As the UK braces for its fifth heatwave of the year, with temperatures expected to hit 36C in central and south-east England, bereaved families are issuing an urgent warning about the dangers of open water. At least 40 people have died in water-related incidents since May 24, including a 13-year-old who died in Hornsea last week.
Families share their pain
Simon Haycock, whose 16-year-old son Sam drowned at Ulley Reservoir in Rotherham in May 2021, leads The Mirror's 'Save Lives for Sam' water safety campaign. He said: "I am praying for rain! There's another heatwave coming and the risk and all the dangers of open water still exist and are still as dangerous as ever."
Haycock added: "Please be careful and avoid open water sites. It's still red hot but the danger still exists. Anyone, whether you could swim or not, is in danger. The impact when it does go wrong is absolutely devastating and it literally changes your life forever in the most horrific way."
Vanessa Abbess, whose 17-year-old son Joe died after getting into difficulty off Bournemouth beach in 2023, told The Mirror: "I used to like summer but now it's painful, the multiple drownings are triggering. Every death is a person, a bereaved family, a changed future. We love and miss Joe every single day and he's always in our thoughts and always absent."
Call for action
Both families are urging Prime Minister Andy Burnham to appoint a water safety minister. Haycock said: "I am over the moon about his support but he needs to act now." Abbess pleaded: "Andy Burnham please, please, please listen we need a water safety minister now to save lives."
The hot weather has been described as a 'public health emergency', with drought likely to be declared across more of the UK. Yellow heat health alerts have been issued for most of England until Tuesday, with warnings of impacts for health and social care services and an increased risk to life for vulnerable people.
Record-breaking summer
Temperatures could reach 36C (97F) on Wednesday and Thursday. This summer has seen multiple records broken, with July becoming the sunniest month on record for the UK, as well as the driest July on record for England and Wales. There have so far been 33 days this year when temperatures have exceeded 30C in the UK, and it is likely the record of 34 days, set in 1995, will be broken next week.
For the first time ever, a temperature of 35C has also been recorded somewhere in the UK in three consecutive months: May, June and July. The Met Office's annual "state of the UK climate" report, published last week, described a "historic and unprecedented change" to the UK's climate, with warmer conditions being imported into the south and colder climates in the north shrinking. This man-made climate change has mostly been caused by burning fossil fuels.
Mike Kendon from the Met Office, lead author of the report, said: "We are right now living in a time of historic and unprecedented change, and in terms of temperature, on annual, seasonal, monthly and daily timescales, this evidence shows the climate of the 20th century has now gone."
