This would be the first time in the history of British statements. The Met Office, Britain’s national weather service, is forecasting temperatures of over 40°C in the UK early next week. Forecasts that led him to issue, for the first time, a red alert for “extreme heat” for Monday and Tuesday in England.
The Met Office scenarios said on Wednesday that the chance of a temperature exceedance was only 10%, but in a statement issued on Friday, the institute’s chief meteorologist said the chance is now 50%.
“Exceptional, possibly record-breaking temperatures are likely early next week, in the red alert zone on Monday, and concentrated slightly further east and north on Tuesday. There is currently a 50% chance that we can see temperatures above 40 °C and an 80% chance of a new temperature record being reached,” explained Paul Gundersen.
The current temperature record stands at 38.7°C, recorded at the Cambridge Botanic Garden on July 25, 2019. But if 40°C can be exceeded on time in certain areas on Monday, they are temperatures above 30° C the most anticipated in the country. Nights will also be “unusually warm”.
Temperatures should return to near normal levels for the season starting in the middle of next week.
Extreme heat linked to global warming
The Met Office also specifies that these episodes of extreme temperatures are linked to global warming.
“The increase in the frequency, duration, and intensity of these events in recent decades is clearly related to observed global warming and can be attributed to human activity,” the weather service wrote.
And these episodes are bound to repeat themselves. “The chances of having 40°C days in the UK could be up to 10 times higher in the current climate than in a natural climate unaffected by human influence,” says meteorologist Nikos Christidis, quoted by the Met Office, who estimates that “Even with current emission reduction commitments, such extremes could occur every 15 years in the climate of 2100.”
Source: BFM TV
