UK meteorologists, water firms issue warnings as extreme heatwave looms

The UK's meteorological agency on Tuesday issued an "amber" warning for extreme heat while the country's biggest water provider said restrictions loom, as Britain braces for another punishing heatwave later this week.

The warning by the Met Office, covering much of southern England and parts of eastern Wales from Thursday through Sunday, predicts possible impacts to health, transport and infrastructure from the heat.

Temperatures are set to soar to the mid-30s Celsius for several days, it noted.

The sweltering conditions come just weeks after the last heatwave pushed the mercury over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time in Britain.

Climate scientists overwhelmingly agree that carbon emissions from humans burning fossil fuels are heating the planet, raising the risk and severity of droughts, heatwaves, and other extreme weather events.

"Thanks to persistent high pressure over the UK, temperatures will be rising day-on-day through this week and an extreme heat warning has been issued," Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Dan Rudman said in a statement.

Months of exceptionally dry weather across England are taking their toll, with Thames Water -- which supplies London and its surroundings -- the latest water provider to warn of imminent restrictions.

The firm said it is planning to issue a so-called hosepipe ban in the coming weeks "given the long-term forecast" of hot and dry weather for the southeast.

Several other UK water suppliers have already announced similar moves ahead of this week's heatwave, but Thames Water's 15 million customers would make it the most impactful so far.

The Met Office has confirmed it was the driest July in England since 1935, and little or no rain is forecast for most of the parched areas in the short term.

"Water companies are already managing the unprecedented effects of the driest winter and spring since the 1970s," said Peter Jenkins, of Water UK, which represents the industry.

"With more hot, dry weather forecast, it's crucial we be even more mindful of our water use to minimise spikes in demand and ensure there's enough to go around."

The parched conditions have seen wildfires break out near houses, including on the outskirts of London, a relatively rare occurrence in Britain.

In neighbouring France, a "historic" drought currently exacerbated by a third extreme heatwave this summer has seen a spate of wildfires nationwide as well as water restrictions ordered in nearly all its 96 mainland departments.

More than 47,000 hectares have already burnt in France this year, including a record amount in July alone, according to the European Union's satellite monitoring service EFFIS.

On Tuesday, more than 3,000 people in southern France's Aveyron region, including holidaymakers, were evacuated as a fire swept through at least 700 hectares of vegetation without causing any injuries.

Last month one of hottest Julys on record: UN
Geneva (AFP) Aug 9, 2022 - Last month marked one of the three hottest Julys ever recorded, with global temperatures measuring nearly half a degree above average, the United Nations' weather agency said Tuesday.

"The world just had one of the three warmest Julys on record," Clare Nullis, spokeswoman for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), told reporters in Geneva.

Pointing to fresh data from the European monitoring service Copernicus, she said that July 2022 had been slightly cooler than the same month in 2019 and slightly warmer than the one in 2016.

"The difference between the three months is too close to call, so that's why we're saying one of the three warmest," Nullis explained.

Temperatures globally last month were 0.4 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, the WMO said.

And this despite the fact that the weather phenomenon La Nina, which has held the globe in its clutches almost uninterrupted since September 2020, "is meant to have a cooling influence".

Notably, the European summer has seen extreme heatwaves and drought, with low precipitation records broken in some countries, the WMO said.

July 2022 was the hottest month ever recorded in Spain, Nullis said.

Scientists say that recurring heatwaves are a clear marker of global warming.

Last month, the WMO warned that heatwaves like the ones baking western Europe were becoming more frequent and were set to become a new normal in the decades to come.

Despite the stifling heat in Europe and elsewhere, July did not clearly break a global heat record last month, since other areas, including along the western Indian Ocean and much of central Asia and Australia, saw below average temperatures, the agency said.

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Climate change made Britain heatwave 10 times more likely: study
Paris (AFP) July 28, 2022
Climate change caused by human activity made this month's record-shattering heatwave in Britain at least 10 times more likely to occur, according to research released on Friday. Eastern England recorded an all-time high temperature of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Farenheit) and the hot spell sparked fires that destroyed dozens of homes in London. Overall, at least 34 locations in Britain registered record highs on July 20, when the heatwave peaked over western Europe. An internatio ... read more