UK swelters as June heat record is broken twice

Britain recorded its hottest June day on record Thursday, with temperatures reaching 36.4C in Somerset, as extreme heat closed schools, disrupted transport and put pressure on hospitals across the country.

The new high came a day after the previous June record was broken, when the temperature hit 36.1C in Gosport, Hampshire. That mark had surpassed a June record that had stood since 1976. A rare red extreme heat warning remained in place until Friday for the south of England, with the Met Office warning that the conditions could cause “population-wide adverse health effects,” including serious illness and danger to life.

The heat has quickly moved from a weather story to a public health and infrastructure test. Hundreds of schools have been forced to close early, the BBC reported, while Al Jazeera reported that more than 1,000 schools across southern England had shut early or closed entirely this week. One school in Taunton told parents that conditions made it “increasingly difficult to ensure the wellbeing, comfort and safety” of pupils and staff.

Doctors are reporting increased pressure and difficult working conditions in hospitals, according to the Royal College of Physicians. The college said there were numerous reports of older patients being brought in after collapsing from dehydration, and that members had linked the extreme heat to machines and equipment malfunctioning.

Public transport has also struggled. Train operators including South Western Railway, Thameslink, Northern and Avanti West Coast asked passengers to make only essential journeys and put reduced timetables in place. Transport for London warned passengers that “very high temperatures” could disrupt Tube and rail services, while Network Rail asked passengers in red warning zones to travel only if strictly necessary because the heat threatened overhead lines and signalling.

In London, the ambulance service deployed more than 400 extra ambulance crews this week as temperatures climbed, Al Jazeera reported. Major events were affected too: the University of Bath postponed its 60th Anniversary Adelard gathering at Bath Abbey, citing the heat and likely travel disruption, while a London Climate Action Week panel on adapting cities to extreme heat was cancelled after organisers found the London School of Economics venue had no cooling system.

For some residents, staying cool has become difficult. “At midnight yesterday, the temperature in my home was 31 degrees, which I could not control,” pharmacist Bijal Shah told Al Jazeera. He said he had spent two weeks trying to buy a portable air conditioner or industrial fan for his unwell five-month-old grandson, but some cooling items had waits of two to three weeks.

“If this was expected in advance, the population should have been more prepared for this,” Shah said. “We are never prepared for this and as the 5th or 6th richest country in the world, we are never ready for these sorts of things which are probably going to be the norm.”

The heat has exposed sharp differences in how people view the response. Peter Wride, a gardener, recalled attending school during the 1976 heatwave. “We survived that June in school. No lessons were cancelled, schools didn’t shut,” he said, arguing that this week’s response had moved too far toward panic.

Others described the strain of working through the heat. London bus driver Glendon Alflat said passengers had demanded air conditioning, but he could not turn it on. “The company turns off the air conditioning system from the main controls so I can’t switch it on my bus,” he said. “They want to save money.”

“It is at least five degrees hotter on board because of all the glass, especially at the back of the bus where the engine is,” the 64-year-old said.

As Britain endured the record-breaking spell, other European countries, including France and Spain, also suffered extreme heat this week, with dozens of heat-related deaths reported, according to Al Jazeera.