UK weather: Temperatures are set to hit 43C on the hottest day in UK history

Britain is on track for its hottest day on record today as temperatures soar towards 40C (104F) amid growing rail travel chaos as schools shut again and millions of people respond to the extreme heat by working from home.

Before noon, temperatures had already hit 37.3C (99.1F) at Charlwood in Surrey and 36.9C (98.4F) at Kew Gardens in West London by 11.30am this morning – with the highs equalling the warmest spots anywhere in Europe today. 

Other UK hotspots this morning included Cambridge at 37C (98.6F) and Woburn in Bedfordshire at 36.1C (97F) – while  36C (96.8F) was hit at London Stansted and Heathrow airports, Lakenheath in Suffolk and in Humberside.

Forecasters said an absolute maximum of 43C (109F) is possible amid a 95 per cent likelihood the all-time record will fall. BBC Weather’s Simon King said the UK record of 38.7C (101.7F) is now expected to be broken ‘just after lunchtime’, adding: ‘There’ll still be a couple of hours of heating after to potentially exceed the 40C. Staggering.’ 

The Met Office also confirmed that last night was the warmest night on record in Britain, with temperatures not falling below 25C (77F) in many areas of England and Wales. The highest overnight minimum in the UK last night was 25.9C (78.6F) at Emley Moor in West Yorkshire, while it was 25.8C (78.4F) at Kenley in Croydon, South London.

This smashed the previous record of 23.9C (75F) in Brighton set on August 3, 1990. It comes one day after Wales had its hottest day ever with 37.1C (99F) in Hawarden, Flintshire – beating a record set in the same village in 1990. 

The mercury peaked in the UK at 38.1C (100.6F) in Suffolk yesterday, making it the hottest day of 2022 and the third hottest on record, after 38.7C (101.7F) in Cambridge in July 2019 and 38.5C (101.3F) in Kent in August 2003.

Network Rail and train operators upgraded their travel advice for services heading north out of London into the red warning area to ‘do not travel’, saying there will be no services in or out of London King’s Cross all day today. 

The heat has brought major rail chaos for commuters around the capital, with no Thameslink or Great Northern trains running in any location north of London, from Blackfriars via St Pancras, or from King’s Cross or Moorgate.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told people across Britain today to ‘apply common sense’ and ‘depending on the nature of your journey and reason for it, you might want to consider rearranging your day around it’. 

But the sight of parts of the UK shutting down sparked a backlash, with complaints that ministers and health chiefs were ‘acting like nanny’ – while holidaymakers were delayed yesterday as a part of runway at Luton Airport melted.

Today, the Supreme Court in London was closed to visitors because of the heat and an air-conditioning fault. A sign was posted at the building’s entrance explaining the problem, although hearings could still be viewed online. 

But the extreme heat is likely to end with a bang tomorrow, with the Met Office issuing a thunderstorm warning for between 1pm and 9pm across the South East amid concerns of sudden flooding, lightning strikes and power cuts. Forecasters said up to 1.2in (30mm) of rain could fall in some areas in just an hour and 2in (50mm) in three hours. 

Before then, with the UK’s first ever red warning for extreme heat still predicted to see the 40C (104F) barrier broken for the first time ever this afternoon, normal life was on hold in parts of the country as:

• At least 171 schools closed, with teachers claiming learning was impossible in sweltering classrooms;
• Hospitals cancelled appointments and non-urgent operations as operating theatres turned into ovens;
• Royal Mail workers were told to return to sorting offices with undelivered mail amid fears they would fall ill;
• Experts recommended avoiding the beach and holding off exercising until the extreme heat has passed;
• Commuter numbers on roads and railways were down by up to a fifth, and tracks on some lines buckled;
• There was a spate of water-related tragedies, including a 13-year-old boy’s body pulled from the River Tyne;
• A 50-fold increase in demand for fans alongside a boom for bottled water, ice lollies and canned cocktails;
• Water companies raised the prospect of hosepipe bans amid fears of a summer drought.

LNER will run no trains from south of York and south of Leeds to King’s Cross – and Southern, Southeastern, South Western Railway and Great Western Railway are among the operators running significantly reduced services.

On the London Underground, there was no Hammersmith & City line, no Metropolitan line between Baker Street and Aldgate due to ‘heat-related speed restrictions’, and severe delays on the Central and District lines.

There was also no Overground between Willesden Junction and Richmond or Romford and Upminster, while there were delays on other Overground lines, the Jubilee line and the western and eastern parts of the Elizabeth line.

In the West End, Oxford Circus station was closed this morning while London Fire Bridgade crews investigated what they said were ‘reports of smoke issuing from an escalator machine room on the northbound Victoria line’. 

Transport for London said London’s rail network will be running a reduced service throughout today due to safety restrictions put into place to deal with the heat, and Gatwick Express trains were completely suspended.

Network Rail had previously warned customers to travel only if ‘absolutely necessary’ today. It said the hottest rail track was 62C (143F) in Suffolk yesterday – where the air temperature was 38.1C (100.6F). Merseyrail said the number of trains running and journey times will be ‘seriously affected’, with some routes shut.

East Midlands Railway is running limited services between Derby, Nottingham, Luton, Bedford and London, which will stop completely between lunchtime and 7pm – the hottest period of the day.

There are limited and disrupted services running into and out of London Euston – on Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Railway – and London Marylebone with Chiltern Railway, according to Network Rail.

Met Office meteorologist Annie Shuttleworth told how it was ‘extraordinarily unusual’ to see temperatures in the 30Cs by the morning rush-hour in the UK.

She added: ‘It’s looking pretty likely a new record is broken today. We’re looking at the maximum temperatures somewhere between 40C to 41C, and that’s looking to be across the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire region.’

Forecaster Rachel Ayers added: ‘There are likely to be delays on roads, with road closures, as well as possible delays and cancellations to trains and maybe issues with air travel. This could pose a significant health risk to those stuck on services or roads during the heat.’

Figures published by location technology firm TomTom show the level of road congestion at 9am today was lower in several cities than at the same time last week.

In Birmingham, congestion levels fell from 48 per cent on July 12 to 32 per cent. In Bristol, congestion levels were down from 46 per cent to 42 per cent. In London, levels fell from 60 per cent to 44 per cent. In Manchester, it declined from 59 per cent to 44 per cent.

The data shows the proportion of extra time required for journeys compared with free-flow conditions.

Forecasters and NHS leaders have warned that thousands of people – even those who are fit and healthy – could die during the ‘ferocious’ heatwave, urging them to do ‘as little as possible’.

But in a furious backlash, senior Tory MPs claimed people were becoming ‘frightened of the heat’. Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘Great British common sense should be allowed to prevail’.

‘I long for the day when the Government stops acting like Nanny telling everyone what to do, every institution panicking and the BBC telling us we’re all going to die,’ he said yesterday.

‘If it’s very hot, just give people advice – wear a hat, wear sun lotion, drink a lot of liquid. If you go to Italy or France, they don’t just stop everything because it’s hot.’

Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Common Sense group of backbench Tory MPs, said we were entering ‘a cowardly new world where we live in a country where we are frightened of the heat’.

‘It is not surprising that in snowflake Britain, the snowflakes are melting,’ he added. ‘Thankfully, most of us are not snowflakes.’

Former Tory Health Minister Edwina Currie warned against ‘too much hectoring’. She called on the Government to promote ‘more positive messages’ in hot weather, such as going to work and school early in the morning and ‘having a siesta’ to stay out of the sun.

Former Northern Ireland First Minister Dame Arlene Foster branded the warnings ‘Government over-reach’, add-ing that ‘all of this started with Covid regulations’.

She told BBC Politics Live people now ‘expect the Government to tell them how to live their lives, which I think is absolutely wrong’.

Tory donor and Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins claimed the push to stay away from work due to hot weather risked damaging an already fragile economy.

‘The only reason they want to be at home is so they can sit in the sun,’ he told Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 show. ‘It’s another excuse. Just go to work, get on with your job.

‘If we put up with this, we’re going to open the floodgates for all the snowflakes. They’re not going to come to work, whether it’s too foggy, too wet, too rainy, windy, (or) storms are coming.’

Scotland and Northern Ireland also experienced their warmest days of the year so far yesterday with 31.3C (88.3F) recorded in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, and 31.1C (88F) in Derrylin, County Fermanagh.

After Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab urged the country to ‘enjoy the sunshine’ and be ‘resilient enough through some of the pressures it will place’, beaches were thronged yesterday. 

Meanwhile commuter numbers plummeted across England – with a corresponding rise in visitor numbers to sea-side resorts.

It suggested that millions of people had heeded Cabinet Office Minister Kit Malthouse, who said ‘this may be a moment to work from home’ – or taken the day off altogether.

After more than a dozen train firms advised passengers to travel only if it is ‘absolutely necessary’, Network Rail said the number using major stations across Britain yesterday was around 20 per cent down on the week before.

Rail tracks buckled in London’s Vauxhall in the heat – resulting in a safety inspection on the line that caused disruption between Waterloo and Clapham Junction. 

And operator Great Northern said a buckled rail at Watlington in Norfolk meant services could not run between Cambridge and Kings Lynn.

Today, Mr Shapps said issues on the rails and roads will continue for decades during extreme heatwaves.

Asked how long it will take to upgrade existing rail infrastructure to be more resilient, he told Sky News: ‘Decades, actually, to replace it all. Ditto with Tarmac on the roads.

‘There’s a long process of replacing it and upgrading it to withstand temperatures, either very hot or sometimes much colder than we’ve been used to, and these are the impacts of global warming.’

He said there was no Cobra meeting planned for today, with the Prime Minister instead chairing Cabinet.

Mr Shapps also insisted Boris Johnson has not checked out early from Number 10 after the Prime Minister was criticised for not playing a direct enough role in combating the heatwave. 

He told Sky News: ‘It’s literally not true, in fact exactly the opposite is the truth.’

Mr Shapps also conceded that the UK’s transport network cannot cope with the extreme heat.

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘We’ve seen a considerable amount of travel disruption, we’re probably going to see the hottest day ever in the UK recorded today and infrastructure, much of it built in Victorian times, just wasn’t built to withstand this type of temperature.

‘And it will be many years before we can replace infrastructure with the kind of infrastructure that could, because the temperatures are so extreme.’

Asked if the transport system can cope with the weather, he said: ‘The simple answer at the moment is no.

‘Where those tracks are 40C in the air, on the ground that could be 50C, 60C, 70C and more. So you get a severe danger of tracks buckling, what we can’t have is trains running over those and a terrible derailing.

‘We’ve got to be very cautious and conscious of that, which is why there’s reduced speeds on large parts of the network.’

Predictions of long tailbacks as road surfaces melted in the heat also took effect, with location technology firm TomTom recording congestion at 9am down by up to 11 per cent in major UK cities.

Lincolnshire Police said road surface temperatures topping 50C caused parts of the A159 to melt.

Transport for London – which advised people to ‘only travel if essential’ – said Tube passenger numbers were down 18 per cent on the previous Monday.

Meanwhile bus journeys in the capital were down ten per cent week-on-week.

Retail analysts Springboard reported a similar fall in Central London footfall yesterday, with 11 per cent fewer peo-ple in regional cities – but a nine per cent boost in visitors to coastal towns.

‘People are clearly working at home today as advised,’ said the firm’s insights director, Diane Wehrle.

A number of small shops around the country closed early for the day or have closed completely until tomorrow. These included several groups of charity shops, while hairdressers, cafes and chip shops put up the closed signs.

In Durham, Woofs and Cuts dog groomers shut because it was ‘unsafe for any dogs to be in the hot conditions and for the journey to the appointment’.

At Wapping Wharf, Bristol, fashion and gift shop Frankly explained: ‘Our shop is in a metal box and it gets VERY hot in there.’ 

But the British Retail Consortium said major chains tend to have air conditioning, which protects staff and shoppers.

Meanwhile several ambulance trusts reported normal call volumes for a Monday as NHS medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis insisted ‘the overwhelming majority of NHS services are continuing to run’.

And Brian Jordan, director of 999 operations for London Ambulance Service, said the service saw a slight increase in calls for fainting and heat exposure. 

The service received 6,600 emergency calls yesterday, which was actually slightly lower than predicted.

‘We really hope that’s because the public really have been listened to the messages about how they can look after themselves and only call 999 if it’s a genuine emergency,’ Mr Jordan told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning.

‘People have been through a very long day yesterday and there’s been high temperatures overnight and with the even hotter temperatures today, I cannot really emphasise enough that people need to continue to do what we were asking them yesterday – to avoid prolonged exposure to the sun, keep hydrated, look after more vulnerable friends, families, neighbours and use sun cream etc.’

He added: ‘As yesterday afternoon progressed we saw a slight increase in the rates of fainting and heat exposure’.

Mr Jordan said that the service expected to see a ‘build-up of illness due to the continued heat overnight and even higher temperatures coming today… it’s just about making sure that even after the peak temperatures, everyone continues to follow that advice’.

Ambulances were not waiting outside of hospitals any longer than usual on Monday, he added.

An East of England Ambulance Service spokesman said the service has detailed plans in place for dealing with the extreme hot weather.

He added: ‘We have seen above-average call numbers since Monday afternoon. Demand on our service is very high and, even when the temperatures drop, we expect to still being seeing an impact from heat-related illnesses into the weekend.

‘We continue to ask the public to help us, as their actions can help manage rapid increases in the number of people calling for an ambulance.

‘Please continue to follow guidance during this period of hot weather and only call 999 in life-threatening emergencies.’

Flights were suspended at London Luton Airport for around two hours before engineers managed to repair what was described as a ‘surface defect’ on the runway.

Activity was also halted at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, with Sky News reporting that part of the runway had melted.

There are also warnings of wildfires, with people warned not to use barbecues or leave litter that could spark fires in the countryside. 

A dramatic aerial photographs showed a huge area of farmland near Chesterfield in Derbyshire left charred and blackened by a fierce blaze.

Zoos and wildlife parks closed to protect animals, staff and visitors.

And Royal Mail warned there could be disruption to post deliveries, saying in a statement: ‘In areas where tem-peratures rise to potentially dangerous levels during the day, our staff have been advised to return to the office with any mail they have been unable to deliver and not put themselves under any risk of falling ill due to the extreme heat. The safety of our staff is paramount during this time.’

Water companies also said they were experiencing ‘unprecedented peak demand’, with people encouraged to ‘carefully consider’ their water usage and urged not to waste it.

Met Office chief executive Professor Penelope Endersby said a summer drought was a real threat after the first half of 2022 was drier than average.

Thames Water’s demand reduction manager, Andrew Tucker, admitted the firm was getting through water sup-plies ‘faster than we would like’.

While no restrictions are currently planned, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the situation ‘may change’ if the weather remains dry.

Meanwhile it has emerged some Severn Trent staff were been attacked with stones while trying to fix water hydrants in Coventry over the weekend following reports of issues with local water supply.

It came after people were tampering with hydrants so they could play in the water – and when a team arrived to resolve the problem, some disgruntled residents were said to have thrown stones at them. One of the stones bounced off a Severn Trent van and broke the window of another vehicle, reported Coventry Live.

Elsewhere, council gritters were on stand-by to spread light dustings of sand on melting roads.

The RAC anticipated that the number of vehicle breakdowns on Monday and Tuesday could be up to a fifth higher than normal.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has a high pollution alert in place in the eastern parts of England and the East Midlands, meaning EU ozone pollution thresholds have been exceeded.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden recorded its peak temperature for yesterday as 38C (100.4F), lower than the current UK heat record of 38.7C (101.7F) that was set there in 2019. The attraction said that the high was reached at 3.38pm yesterday.

Speaking before readings for the previous 24-hour period were taken, at 10am today, the attraction’s director Professor Beverley Glover said she had hoped the record would not be broken.

‘Recording these high UK temperatures services is a serious reminder that we all need to be taking climate change and its impacts seriously,’ she said. Peak temperatures for today will be confirmed at 10am tomorrow.

It comes as a 14-year-old boy is missing and believed to have drowned yesterday afternoon after getting into difficulty in the Thames in Richmond, west London.

The teenager was seen entering the water at Tagg’s Island in Hampton and, after a search took place, he was presumed dead, with officers calling the incident a ‘tragedy’.

Emergency services and the Government have reiterated urgent warnings about the dangers of trying to keep cool after several tragedies in waterways and reservoirs during the heatwave.

It came as the family of 13-year-old Robert Hattersley said they were ‘absolutely devastated’ after he died when he got into trouble in the River Tyne in Northumberland on Sunday.

Emergency services also confirmed the deaths of a 16-year-old boy in Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, a 16-year-old boy in Bray Lake near Maidenhead, Berkshire, and a 50-year-old man in a reservoir near Leeds in similar circumstances.

Siobhan Murphy, a lifeguard supervisor in Sefton, Merseyside, said they have been ‘extremely busy’ in recent days and advised people not to swim anywhere apart from beaches where lifeguards are present.

Speaking at Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre, she said: ‘We recommend that you always go to a lifeguarded beach. The lifeguards are there to keep you safe, and we recommend that you swim between the red and yellow flags.

‘It’s the safest place to swim, there are no hazards there and the lifeguards are always watching that area.’

Hazards include a fast incoming tide and cold water shock which can affect swimmers of all abilities, she said.

She added: ‘Around the UK the water is always cold, no matter how warm it is outside, like on a day like today, so we recommend that if you do fall into cold water that you float on your back like a starfish and allow that cold water shock to pass. It has been proven to save lives.’

There have been warnings of pressures on hospitals from the extreme temperatures, and concerns ambulance services would face rising numbers of calls as the heat peaks on Tuesday afternoon.

The UK Health Security Agency has issued a level 4 heat-health alert – described as an ’emergency’ – and the UK is under its first red extreme heat warning for a large part of England, issued by the Met Office.

Britons have been urged to stay inside during the hottest period of the day, between 11am and 4pm, and wear sun cream, a hat, stay in the shade and keep hydrated with water – and there are warnings about swimming in lakes, rivers and reservoirs.

While the extreme heat will continue today, a band of rain will bring an end to the sweltering conditions tomorrow.

But Met Office meteorologist Luke Miall said: ‘I’ve been a qualified meteorologist for ten years, and telling people about 41C in the UK doesn’t seem real.’

In Scotland, Holyrood minister Keith Brown urged people ‘to think about whether they need to travel and, if they do, make sure they’re properly equipped and plan their journey in advance’.

The rising temperatures have brought disruption to parts of Scotland’s transport system, with overhead wires tripping and resetting due to the heat between Glasgow Queen Street Low Level and Hyndland.

Mr Brown, Justice Secretary and lead minister for resilience at Holyrood, said the Scottish Government is ‘receiving regular updates from partners including Transport Scotland, the Met Office, the NHS and emergency services and we’ll continue to closely monitor developments’.

‘When temperatures increase, it’s important to monitor forecasts and follow public health advice, including staying hydrated and drinking plenty of fluids and avoiding excess alcohol,’ he said.

‘People should also look out for vulnerable family, friends and neighbours, as older people, those with underlying conditions and those living alone may struggle to keep cool and hydrated.’

Scottish Water has asked people to be as efficient with their water as possible, and urged them to use watering cans rather than hoses in gardens, not to fill up paddling pools and to take shorter showers.

The request came after the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency issued a water scarcity warning on Sunday.

It said in the east of Scotland, areas such as the Dee, Firth of Forth, Almond and Tyne catchment areas have been raised to moderate scarcity, which means businesses that extract water from the areas should do so only ‘if absolutely necessary’.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has warned that the wildfire risk in southern and eastern parts of Scotland has risen to ‘very high’.

It said that, in prolonged periods of high temperatures, the risk of wildfires breaking out increases.

SFRS Deputy Assistant Chief Officer Bruce Farquharson said: ‘At this time of year, the ground vegetation is a combination of green growth, with a relatively high moisture content, and dead vegetation lying on top, which can easily ignite and spread quickly over a large area.’

He added: ‘During the next few days, I would urge the public to avoid lighting fires outdoors but, if you must, check for restrictions or permissions required by the landowner and make sure you use a fire safe pit or container that can be properly extinguished before you leave.

‘We need people to be aware of how quickly things can get out of hand – the smallest outdoor ignition can spread rapidly and burn for days. Therefore, we are asking people to act responsibly when enjoying the outdoors and please think twice before using anything involving a naked flame.’