An emergency meeting between ministers and officials is being held on Saturday amid rising temperatures, which experts have warned could endanger lives.
High temperatures are expected to peak on Tuesday, with an 80% chance of mercury exceeding the UK’s record temperature of 38.7 ° C (101.7 ° F) set in Cambridge in 2019, and a 50 % chance of temperatures reaching 40 ° C somewhere in the UK.
This probability has led the Meteorological Office to issue its first red warning for Monday and Tuesday, applicable to an area of London in Manchester and as far as the Vale of York.
An emergency Cobra meeting will be held this afternoon, chaired by Cabinet Office Minister Kit Malthouse, to discuss the heat wave, while the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has stepped up his heat health warning at level four, a “national emergency.”
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, UKSHA chief scientist Professor Isabel Oliver said everyone could be affected by such high temperatures.
“Last year we did not reach temperatures close to those forecast for next week, [and] we saw more than 1,600 excess deaths associated with the heat wave period. That’s why we want everyone to know what they can do to stay safe, ”he said.
The reality behind the red warning has been described as “very serious” by Met Office spokeswoman Grahame Madge, who advised people with vulnerable relatives or neighbors to start implementing heat management measures.
“If the forecast is how we believe it will be in the red alert area, then people’s lives are in danger,” he said.
An amber warning has been issued from Sunday to Tuesday covering much of England and Wales.
The Met Office has issued amber and red weather warnings for extreme heat
Transport for London (TfL) recommends passengers to travel only for essential trips.
The company’s chief operating officer, Andy Lord, said: “If customers need to travel, they should check it before they travel, as we expect there to be some impact on metro and rail services as a result. of the temporary speed restrictions we will need to present to keep everyone safe “.
Very high temperatures can affect rails, overhead power lines and signaling equipment, and TfL says it would work to maintain as many services as possible through “enhanced” inspections to mitigate the impact of extreme weather.
Track temperature checks will be conducted regularly on pipe and rail networks to ensure they remain safe and the track is not at risk of bending or warping, TfL said in a statement.
He added that he was also inspecting the air conditioning units of the trains covering 40% of the tube network, the trains on the Elizabeth and London Overground line, as well as the air cooling units of the double-decker buses for make sure they work well. .
Transport for Greater Manchester has also urged its passengers to travel only if necessary.
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NHS doctor Claire Bronze says the heat wave, along with the rising number of Covid-19 cases, was proving a “nightmare” for health workers.
“We have ambulances queuing to get in, we’ve seen a lot of Covid cases again, and then there’s the heat,” he said.
“All these things have happened that are a bit of a nightmare and we are concerned about how it will affect patients and staff.”
The impact of the heat wave is being felt in continental Europe, as thousands of firefighters are fighting wildfires in Portugal, Spain and southwestern France.
The French region of Gironde and the Costa del Sol in southern Spain are particularly affected, with more than 12,000 people forced to evacuate in the first and about 2,300 in the second.