. “41 degrees are not ruled out. In the model we even have some 43, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
The Met Office’s chief meteorologist, Paul Davies, warned that Monday night would be “very oppressive” and that it would be difficult to sleep in the heat.
“And tomorrow is the day that we are really worried about a chance of reaching 40 or 41 Celsius, and with it all the health complications that come with those higher temperatures,” Davies said.
