UK summer temperatures could hit 40c by end of the decade
It's as many parts of the UK recorded record temperatures in the past fortnight
Last updated 24th May 2022
British summers are likely to regularly see temperatures of above 40C in the next decade, the UK's leading meteorologists have warned.
That's even if we manage to slow down climate change in the next few years.
The UK is already seeing increasingly extreme weather, with 2020 the third-warmest year on record.
December 2019 to February 2020 was the fifth warmest winter on record, while the temperature last summer was 0.4C above average at 14.8C.
Heatwaves will become 'more intense'
Professor Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, who carried out the study, said the world was already seeing extreme heat as a result of the warming of 1.1C to 1.2C above pre-industrial levels.
"If you take that up by another 0.3C, these heatwaves are just going to become much more intense - we're likely to see 40C in the UK although we have never seen those kinds of temperatures before"
People don't think the UK is at risk
It comes as the British Red Cross are also warning about the dangers of extreme heat.
A survey they conducted shows a quarter of Brits don't believe the UK is currently hot enough to be at risk of heatwaves.
The charity is warning that there is a dangerous perception gap in the UK when it comes to the public’s awareness of the risk of heat
Last summer the UK experienced the highest level of recorded excess of deaths in England due to heat –with a total of 2,556 deaths.
More than a third of people surveyed believed that heatwaves will be a problem in the future, just not now.
The research focused on high-risk groups in the UK, particularly those over 75 as more than half of those don’t perceive themselves as personally vulnerable to the effects of heatwaves.
This can mean people don’t take action to protect themselves in a heatwave despite the warnings.
Matthew Killock, Director of Crisis Response and Community Resilience at British Red Cross said:
"If you look at the next 30 years, so by 2050, which is actually not that long away quite scarily, what we're looking at is a potentially a doubling or tripling of excess deaths."
"That would mean up to 7000 people a year dying from heat events within the UK."
"That's quite a big figure that actually can be mitigated or at least significantly reduced if we take actions now."
"This is not an isolated issue and you would hope that if we were able to practice more things that protect people, that death number could reduce."
"What you're starting to see is a real impact on the things that we take for granted every day."
"At about 32 degrees sometimes roads in the UK can start to melt."
"Train tracks in heat will be 20 degrees hotter than the outside temperature."
"Before you know it, you've got quite a challenging set of circumstances that will impact on every single one of our lives, no matter if you want to accept it or not."
"Supply chains, food distribution networks call all be affected."
"We're not trying to be really dramatic here. We're saying that deaths do occur. Tragically, heat is going to rise and as a nation, we need to be far better prepared."