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| Photo Credit: AP. |
The United Kingdom recorded its highest temperature Tuesday as severe heat wave surged in Europe.
The highest ever recorded temperature, according to the U.K.’s national weather forecaster is now a fact of life, The Associated Press reports.
Heat waves
across Europe have triggered wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans and have
led to hundreds of heat-related deaths.
Temperatures goes beyond 38.7 degrees Celsius
According to
The Associated Press, The U.K. Met Office Weather agency registered a
provisional reading of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahrenheit) at
Coningsby in eastern England. The highest temperature before Tuesday was 38.7 C
(101.7 F) in 2019.
Met Office
chief scientist Stephen Belcher said the high temperatures in Britain were
“virtually impossible” without human-driven climate change, The Associated
Press reported.
“We could
see temperatures like this every three years” without serious action on carbon
emissions, he warned.
Several
activities such as travel, health care and schools have been disrupted by the
sweltering weather.
The intense
heat since Monday has reportedly damaged the runway at London’s Luton airport,
for it to shut for several hours, and warped a main road in eastern England,
leaving it looking like a “skatepark,” The Associated Press quoted police as
saying. Major train stations were shut or near-empty as train services were
either canceled or ran at low speeds to prevent buckling of rails.
The London
Fire Brigade listed 10 major blazes it was fighting across the city Tuesday,
mostly grass fires. Several houses were engulfed in flames as smoke billowed
from burning fields in Wennington, a village on eastern outskirts of London,
according to The Associated Press.