UK Declares National Emergency as Record Temperatures Predicted

On Friday, weather forecaster office of the UK declared a national emergency as record red ‘extreme heat’ temperatures were predicted for most parts of England for Monday and Tuesday of next week.

“Exceptional, perhaps record-breaking, temperatures are likely on Monday, then again on Tuesday,” the Met Office said on their website.

“Nights are also likely to be exceptionally warm for the UK, especially in urban areas. This is likely to lead to widespread impacts on people and infrastructure,” it was announced.

The UK Health Security Agency body and the Met Office earlier this week issued a level 3 heat-health alert for some parts of the country, which requires social and healthcare services to take extra precautions to protect the vulnerable.

The red, level 4 alert is defined on the Met office website as being reached “when a heatwave is so severe and/or prolonged that its effects extend outside the health and social care system. At this level, illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy and not just in high-risk groups.

The highest ever recorded temperature in Britain was 38.7C (102 Fahrenheit) recorded in Cambridge University Botanic Garden on July 25, 2019.

Hannah Cloke, climate expert at the University of Reading said “It’s harder to cope with these types of record temperatures in the UK because we’re just not used to them,” referring to the country’s generally temperate, damp climate.

Global warming causes record temperatures

The long-term warming of the planet’s overall temperature has been persistent for a long time, and its stride has significantly increased in the last hundred years due to the burning of fossil fuels.

This has resulted in the greenhouse effect during which the sun’s rays penetrate the atmosphere and heat reflected off the surface cannot escape back into space.

Global warming presented the climate change problem leading to changes in weather patterns and growing seasons around the world; sea level rises are caused by the expansion of warmer seas and melting ice sheets and glaciers.

Global warming causes climate change, which poses a serious threat to life on earth in the forms of widespread flooding and extreme weather comprised of high temperatures.

Much of Europe is baking in a heat wave that has pushed temperatures into the mid-40s Celsius in some regions with wildfires raging across tinder-dry countries in Portugal, Spain, France and Croatia on Thursday.