Credit @Tomer Burg
The UK has just set a provisional new May heat record with 35.0C recorded in West London, exceeding the 34.8C reached yesterday. France has also seen record breaking heat with 36C recorded in the country’s southwest on Monday as a heat dome sits across much of western Europe.
Friederike Otto, Professor of Climate Science, Imperial College London said:
“This record-breaking heat has the fingerprints of climate change all over it. Temperatures on this scale were once exceptional even at the height of summer. Seeing 35C in the UK during spring is absolutely astonishing, but the science is very clear – climate change makes these heatwaves hotter, longer, and far more frequent.
The climate we are living in today is simply not the one we grew up with, and our buildings and infrastructure are woefully unprepared for what’s next. While we have made some progress in cutting emissions, it is not fast enough. Temperature records will continue to tumble until we fundamentally halt global emissions and reach net zero.”
Dr Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, Lecturer at the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London said:
“This exceptional spring heatwave is far more than an uncomfortable disruption to our sleep, work, or study. For vulnerable groups without access to cooling – particularly the elderly, the very young, and those with underlying health conditions – these temperatures are quite simply dangerous, and potentially fatal.
“Early-season heatwaves are especially hazardous because our bodies have not had time to acclimatise. Our modeling estimates that we could see more than 250 additional deaths during this heatwave in England and Wales. This aligns with a broader analysis we conducted across 854 European cities last summer which revealed that heat caused thousands of preventable deaths – with two-thirds of those fatalities driven directly by the additional heat from climate change.”
With the UK Climate Change Committee recently warning that the UK is not prepared for climate impacts, the summer ahead could simply be a staggering one: with infrastructure at risk of failing, lives put at risk; and food and water security being threatened.
The climate crisis is here now. The UK Government would do well to listen to the local communities up and down the country who are up in arms asking for a televised national climate emergency briefing to address the threats and risks posed by the rise in extreme weather impacts.
Climate Thoughts with Brian 