Chapter 1: What record-breaking temperatures are being experienced in the UK?
This is The Guardian.
Every year, we're experiencing record-breaking heat, pretty much. Our country just isn't prepared for this level of heat. There's also a phenomenon happening called El Niño. It turbocharges heat waves. It's predicted to be a super El Niño. If the El Niño hits, we're likely to have very hot summer next year.
The UK has recorded the hottest day on record in May as an early heat wave engulfs Europe and serves as a reminder of how the climate crisis is affecting lives. From the Guardian's Today In Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hoth.
Well, joining me is Helena Horton, Guardian reporter, previously an environment reporter, so well qualified to help us understand this heat wave, these unprecedented temperatures recorded for May. I don't know about you, Helena, but I was tossing and turning all night. We were close to a tropical night in London where temperatures don't dip below 20 degrees, but that was narrowly averted.
But nonetheless, there have been record temperatures recorded in London, but also around the country. Can you give me a sense of how hot it's been?
Well, it was record overnight. So it's very, very rare that we get anything up to 20 degrees. It was just nearly 20 degrees in London last night. Actually, we've never had that in May before.
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Chapter 2: How is El Niño contributing to the current heatwave?
So if you did find it hard to sleep, these are temperatures we'd normally have in August. And obviously, in May, we have quite long evenings. So it takes longer for the
has to cool down it's just very uncomfortable and yes but over the weekend we've had temperatures hitting over 30 degrees across the country across england and it's officially a heat wave in parts of the southeast of england and the south in general so that's when you have more than three days over 27 or 28 degrees depending on where you are and what's the picture across europe is europe experiencing the same type of extreme heat as we are
Yes, Northern Europe here. So France is also baking at the moment. We're stuck in a pressure system which is sucking in hot air from Africa. So we have this kind of heat dome over us at the moment. It's going to take a while to dissipate up until the end of next week.
Global heating and climate change must be a major factor in all of this. But is there a specific phenomenon as well that's occurring that presumably is caused or worsened by climate change?
Not at the moment. So there is an El Nino coming up at the end of the year. It's a weather phenomenon that's caused by the Pacific Ocean heating. And then that changes the jet stream in the way that it impacts weather events. So it turbocharges heat waves and sometimes other things like rainfall or drought. We've only had temperatures over 30 degrees in May, eight times since the early 1900s.
Every year we're experiencing record breaking heat pretty much. It's accelerating. I'm sure you probably remember when we were younger, it would be extremely rare to have 30 degree days even in August. And now we're having them earlier and earlier. And now for the first time, we're about to hit 35 in May today, according to the Met Office.
And that's a staggering 2.2 degrees Celsius above the record. And normally records are only beaten by a fraction of a degree. Right. So to beat it by two degrees, which looks like it's going to happen today, it's already getting really hot, is absolutely unprecedented. And forecasters are very surprised that it's happening.
Yeah. And all sorts of weather warnings have been issued for various parts of the country, for Europe as well. And this type of heat can be extremely dangerous for the old, the vulnerable, for young people. How great is that risk to life this week?
It's pretty high. I mean, I've seen some Americans online commenting saying, oh, it's only 30 degrees Celsius. We have that every day. The difference is our homes aren't built for these temperatures. They're built of brick a lot of the time. They're built to retain heat because we're used to being relatively cold, mild country. And we don't have air conditioning.
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