LONDON – For the first time in history, Britain suffered temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius – 104 Fahrenheit – on Tuesday as a savage heatwave moved to the northwest, leaving a trail of raging bushfires, lost lives and evacuated homes in a Europe that is terrifying. was sick. equipped to face the new reality of extreme weather.
As the effects of the heat ran from Greece to Scotland, the greatest damage was in fire-ravaged France. More than 2,000 firefighters fought fires that have burned nearly 80 square miles of parched forest in the Gironde region of the country’s southwest, forcing more than 37,000 people to evacuate in the past week.
Temperatures dropped overnight Monday, but firefighters’ efforts were hampered by fierce gusts of wind, dry conditions and scorched trees that sent fiery embers through the air, spreading flames further.
“The climatic conditions are insane,” said Matthieu Jomain, a spokesman for the regional fire department. “It’s an explosive cocktail.”
Spain, Italy and Greece have also suffered major bushfires, and in London a series of grass fires broke out around the capital on Tuesday afternoon, setting several houses on fire – an ominous sign that destruction could be hopping across the English Channel.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the city’s fire service was “under tremendous pressure” and declared a “major incident”, allowing it to focus its overstretched resources on serious incidents.
The temperature in Paris reached 40.5 degrees Celsius, or 104.9 Fahrenheit, on Tuesday. The city had recorded temperatures above 40 only twice before, according to the national weather forecaster, in 1947 and 2019.
Britain never recorded a temperature of 100 degrees before 2003 and until Tuesday the record was 38.7 degrees Celsius, or 101.7 degrees, set in Cambridge in 2019. The country wrote a piece of meteorological history before noon, when the thermometer in Charlwood, a Surrey village north of Gatwick Airport, reached 39.1 Celsius – quickly leaving that new record far behind.
At Heathrow Airport, the mercury reached 40.2, breaking a barrier that once seemed unimaginable for a temperate, northern island — a record surpassed a few hours later when Coningsby, a Lincolnshire village, reached 40.3 degrees or 104.5 Fahrenheit. reached.
At least 34 sites broke the old UK record According to the Met Office, the national weather service reached 40 Celsius on Tuesday, including at least six. Scotland blew through its old record from 32.9, with a reading in Charterhall from 34.8 – 94.6 Fahrenheit.
In recent years, the heat continued a global pattern of skipping records rather than breaking them in small steps.
Amid the Guinness Book-esque excitement over record-falling records was a bleak admission of the human cost of dangerous heat waves. Police in London said they found a body from the River Thames and believed it belonged to a 14-year-old boy who went missing while swimming on Monday.
As temperatures rose, so did fears for nursing home residents. Residential care centers are not equipped to withstand extreme heat. Many are housed in older or converted buildings, without air conditioning. This is a particularly fraught issue in Britain, where critics say the government’s inept handling of nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic has caused needless deaths.
Experts and staff said more measures should be taken to protect the elderly. Those over the age of 75 — whether they live alone or in a care home — are most at risk for serious health complications from the heat, according to the country’s Health Security Agency.
“The past 48 hours have been unprecedented, so that’s a huge concern,” said Helen Wildbore, director of the Relatives & Residents Association, a national charity for the elderly in care homes and their families. She said the organization’s helpline had been inundated with calls in the past week.
For most people, however, a second day of extreme heat usually meant a second day of disruption. Part of public transport, many offices and some schools remained closed. The government urged people to continue working from home – a call many heeded again on Tuesday – but to keep schools open.
Network Rail, which operates the country’s rail system, has issued a “do not travel” warning for trains passing through areas covered by a “red” warning from the Met Office. The red zone covered an area stretching from London in the north to Manchester and York. Several train companies canceled all services running north from the capital.
Trains are especially affected by intense heat because the infrastructure – rails and overhead wires – is not built to handle triple-digit temperatures. Those who were still running were subject to strict speed limits. The London Underground, most of which is not air-conditioned, has also discontinued part of its service.
Britain’s heat set a scorching backdrop to another big day in the intensifying, still-troubled race to succeed Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and prime minister. A fourth round of voting by conservative lawmakers on Tuesday narrowed the field to three contenders; if only two are left, the winner is chosen between them by a vote of ordinary party members.
Rishi Sunak, the former finance minister, won 118 votes, putting him on the brink of advancing to the next stage. Penny Mordaunt, a little-known junior Secretary of Commerce who has led an unexpectedly vigorous campaign, came in second with 92 votes, while Liz Truss, who serves as Secretary of State, came in third with 86 votes.
With no candidate gaining momentum and the three survivors relatively close in the vote, analysts said it was impossible to predict which two would come out of the next round of voting on Wednesday. After the party vote, in early September, the new leader and prime minister will be announced.
There was a sense, with the uncertainty and shattered heat records, that British politics and the weather are entering uncharted territory at the same time.
Rarely did a political campaign seem less tied to daily reality. Climate change has hardly played a role in the debate among the candidates. To the extent that is the case, the candidates have only offered qualified support to Britain adhering to its goal of reaching “net zero” in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
“What it reveals is the divide between politicians and the public,” said Tom Burke, chairman of E3G, an environmental think tank, and former government adviser. “The recent succession of weather events has confirmed the science in the public mind, but politicians, especially on the right, don’t understand that.”
Mr Burke said the Conservative candidates promised a smaller government, lower taxes and less regulation. Any effective climate policy, he said, would require stricter regulation, state intervention and somewhat higher taxes.
Britain is of course not the only county where climate policy has clashed with fears of pressure on the cost of living. In Washington, Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat from West Virginia, cited rising inflation as a major reason he refused to agree with fellow Democrats and the White House on a comprehensive climate package.
“The cost of living crisis is really an excuse for doing nothing,” said Mr Burke.
Britain may be a microcosm of the climate crisis, but it is being fed across Europe in countless other ways.
In France, authorities responded to this week’s dangerous conditions with warnings and emergency plans, hoping to prevent a repeat of the devastating death toll the country suffered during a heat wave in 2003. Some 15,000 people died in August of that year. including many elderly residents in non-air-conditioned retirement homes, which shocked the public and fueled anger against a government it perceived as ill-prepared.
In Greece, thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate their homes on Tuesday as a wildfire swept through forest areas north of Athens. Although temperatures were not unusually high, dry conditions and strong winds sparked dozens of wildfires, the largest in the area of Mount Penteli, northeast of Athens.
In the Netherlands, workers sprayed water on mechanical drawbridges across Amsterdam’s canals to prevent the metal in them from expanding, according to The Associated Press. That can block the bridges and block shipping traffic.
Amid all the sweltering heat, there was a promise of relief: Forecasters across Europe said the heat would ease by the middle of the week. Some showers were expected in Britain and temperatures were set to drop and remain below 80 Fahrenheit across most of the country on Wednesday.
Reporting contributed by: Megan Special and Euan Ward in London, Aurelien Breeden and Constant Meheut in Paris, and Niki Kitsantonis in Athens.