UK heatwave live: Travel updates as temperature set to hit 41C

UK weather news live: Heatwave causes travel chaos ALREADY as schools close on ‘hottest day EVER’ with temperatures expecting to hit 41C… as Brits told to look after elderly

Here, follow MailOnline’s liveblog for all the updates on the weather today as Britain braces for a 41C heatwave: 

Host commentator

An artificial beach is closing today because the sand will be too hot for kids to play on.

The summer, man-made attraction is located at Leicester’s Humberstone Gate shopping area. But officials have deemed it too dangerous as the heatwave reaches a peak.

So they are banning people from using the beach. Funfair rides there are also shutting down.

Deputy city mayor Cllr Piara Singh Clair said: ‘In these extreme temperatures, the sand on our beach would be far too hot for children to play in.

‘And there’s also a risk that the funfair rides’ generators would over-heat.’

‘In the interests of our customers’ wellbeing, and the safety of our staff, we have decided to close these attractions on Monday and Tuesday.’

Schools are cancelling detentions and sports days because of the heatwave.

Northwood Community Primary School in Kirkby, Merseyside said that sports day had been cancelled on Monday, although ‘children can still attend school in their PE kits until the end of term’.

And King Charles I School, a secondary school in Worcestershire, has cancelled all on-site detentions on Monday and Tuesday.

1) 25 July, 2019 – Cambridge Botanic Gardens – 38.7C

2) 10 August, 2003 – Faversham, Kent – 38.5C

3) 31 July, 2020 – Heathrow, London – 37.8C

4) 03 August 1990 – Cheltenham, Gloucestershire – 37.1C

5) 01 July 2015 – Heathrow, London – 36.7C

6) 09 August 1991 – Raunds, Northumberland – 36.7C

7) 02 August 1990 – Worcester, Worcestershire – 36.6C

8) 19 July 2006 – Wisley, Surrey – 36.5C

9) 07 August 2020 – Kew Gardens and Heathrow, London – 36.4C

10) 06 August 2003 – Gravesend, Kent – 36.4C

Temperatures are rapidly rising – and as of 10.30am are already at 28C (83F).

But that hasn’t stopped this topless paddleboarder enjoying a spot of early morning watersports.

He was seen cruising along the River Thames today. But he came prepared – with a bottle of squash strapped to the front of his board!

The Met Office has warned that temperatures could rise even further to 43C (109F) tomorrow.

Its chief executive Penny Endersby confirmed ‘we may well see the hottest day in the UK in history’ today – beating the record of 38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in July 2019 – but tomorrow is now expected to be even hotter.

Professor Endersby told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning: ‘We think today we may well see the hottest day in the UK in history, with the hottest temperatures in the South East, but actually the highest temperatures we expect tomorrow, and those temperatures will be further north as that warm air pushes north. 

‘It’s tomorrow that we’re really seeing the higher chance of 40C and temperatures above that. Even possibly above that… 41C isn’t off the cards. We’ve even got some 43Cs in the model but we’re hoping it won’t be as high as that.’

The ‘crumbling’ NHS estate is full of buildings that cannot adapt to the challenges of the heatwave, the chief executive of NHS Confederation has said.

Matthew Taylor told Sky News the health service will ‘pull out all the stops’ to keep running over the coming days but warned that ongoing ‘capacity issues’ will make it harder to bounce back.

‘We’ve been given advice in the NHS, we’ll do all that we can, but the problem is this is about resilience, isn’t it?

‘And the NHS has more than 2,000 vacancies, it’s got an estate that is crumbling, so many are not the kind of buildings that have got the adaptability to these kinds of challenges.

‘We’ll do our best but, as we learned during Covid, what’s really important is that we have resilient public services that have the capacity to respond to problems like this, and the NHS will absolutely pull out all the stops and will do all it can, but to be truly resilient we have to address those capacity issues.’

Summer of 99s? Not if councils have a say! Curbs on diesel vans running their engines could make the seaside favourite harder to get, experts warn

The tinkling chimes of a Mr Whippy van have long been a fixture of British summers.

But curbs on the vans running their diesel engines to keep the ice cream soft enough to serve could make the beloved 99 harder to come by, it has emerged.

Organisers of festivals and fairgrounds are increasingly asking vendors to switch off engines to limit fumes and wasted fuel. Councils are also making similar demands over lucrative pitches in parks and at sea fronts, The Sunday Times reported.

With electric-powered ice cream vans costing as much as £180,000, some traditional vendors fear they will have to ditch Mr Whippy and only stock pre-packaged or soft-scoop ice creams.

Katy Alston, president of the trade body Ice Cream Alliance, said 95 per cent of sales in the blazing heat were 99s.

Ice cream van vendors have also warned soaring diesel costs are putting businesses ‘at breaking point’.

Read more by clicking the link (in blue) above

A children’s hospital’s cancer ward was left without air conditioning after the unit failed in hot weather.

Engineers are working to fix the fault which is affecting the chemotherapy area of the Rainbow Ward at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital in Cardiff.

Health chiefs say that if the problem cannot be solved patients will be moved to a different ward to keep cool.

Patients and their families would be offered free ice lollies and ice creams.

A spokesman for the Cardiff and Vale University health board said: ‘Our staff will continue to ensure our patients and visitors are comfortable and well cared for.

‘Noah’s Ark Charity will also kindly be providing cold water and ice lollies for children and families at the Children’s Hospital for Wales.’

Britons share their heatwave misery on Twitter with droves complaining they’re too hot to work or function as temperatures hit 77F before 9am

Twitter has been awash with hilarious memes today, as Britons take to social media to share their takes on the UK heatwave.

Amid the warnings, social media users took to Twitter to complain about the weather, while others took a more light-hearted approach.

Pigs are being covered in suncream to protect them at one of Britain’s biggest country shows.

Farmers are using the suncream to protect the animals’ sensitive skin in the blistering heat at the Royal Welsh Show.

Award-winning pig farmer Ela Mair will be covering her six entrants – including five pedigree Welsh pigs – in cold wet towels to keep them cool.

‘Pigs don’t let out the heat as well as other animals so it is difficult to keep them cool,’ said Ela, 45, of Pwllheli in Gwynedd.

‘We put cold wet towels over them but we need to be careful that the heat doesn’t dry the towels too quickly so it can reheat them.

‘So we’ll be keeping them in the shade as much as possible and keeping the fans on them as much as we can.’

More than 50,000 people are expected every day at the four-day Royal Welsh Show – one of Europe’s biggest agricultural events – and organisers have been told by public health bodies to prepare for the extreme heat.

The Royal Welsh’s chief vet Dafydd Jones admitted the forecast for the show near Builth Wells in Powys was ‘worrying’.

‘Animals suffer like people – if not worse – in extreme heat and with so many animals there, it is very worrying that animals will find it difficult to cope with the heat,’ he said.

Organisers have spent more than £50,000 on extra fans and ventilation in livestock sheds to keep the approximate 8,000 animals as cool as possible while extra water will be available.

Ever wondered what the difference between heat exhaustion and heat stroke is? Doctor Hilary Jones today spoken on ITV’s Good Morning Britain about the signs.

Heat exhaustion is a condition resulting from your body overheating and symptoms may include heavy sweating and a rapid pulse. 

Heat stroke is a more serious condition caused by your body overheating, usually as a result of prolonged exposure to or physical exertion in high temperatures.

This most serious form of heat injury, heatstroke, and can occur if your body temperature rises to 104 F (40 C) or higher.

 

'Heat stroke is much more life-threatening.'@DrHilaryJones explains the symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke and what you need to look out for. pic.twitter.com/e1JiQElPaD

The NHS has shared its advice on how to cope with the hot weather. Health bosses have urged people to try and keep their home cool, to drink plenty of fluids, avoid alcohol and try and keep out of the sun between 11am and 3pm.

More here…

Temperatures are expected to rise quickly over the next few days. There are some little things that can help you stay well:

🏠 Try and keep your home cool
🚰 Drink plenty of fluids and avoid alcohol
🕒 Try to keep out of the sun between 11am to 3pm https://t.co/iB8DjOhBiw

Chief meteorologist at the Met Office Paul Davies said temperatures will ease from next Wednesday onwards but warned another heatwave later in summer could not be ruled out.

Mr Davies told Sky News: ‘When we look to the future in terms of the next week, there is an easier time because in fact the temperatures start to ease back to what we describe as slightly above normal from about Wednesday onwards.

‘But as we move into all this, you just can’t rule out another plume.’

He added that holiday-goers should also check the weather overseas because the heat is likely to be ‘sustainable and pretty intense’ over the course of the month.

People should ‘just take it easy’ during the heatwave, and could go to the beach to avoid the worst of the ‘ferocious’ heat, a Cabinet minister suggested.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Kit Malthouse told Sky News: ‘If you are lucky enough not to be working today and you are going to the beach, obviously I know you will take lots of sun cream and water and an umbrella and all those kinds of things and be sensible.

‘But we need to recognise that there are some people who will not cope well in the heat and what we want is for everybody to look out for them.’

Mr Malthouse defended the idea that people could still go to the beach: ‘Some people may wish to. It will be cooler at the coast than it is at the centre of the country, particularly in the Midlands and in London.

‘But what we are saying to people is that they need to take responsibility for themselves, recognise that this is a really ferocious heat that we haven’t seen in this country before and adapt their behaviour accordingly.’

On the Underground, the District, Central, Bakerloo and Jubilee lines all had severe delays this morning.

The Hammersmith & City Line was completely axed due to ‘heat related restrictions’.

And there was no Metropolitan line between Baker Street and Aldgate. Transport for London told all passengers in the capital to avoid non-essential travel.


What are the signs of heat stroke – and how do you best avoid it? What you need to know to stay safe as heat wave grips Britain

With extreme heat on the way, health officials have warned Britons to look out for signs of heatstroke, heat rash (prickly heat) and heat exhaustion.

Here, the MailOnline looks at the symptoms, how to cool someone down and what to do in an emergency.

Click above (the blue link in the title) to read the article:

Speed restrictions imposed on trains amid fears of rails buckling in the heat could more than double journey times for passengers, the chief spokesman for Network Rail has said.

Kevin Groves told Sky News that trips which typically take two hours could take ‘more than four hours’ as emergency measures have been brought in to prevent trains derailing.

‘Certainly later on today that (buckling) is a strong possibility, which is why, from about midday today through till 8pm tonight, there will be large swathes of England and Wales that will have emergency heat-related speed restrictions placed on the rail network,’ he said.

Mr Groves promised refunds to any passengers who booked journeys on Monday and Tuesday who rearrange travel for later in the week.

‘Our advice to passengers if they can, today and tomorrow, is only travel if it’s really necessary; otherwise try and shift your arrangements to later in the week and you’ll get a full refund,’ he said.

Britain’s scorching heatwave has seen sales of paddling pools rocket by 1,400 per cent this week.

Some parts of the country are set to be over 40C (104F) this week.

Soaring temperatures have prompted Brits to find ways to cool off in the garden.

And new data from Tesco has shown that paddling pools, inflatables and water games have been flying off the shelf.

The supermarket giant revealed it has sold 14 times more paddling pools over the last week than it did the previous week.

Sales of its newly launched inflatable sprinklers and water games rocketed by a staggering 1,568 per cent – equating to 16 times the amount sold the previous week.

But it’s not just garden water games that are in high demand. BBQ sales have also more than doubled week on week, according to Tesco.

Britons have been finding ways to keep cool in today’s 41C heatwave. 

Some early morning swimmers were seen taking a dip in the sea off Penzance, Cornwall, earlier today.

Yesterday people were seen enjoying the hot weather by jumping into water in East London, while thousands were seen packing onto the beach at Margate in Kent.



Chief meteorologist at the Met Office Paul Davies warned Monday night will be ‘very oppressive’ and it will be difficult to sleep in the heat.

The top forecaster said he was ‘really concerned’ about the UK hitting 40 or 41C on Tuesday.

He told Sky News: ‘Tonight will be very oppressive, I mean it’s actually difficult sleeping conditions.

‘And tomorrow is the day where we are really concerned about a good chance now of hitting 40 or 41C, and with that all the health conditions that come with those higher temperatures.’

Cabinet minister Kit Malthouse has urged people to ‘look out for those groups who are most vulnerable to the heat’ – particularly small children and the elderly.

He told LBC Radio ‘people should do the neighbourly thing’ and check on elderly people living nearby to ‘check they are OK, they’ve got access to water, they are keeping themselves cool and looking after themselves’.

‘Hopefully we’ll get through things in good shape,’ he said.

There was likely to be ‘significant disruption’ on the transport network and people should ‘think about working from home’ if they are able to.

He defended the Government’s response, saying the Cobra meetings ‘make sure we are prepared and we are then able to communicate a sensible public safety message’.

Mr Malthouse said France had a heatwave in 2003 and ‘thousands of elderly people did die’ so the UK could ‘learn from that, we are not used to this kind of heat and we just need to make sure that we are sensible and moderate and take care during the next 48 hours’.

Not just the UK: ‘Monster’ fire ravages France where record 44C (111F) temperatures are forecast today

The UK isn’t the only country facing a heatwave today. Across the Channel, extreme heat warnings are in place across the continent’s western flank today, with figures in excess of 104F (40C) predicted all the way from Faro in southern Portugal up to Manchester in the UK. 

Click the title to read more about the situation in Europe today.

All-time records are set to tumble across much of western France with 111F (44C) possible near Bordeaux in what forecasters have branded a ‘heat apocalypse’.

The extreme conditions have sparked dozens of fires, with crews battling a ‘monster’ blaze in Gironde – near Bordeaux – which has forced 16,000 people to evacuated and torched 14,000 acres since it began a week ago.

Meanwhile 36 fires are raging across Spain – two dozen of them out of control – one of which claimed the life of a 62-year-old firefighter on Sunday, burned to death around 60 miles south of Leon after being trapped by flames.

It’s not just humans that need to keep cool in the heatwave – Here Rachel Halliwell explains how we can look after dogs during the high temperatures

You might be looking for ways to keep cool in today’s extreme heat. But pet owners will no doubt be worried about their cats and dogs as well

Click above to read this piece from Rachel Hailliwell about how you can keep your dogs cool in today’s heatwave.

Jake Kelly, spokesman for Network Rail, has warned of travel disruption across the country due to the heatwave, and has warned that services returning to normal on Wednesday ‘will depend on the damage that the weather does to the infrastructure’ over the course of Monday and Tuesday.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Mr Kelly said: ‘Our advice very strongly to customers in England and Wales today and tomorrow is to only travel if absolutely essential, and to expect a very reduced train service and delays.

‘And of course, as your listeners were hearing, on the East Coast mainline, that’s the route from London to destinations like Peterborough, Leeds and York, tomorrow, unfortunately, there won’t be a train service and passengers should not travel.

‘We haven’t taken any of those decisions lightly, but we’ve not been faced with these exceptional temperatures before.’

Looking ahead to the rest of the week, Mr Kelly said: ‘We hope and expect to run a full service on Wednesday and beyond, but that will depend on the damage that the weather does to the infrastructure over the next couple of days. We have lots of plans in place to make sure that we can run.’

Temperatures have already hit 75F (24C) this morning – but that hasn’t stopped some people getting out early for their morning exercise.

This runner was seen jogging across London Bridge this morning, while commuters have also been enjoying a warmer than usual walk to work today.


What is a heatwave?

According to the Met Office, a UK heatwave threshold is met when a location records a period of at least three consecutive days of abnormally warm weather – which is determined by thresholds.

In the UK, heatwaves are most common in summer when high pressure develops across an are and because they are slow moving they can persist over an area for a prolonged period of time.

They can occur in the UK due to the location of the jet stream, which is usually to the north of the UK in the summer. This can allow high pressure to develop over the UK resulting in persistent dry and settled weather.

Heatwaves are described as extreme weather events. However research shows that climate change is making these events more likely.

Click above to find out more about heatwaves on the Met OFfice website

More than a dozen train companies are urging Britons not to travel today and tomorrow as the UK’s first red extreme heat warning comes into force.

A total of 21 operators – ranging from Transport for Wales and Gatwick Express to the Transpennine Express and Southern – said they will be running a slower service on Monday and Tuesday after National Rail implemented speed restrictions across its network.

Speed restrictions are used by train companies during periods of hot weather to avoid any damage being made to the tracks and to prevent rails from buckling.

Cancellations are also in place as temperatures are predicted to soar to highs of 38C and 40C in some parts of England.


How can I keep cool in the UK heatwave?

The first question you might be asking is… ‘so how do I keep cool in this weather?’

Everyone already knows the obvious tricks – cool water, switch on the fan and cracking open the ice lollies.

But today MailOnline has compiled a list of tips and tricks that you might not already know about.

Click above to find out how you can keep yourself cool during today’s scorching weather.

Britain is today set to endure its hottest day on record as temperatures soar hit 106F (41C).

The scorching heat means the UK will be warmer than Nassau in the Bahamas (32C), Kingston in Jamaica (33C), Malaga in Spain (28C), Athens in Greece (35C), Albufeira in Portugal (28C) and Dakhla in the Western Sahara (24C).

First up – Get up-to-date with our early morning story on today’s weather

With the mercury rising, MailOnline has already been busy pulling together the latest updates in our main story of the day so far.

With the UK set to be hotter than the Sahara Desert and the nation facing paralysis, transport links could grind to a halt due to train cancellations and melted roads while bosses have urged employees to work from home.

Health chiefs told patients to stay away unless it is an emergency amid fears hospitals will be overwhelmed, while emergency services urged swimmers to stay away from lakes and rivers in case they face difficulties.

Schools in the likes of Nottinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire will shut while others will close early – and water providers have also warned of shortages after the hottest day of 2022 so far yesterday with 33C (91F) highs.

Click the link (the title) above to read our morning heatwave story.

Good morning – on what is an already a very warm Monday, with temperatures around 75F (24C) as of 8am today.

Later Britain is set to endure its hottest day on record as temperatures soar hit 106F (41C) – with trains already cancelled, GP surgeries and schools closed amid serious health warnings from officials.

Stay tuned to our Live Blog today for all the latest weather and travel updates.

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