Today's measurement of 36.6 degrees is the highest in an unbroken daily record set that dates back to 1815. Meteorological records commenced at the Radcliffe Observatory, at the University of Oxford, in 1772; an unbroken daily air temperature record exists from November 1813, daily rainfall from January 1827 and sunshine from February 1880.
These are the longest single-site weather records in the United Kingdom, and among the longest in the world: they are especially valuable because the instruments in use and their exposure have been fully documented throughout.
Elsewhere, Downing Street said the NHS is “coping well” with the extreme heat, and no deaths have been reported centrally at this stage. Asked for an update on the heatwave, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “They had the Cobra meeting today where they received updates from relevant public sector teams across things like health, transport and schools.
“We haven’t as yet seen significant impacts affecting those areas. There’s no indication of mass closures of schools, for example, the NHS is coping well, and obviously there are additional mitigations in place, and Network Rail and others have already taken some mitigations with some reduced service and speed limits in place.”
On fatalities, he said there were “none that have been reported to us centrally at this point”, but that is not to say there have not been any.
