New heat health alerts are set to come into force as the UK prepares for its fifth heatwave of the year, with scorching temperatures up to 36C expected.
The yellow alerts, issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), will run from 9am on Saturday to 9pm on Tuesday, warning that the hot weather is likely to affect the wellbeing of the population.
Temperature forecast
The Met Office said temperatures will climb through the weekend as heatwave conditions return, with a high of 36C expected in parts of East Anglia and south-east England by Thursday.
There have been two record-breaking heatwaves in May and June, leading to more than 2,800 excess deaths, and two more in July that have fuelled drought and wildfires. The highest temperature of the year so far was 38C recorded at Lingwood in Norfolk on June 28.
There have been 33 days this year when temperatures exceeded 30C somewhere in the UK, and the record of 34 days set in 1995 is likely to be broken next week.
North-south split
Forecasters said the weekend will see a north-south split, with Scotland and Northern Ireland likely to see heavy rain, while England and Wales remain largely dry, sunny, and increasingly warm.
Temperatures could reach 30C on Saturday, climbing into the low 30s in southern and south-east England on Sunday. Highs of up to 30C are possible across parts of England and Wales on Tuesday, increasing to 32C to 34C on Wednesday, with the highest temperatures currently expected on Thursday.
Health alerts and wildfires
The UKHSA has issued yellow heat health alerts for the East Midlands, West Midlands, South East, South West, East of England, Yorkshire and the Humber, and London.
Meanwhile, the National Trust is asking people to sign a petition calling on the Government to make tackling climate change a national mission. This comes after several wildfires broke out in the UK in recent weeks, including large blazes at Dunwich Heath in Suffolk, Headon Warren on the Isle of Wight, Llanwonno in the Rhondda Valleys, South Wales, and the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland.
Fires are likely to become exceptionally severe on Sunday for almost all of the east and south-east of England, according to the Fire Severity Index, whose highest ranking is “exceptional”. The index, which uses Met Office data including rainfall, temperature, and humidity, assesses the severity of a fire if it starts, but does not cover the chances of wildfires occurring.
Reservoir levels drop
Reservoir storage in England has dropped to 69%, down from 72% a week ago and nearly 12 percentage points below the long-term average for the time of year, the Environment Agency said on Friday.
Storage stood at 85% at the end of June, which was the average for that point in the year, but has fallen steadily in recent weeks. Five reservoirs are now classed as having “exceptionally low” levels: Blagdon in Somerset (54% full); Clywedog in Powys, which provides water for central and north-west England (62%); the Dove group of reservoirs in Derbyshire (74%); Hanningfield in Essex (60%); and Wimbleball in Somerset (50%).
Last month was the driest July for England and Wales since records began in 1836, according to provisional figures from the Met Office. Nineteen counties across England recorded effectively no rainfall – 1mm or less – across the whole of the month.
