Britain feels the heat, records highest ever temperature

The Met Office said the provisional record, which still needs to be confirmed, was recorded at 12.50 pm (1150 GMT) at London’s Heathrow Airport, surpassing the previous record of 38.7C recorded in 2019

Britain feels the heat, records highest ever temperature

A man jumps into the Serpentine lake to cool off in Hyde Park, west London, Tuesday. Pic/AFP

Britain recorded its highest ever temperature of 40C (104F) on Tuesday as a heatwave gripping Europe intensified, scorching fields and damaging airport runways and train tracks. The Met Office said the provisional record, which still needs to be confirmed, was recorded at 12.50 pm (1150 GMT) at London’s Heathrow Airport, surpassing the previous record of 38.7C recorded in 2019.

Transport minister Grant Shapps said it would be many years before Britain could fully upgrade its infrastructure to cope with higher temperatures, after at least two runways showed signs of damage and some train tracks buckled. “We’ve seen a considerable amount of travel disruption,” he told the BBC. “Infrastructure, much of which was built from the Victorian times, just wasn’t built to withstand this type of temperature.”

The heat forced Network Rail to issue a “Do Not Travel” warning for services heading north out of London while it tweeted a picture on Monday showing a rail with a kink near the capital. London’s Luton Airport suspended flights after a surface defect was found on the runway, and operations had to be diverted from the Royal Air Force’s Brize Norton, with a media report suggesting the runway had partly melted.

Bristol Zoo said squirrel monkeys, kea parrots and red pandas were being fed frozen ice lollies filled with vegetables, leaves or mealworms. Europe’s heatwave looked set to peak on Tuesday, but temperatures may be above normal till the middle of next week, the World Meteorological Organisation said, warning such events could occur with greater frequency in the future. In Spain, a wildfire raced across a field and engulfed a excavator near the town of Tabara, forcing the driver to run for his life as flames burnt the clothes off his back.

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