Extract from ABC News
A major incident has been declared in London as a number of fires burn across the city's outskirts due to record temperatures as a heatwave continues to hit Europe.
Key points:
- Mass electricity outages have been reported across London
- The record-breaking heat in the UK has caused train tracks to warp in parts
- Fires are burning on the outskirts of London
The mercury hit 40 degrees Celsius for the first time in UK history on Tuesday, forcing train tracks to buckle and fuelling a spate of fires across London.
The Met Office said the provisional record, which still needed to be confirmed, was recorded near midday at London's Heathrow Airport, surpassing the previous high of 38.7C recorded in 2019.
Stephen Belcher at the Met Office said he had not expected to see such temperatures in Britain in his career.
"Research conducted here at the Met Office has demonstrated that it's virtually impossible for the UK to experience 40C in an undisrupted climate, but climate change driven by greenhouse gases has made these extreme temperatures possible," he said.
With temperatures still rising, train routes from London up the east and west coast of the country were cancelled, electricity companies reported mass outages, and normally busy city centres appeared quiet. Network Rail tweeted a number of pictures showing large bends and kinks in rail tracks.
To the east of the capital, a large fire engulfed homes in the village of Wennington, with flames tearing across neighbouring tinder-dry fields and approaching a historic church.
Elsewhere, large grass areas around the capital were ablaze, blowing smoke over major roads and nearby areas.
London Fire Brigade declared a major incident and urged people to stop having barbecues.
Britain, which can struggle to maintain key transport services in extreme heat or snow, had been put on a state of national emergency over the unprecedented temperatures.
Transport Minister Grant Shapps said there had been a considerable amount of travel disruption.
Hottest-ever night before Tuesday scorcher
On Tuesday morning, millions of people in Britain woke from the country's warmest-ever night, with provisional figures showing the temperature remained above 25C overnight in parts of the country for the first time.
Met Office forecaster Rachel Ayers said Tuesday's highs would be "unprecedented".
A huge chunk of England, from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north, is under the country's first warning of "extreme" heat, meaning there is a danger of death even for healthy people, as the hot, dry weather that has scorched mainland Europe for the past week moved north.
The temperature on Monday reached 38.1C at Santon Downham in eastern England, just shy of the highest-ever temperature recorded in Britain — 38.7C, a record set in 2019 in Charlwood, which Tuesday has surpassed.
Average July temperatures in the UK range from a daily high of 21C to a night-time low of 12C, and few homes or small businesses have air conditioning.
At least five people were reported to have drowned across the UK — in rivers, lakes and reservoirs — while trying to cool off.
Elderly are particularly vulnerable
Portugal has reported more than 1,000 deaths due to the current heatwave, with top health officials warning that the country must gear up to cope with the effects of climate change as temperatures continue to rise.
"Portugal … is among one of the areas of the globe that could be [more] affected by extreme heat," according to the head of Portugal's health authority.
"We have to be more and more prepared for periods of high temperatures."
A researcher at Lisbon University's faculty of sciences, said the data showed those most likely to die due to heatwaves were elderly people.
He said the number of deaths in the future would depend, among other things, on the preventive measures people would adopt to protect themselves, how care homes would tend to their residents, and the adaptation of infrastructures.
High temperatures, as well as the ongoing drought and poor forest management have been blamed for several wildfires sweeping across Portugal.
'We have nothing'
As wildfires raged across Portugal, Spain and France, authorities warned there was a risk of more as tinder-dry conditions persisted.
Spain was facing the last day of a more than week-long heatwave, which has caused more than 510 heat-related deaths, according to estimates from the Carlos III Health Institute.
In Tabara, locals said the driver of the excavator — a man they identified as Angel Martin Arjona — had been trying to dig a trench between the fire and buildings.
But orange flames surrounded the vehicle.
TV footage showed him emerging from the blaze, tripping, then scrambling to his feet as people shouted out to him and a firefighter ran up to help.
The driver was airlifted to hospital with burns, witnesses said, though there were no detailed reports on his condition.
In El Pont de Vilomara in Catalonia, evacuees gathered outside a civic centre, among them retiree Onofre Munoz, 69, who said that his home and van had been completely destroyed.
ABC/wires
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