Sunrise today in London as temperatures are set to rise to 40 degrees
(Picture: Jeremy Selwyn)London on Monday baked in a potentially record-breaking heatwave as “really ferocious” temperatures took their toll on the transport network, offices, schools and hospitals.
About half of Tube lines were shut or suffering severe restrictions, rail companies advised against travel and the London Ambulance Service (LAS) pleaded with Londoners to only call 999 in a “genuine emergency”.
With the capital hotter than the Western Sahara and amid predictions of a 40C hottest day in the UK, many followed advice to stay in the shade and work from home.
In key developments:
- Some schools rejected government advice to remain open and told pupils to stay at home.
- The LAS said it expected to receive up to 8,000 emergency calls today, 2,500 more than a “normal” busy day.
- Health chiefs said they would do all they could to avoid patients getting stuck in ambulances outside hospitals.
- Tube bosses shut the Hammersmith and City line as the Jubilee, Central and District lines suffered “severe delays”.
- Londoners faced a sleepless night with temperatures staying above 23C.
- Police searching for a missing 13-year-old boy who got into trouble in a river near Ovingham, Northumberland, found a body.
Chief executive of the Met Office Professor Penelope Endersby said while today “may well see the hottest day in the UK in history”, Tuesday could be even hotter, with some forecasts estimating highs of 43C.
Forecasters said temperatures would ease from Wednesday but admitted heatwaves could become a “regular occurrence”.
Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse said the UK had a “difficult 48 hours coming”, with the record 38.7C temperature recorded in Cambridge three years ago almost certain to be broken. Mr Malthouse, who was due to chair a third Cobra emergency committee this afternoon, was challenged when he claimed the country was “quite well prepared”.
He said Britons should be “concerned and sensible” but added: “This is a really ferocious heat that we have not seen before in this country.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who hosted a leaving party at Chequers on Sunday and did not take part in the first two Cobra briefings, was accused of having “clocked off”.
Labour frontbencher Lisa Nandy told Sky News: “We think the Government ought to do a number of things: first is to turn up to work.”
Paul Davies, chief meteorologist at the Met Office, said the rising temperatures were “entirely consistent” with climate change.
Mr Davies told Sky News: “I’ve been a meteorologist for about 30 years and I’ve never seen the [weather] charts I’ve seen today. As a meteorologist, to see the brutality of the heat we’re expecting tomorrow is quite astounding.
“It does worry me a lot, and my colleagues here at the Met Office, that this sort of unprecedented heat could become a regular occurrence by the end of the century.”
Professor Hannah Cloke, a natural hazards researcher at the University of Reading, said the Met Office’s red warning for extreme heat — covering an area from London to York — was a “wake-up call” about the climate emergency.
She said: “We have had heatwaves in the UK before but the intensity of heat that has been forecast, which will either break UK records or at least get very close, is enough to kill people and animals, damage property and hobble the economy.
“Even as a climate scientist who studies this stuff, this is scary. This feels real. At the start of the week I was worried about my goldfish getting too hot. Now I’m worried about the survival of my family and my neighbours.”
Mayor Sadiq Khan cancelled plans to attend the opening of the Barking Riverside extension on the London Overground and warned that even cycling should only be considered for short journeys. “Extreme temperatures pose a danger to all Londoners, no matter how fit and healthy,” Mr Khan said.
Network Rail warned passengers to expect a “very reduced train service and delays” on Monday and Tuesday, when the East Coast Main Line would also be closed. This was due to concern that tracks would warp in the intense heat.
There will be no Thameslink or Great Northern services on Tuesday to or from King’s Cross or Moorgate. The Gatwick Express was also axed. On the West Coast main line, Avanti said a shortage of train crew and the extreme weather meant fewer trains. Chiltern Railways reduced services to one train an hour between Marylebone and Birmingham, and to Oxford and Aylesbury.
On the Tube, speed restrictions were imposed on overground sections of the Bakerloo, Central, District, Jubilee and Metropolitan lines, causing severe delays and partial line closures. The Elizabeth line suffered delays on its branches to Heathrow and Reading, and between Liverpool Street and Shenfield.
Dr Thomas Waite, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said the risks extended to people even seeking to use “common sense” to stay well.
He told Radio 4’s Today: “The majority of severe illness that we see in heatwaves is heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular illness. That is because people who have underlying heart and lung conditions are working really very hard. You need more blood near your skin in order to cool down. That makes your blood pressure drop, then your heart has to pump quite a lot harder.”
He said the “combination of blood pumping to your skin and losing fluid and salt” increases the risk of heat exhaustion, with symptoms including dizziness, muscle cramps, and sometimes nausea, vomiting and excessive sweating.
“But that is reversible by moving people to a cool place and getting them to lie down and drink plenty of water. Usually most people will improve over 30 minutes,” he said.
“It’s quite different to heat stroke, which is a medical emergency, when people become very, very hot and dry. They stop sweating and their temperature might rise above 40C, and maybe become confused and sometimes have seizures. That is a reason to phone 999.”
