Amber heat health alerts have been issued for most of England as temperatures are forecast to soar into the mid-30Cs again this week. The alerts cover the East Midlands, East of England, Yorkshire and the Humber, London, North West, South East, South West, and West Midlands, while a yellow alert has been issued for the North East. The alerts are in place from Tuesday August 11 at 9am until Friday August 14 at 9pm.
Heat to peak on Thursday
The Met Office said it expected temperatures to climb into the mid-30Cs later in the week, after a relatively cool day on Monday, with the heat peaking on Thursday. The hot and dry conditions have already led to drought across half of England and all of Wales, with 23 million customers facing hosepipe bans as rivers and reservoirs run low.
An 18-year-old died after getting into difficulty in the sea at Camber Sands beach, East Sussex, on Sunday, bringing the number of deaths in open-water incidents over the hot, dry summer to more than 40, according to Press Association estimates.
More areas expected to be declared in drought
The National Drought Group, made up of government and agency officials, water companies and farming leaders, is meeting again on Monday, with more areas of England expected to be declared in drought. Farmers have warned of a “brutal harvest” for crops and a lack of feed for livestock.
Major wildfires have hit areas such as the Pennines, the Cairngorms in Scotland, Llanwonno in the Rhondda Valleys, South Wales, and Dunwich Heath in Suffolk, as firefighters have been forced to grapple with hundreds of blazes.
Record-breaking summer
The extreme dry conditions this summer have combined with multiple heatwaves, including record-breaking heat for the time of year in May and June that led to more than 2,800 excess deaths. The UK is increasingly struggling with the impact of more extreme weather such as drought, heatwaves and wildfires, fuelled by climate change which is mostly caused by burning fossil fuels.
Parts of the UK are now facing their fifth heatwave of the summer – although some areas such as Exeter have seen temperatures remain above regional heatwave thresholds in between spikes of heat. But the Met Office said it did not anticipate issuing amber or red alerts for dangerous heat, as the conditions would be dry, and not humid – which raises the risk to human health – as they were in late June when a rare red alert was activated.
Rain not enough to make a dent
Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said that, after fresher conditions on Monday, “the heat really comes back in for a time, and will peak on Thursday. We’re expecting values to be in the mid 30Cs, and possibly highest in the East.” The heat will add to the already-record number of days in 2026 which have reached 35C or higher.
Although it will be short-lived, the heat will be widespread, with high temperatures seen up into Scotland – which has been hit by heavy rain in recent days. As the weekend arrives, the heat will subside quickly, and low pressure could bring rain into the south, Mr Madge said, but added that it would not be enough to “make a dent” in the shortfall seen until now. “It will be welcome for gardeners and for others, but we’re not going to get a lot of rain and not enough to make up for the shortfall we’ve had over the summer.”
England and Wales have had their driest July in records dating back to 1836, with 19 counties of England seeing no rain for the entire month, provisional statistics have shown. Southern England also had its hottest July on record, while it was the joint hottest July on record for Wales, and the UK and England had their second hottest July, Met Office figures show.
