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Why 100-degree heat is so dangerous in the United Kingdom : NPR


Londoners enjoyed some shade on Tuesday, as the UK recorded its hottest temperature ever.

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Londoners enjoyed some shade on Tuesday, as the UK recorded its hottest temperature ever.

Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

This week, it’s been hotter than ever in the UK.

On Tuesday, parts of Britain hit temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius – or 104 degrees Fahrenheit – first in the recorded history of Great Britain.

The government urged the British at home if possible. Train stations are closed or empty; An airport closed a runway and police closed a highway when the asphalt melted and warped. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said the city’s fire brigade had received 1,600 calls for assistance and firefighters were battling at least a dozen major fires across the city. Residents of Blidworth, a village near Nottingham, was evacuated as 15 fire crews battled a huge blaze on a nearby farm.

“I didn’t expect to see this in my career,” Stephen Belcher, chief scientist at the UK Meteorological Office said.

With much of the US facing its own heatwaveAmericans can easily wonder why the extreme heat is so irritating in the UK

Bottom Line: Because this is not a common occurrence there, the country and its inhabitants are less equipped to deal with the heat, officials and experts say – even with climate change which means extreme days are more likely in the years to come.

Why is the UK more susceptible to heat than the US?

In parts of the United States, temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit are relatively common. In the South and Southwest, it is normal to record temperatures in the triple digits or more dozens of times per year.

By contrast, hot temperatures like those recorded on Tuesday are generally expected in the UK every 100 to 300 years, according to the Met Office.

As a result, infrastructure in the UK – from homes to commercial buildings to train tracks to airport runways – is not always built to withstand high temperatures.

“It can be difficult for people to make the best decisions in these situations, because nothing in their life experiences tells them what to expect,” said Penny Endersby, chief executive officer at the Met Office, say before the heat wave.

“Here in the UK we often see heat waves as an opportunity to hang out in the sun. This is not the kind of weather. Our lifestyle and infrastructure are not adapted. with what’s to come,” she added.

For example, most homes in the UK do not have air conditioning. The British government estimates that only about 5% of homes have any form of AC – and most places with mobile equipment designed to cool a single room. Meanwhile, nearly 90% of Americans have air conditioning in their homes.

How did this week go?

It’s too early to tell how deadly this week’s heatwave will be. Experts have also warned that many people, potentially thousands, could die from the extreme heat. (After three heatwaves rocked England in the summer of 2020, a government report concludes that the country saw 2,500 more deaths than expected during the heatwave, even after taking into account COVID-19.)

More immediately obvious is the impact on infrastructure. Roads, runways and rail systems in the UK are more vulnerable than in the US

Britain’s national rail service has warned of slower trains and the closure of some routes entirely due to the heat, and a London airport closed a runway for several hours on Monday after The hot sun causes the road surface to warp.

In the east of England, authorities closed a motorway for hours as the heat caused the concrete beneath the asphalt to ripple upwards. “While this ramp may seem appealing to the more adventurous, it turns out to be dangerous.” local police wrote on Twitter.

Like many old roads in Britain, the stretch of the A14 was once paved with concrete, said National Highways, the government-owned company that operates the country’s motorways. It has since been paved, but the concrete underneath couldn’t handle this week’s heat.

“Under extreme heat conditions, a cumulative effect means that the temperature of the concrete under the asphalt has increased in recent days which means that the sections have widened and overwhelmed the tolerances (approx. empty) that we allow for normal expansion,” They write.

Firefighters in Wennington, a parish near London. The Mayor of London said emergency services battled dozens of major fires on Tuesday.

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Firefighters in Wennington, a parish near London. The Mayor of London said emergency services battled dozens of major fires on Tuesday.

Carl Court / Getty Images

Will this happen more often?

Larry Kenney, a professor of physiology at Penn State, says heat waves – their frequency, duration and severity – are a major consequence of climate change. Particularly vulnerable are the elderly, people with heart disease, infants, and people who are physically active in extreme heat such as athletes and military personnel.

“People need to understand that heat is the single most deadly of all weather-related deaths, more than tornadoes, hurricanes, everything else combined,” Kenney told NPR. .

All that means this week’s UK temperatures are unlikely to be a one-off. As the planet warms, the likelihood of such extreme temperatures could be 10 times higher, or more, Met Office says.

Belcher, the agency’s lead scientist, said: “Research carried out here at the Met Office has demonstrated that it is virtually impossible for the UK to experience 40 degrees Celsius in an uninterrupted climate, ” said Belcher, the agency’s lead scientist.

“If we continue to follow a high emissions scenario, we could see temperatures like this every three years,” he said.

Lauren Sommer of NPR contributed reporting.





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