The Met Office has issued a second amber weather warning for extreme heat, covering 90 areas across the UK from Wednesday, with warnings that the hot weather could lead to power cuts and disruption to essential services.
Warning Details and Affected Areas
The new amber warning takes effect from midnight on Wednesday and lasts 24 hours until 23:59 on Thursday. Unlike the first warning, which mainly covered southern England, this warning extends across the Midlands, parts of northern England, London, most of southern England, and Wales. Affected areas include Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and all of Wales.
Temperatures are forecast to reach an almost unthinkable 39°C on Tuesday, with hot conditions persisting day and night in affected areas on Wednesday and Thursday.
Potential Impacts and Warnings
The Met Office warned that extreme heat could cause “heat sensitive systems and equipment” to fail, leading to “power cuts and the loss of other services to homes and businesses.” The warning states: “Hot and humid weather is expected to continue through the middle of the week, with exceptionally warm temperatures both day and night.”
“Population-wide adverse health effects are likely to be experienced, not limited to those most vulnerable to extreme heat, leading to potential serious illness or danger to life,” the Met Office said. “Substantial changes in working practices and daily routines likely to be required.”
“Failure of heat-sensitive systems and equipment is likely, with the probable loss of power and other essential services, such as water, electricity, gas or mobile phone services.”
Safety Advice
The Met Office advised: “Keep yourself safe by following these simple steps to reduce the likelihood of the heat making you feel unwell; drink plenty of fluids, keep out of the sun and avoid any exercise between 11am-3pm when the sun is strongest and close curtains in rooms that face the sun. If you are going out take water with you, stay in the shade, wear sunscreen and a wide brimmed hat.”
“People cope better with power cuts when they have prepared for them in advance. It’s easy to do; consider gathering torches and batteries, a mobile phone power pack and other essential items.”
Full List of Affected Areas
The warning covers the following areas: East Riding of Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford and Wrekin, Warwickshire, West Midlands Conurbation, Worcestershire, all Welsh counties (Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey, Merthyr Tydfil, Monmouthshire, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Powys, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Swansea, Torfaen, Vale of Glamorgan, Wrexham), Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Plymouth, Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, Torbay, Wiltshire, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Greater Manchester, Halton, Lancashire, Merseyside, Warrington, Bracknell Forest, Brighton and Hove, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Greater London, Hampshire, Kent, Medway, Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire, Reading, Slough, Southampton, Surrey, West Berkshire, West Sussex, Windsor and Maidenhead, Wokingham, Bedford, Cambridgeshire, Central Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Luton, Norfolk, Peterborough, Southend-on-Sea, Suffolk, Thurrock, Derby, Derbyshire, Leicester, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, and Rutland.
