Record Temperatures and Rising Emergency Calls
Health chiefs are warning of the impact the heatwave is having on services as they face significantly more life-threatening emergency calls with record-breaking temperatures continuing to scorch the country. Rare red warnings remain in place on Friday after Thursday provisionally became the UK's hottest June day on record, with 36.7C recorded in Merryfield, Somerset. Temperatures could reach 36C in London and 35C in Manchester on Friday, with Belfast and Cardiff looking at potential highs of 26C.
School Closures and Hospital Critical Incidents
Schools and nurseries have been forced to close, and a hosepipe ban has been brought in for Kent amid surging demand. Several hospitals have declared critical incidents, with University Hospital Southampton being forced to cancel a number of planned operations and some outpatient appointments.
The London Ambulance Service (LAS) responded to its highest number of life-threatening emergencies ever on Wednesday, and its chief operating officer Craig Harman said he expects “demand to grow day on day over the next couple of days.” As football fans prepare to cheer on England in Saturday's World Cup game, Mr Harman has told people to drink alcohol responsibly, drinking “plenty of water” in between alcoholic beverages.
Impact on Health Infrastructure
Dr Hilary Williams, clinical vice-president of the Royal College of Physicians, told Today the intense heat exposes how poor the infrastructure of the health service is. “When you go round hospitals, very, very few hospitals are new,” she said. “We've kind of bolted things in car parks, we've added an extra wing on here, we've changed a corridor into a ward, and those places just aren't coping with the demands of extreme heat. The patients are far too hot. We're hearing reports of elderly care wards way over 30C.” Dr Williams also said some critical machinery, such as MRI scanners and linear accelerators that treat cancer, have gone down due to the heat.
Jason Killens, LAS chief executive, reiterated on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that extreme heat can affect anyone, not just those with existing health conditions. “To coin a phrase, we've thrown the kitchen sink at this week,” he said. “All non-essential training, non-essential meetings have been cancelled. Clinical colleagues who aren't routinely deployed on the front line have been deployed back on the front line.”
Warnings for Wimbledon and Travel Disruptions
A hospital close to where the Wimbledon tennis championships begin on Monday has issued a warning that it may face increased demand for emergency services. Nicola Shopland, chief nurse at St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London, said: “Wimbledon brings people together and we're so lucky to have it on our doorstep – we want people to enjoy it but also be safe by taking simple actions such as staying hydrated, keeping cool and wearing sunscreen.”
Train passengers are being urged to avoid non-essential travel across much of England on Friday, with Network Rail saying services operating in the Met Office's red and amber zones should only be used “if absolutely necessary.” The cells at Bristol Crown Court have been closed due to the heat, with defendants moved to Bristol Magistrates' Court where it was thought to be cooler.
Energy and Weather Outlook
Meanwhile, the National Energy System Operator (Neso) said electricity supplies may be squeezed on Friday. Neso, which is tasked with making sure the supply of electricity matches demand for it, issued a so-called electricity margin notice for between 7pm and 10pm, asking for 700 megawatts of power generation as a buffer to cover an expected shortfall in electricity margins. It is the second time this week Neso has issued a call for more power, having done the same on Wednesday. However, the grid operator cancelled the warning shortly after 2pm on Wednesday, indicating it was confident in power supply levels for the evening.
The Met Office extended its red warning until 9pm on Friday for London and parts of east and South East England, stretching across Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire, Hampshire and Kent – the first time it has issued red heat warnings over three consecutive days. An amber heat warning is in place for a wider area on Friday, running to midnight and taking in the East Midlands, East of England, North West, South West, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber. Swathes of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland face yellow warnings for thunderstorms on Friday.
Annie Shuttleworth, a Met Office meteorologist, said eastern England is expected to see the highest temperatures on Friday but things will “finally cool down this weekend.” Wales saw its hottest June day on record on Thursday, with 35.9C recorded in Cardiff, while Northern Ireland saw the previous record high for June matched after a temperature of 30.8C was reached in Castlederg.
The current heatwave is driven by a “heat-dome” – an area of high pressure that stalls over a region and traps heat – settling over western Europe and bringing extreme conditions across the continent. Human-driven climate change, mostly caused by burning fossil fuels, is making such extreme heatwaves more frequent and intense.
