Category Archives: Extreme heat

London bus drivers resume strike over heatwave working amid fears over air con deal

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Drivers concerned that bus operator’s offer to retrofit cabs on 730 buses will not be complete by next summer

London bus drivers have resumed strike action over having to work in high temperatures, amid fears that proposed improvements to air conditioning will not be complete by next summer.

About 1,500 members of the Unite union working across north London and Essex are taking part in the four-day strike from Tuesday to Friday, after industrial action earlier this month. Further stoppages are planned for the coming weeks.

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London bus drivers resume strike over heatwave working amid fears over air con deal

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Drivers concerned that bus operator’s offer to retrofit cabs on 730 buses will not be complete by next summer

London bus drivers have resumed strike action over having to work in high temperatures, amid fears that proposed improvements to air conditioning will not be complete by next summer.

About 1,500 members of the Unite union working across north London and Essex are taking part in the four-day strike from Tuesday to Friday, after industrial action earlier this month. Further stoppages are planned for the coming weeks.

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Europe’s heatwaves threaten insurers’ earnings, rating agency S&P says

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Rise in claims linked to heat-related deaths and illness, especially among older people, could drive up premiums

Europe’s intense heatwaves could hit insurers’ earnings as companies face a rise in claims linked to heat-related deaths and worsening health conditions, the rating agency S&P has said.

While a long summer of extreme heat will have increased drought and wildfire-related claims, the rating agency said there would also be fallout for life and health insurers, and for the reinsurers who provide financial protection to insurance companies.

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At least 35,000 excess deaths recorded in Europe’s back-to-back heatwaves

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True figure likely to be much higher as it only covers about half of continent and does not include August totals

At least 35,000 more people died during Europe’s four record-breaking, back-to-back heatwaves this summer than would normally be expected, according to incomplete figures from barely half the continent.

Excess mortality in three of the EU’s larger countries – Germany, France and Spain – alone has already exceeded 25,000, according to the provisional national figures, and experts say the toll will rise significantly once August totals are consolidated.

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Retail sales in Great Britain fall despite heatwave increasing food and drink demand

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Volume of goods sold in stores and online dropped 0.5% in July, ONS says

Retail sales across Great Britain weakened last month despite the men’s football World Cup and record temperatures boosting the demand for food and drink.

The Office for National Statistics said the volume of goods sold in stores and online fell 0.5% in July. That is down from 0.7% rise in June – revised down from initial estimates of 1% – and a 1.3% rise in May.

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‘Absolutely manic’: hot weather puts unprecedented pressure on Greater Manchester police

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Force has seen busiest month in its history, with heatwaves putting added strain on criminal justice system

On England’s hottest day of the year so far, Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester was thronging with pedestrians, many clutching ice-creams or cold drinks as they passed through the town centre.

Officers from Greater Manchester police were also out in force, some in plainclothes, some stationed by a facial-recognition van, apprehending wanted suspects and stopping persons of interest. In total, officers made 54 arrests across the borough of Tameside as part of Operation Avro, GMP’s blitz on local crime which runs in a different district each month.

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Alarmed by the alarm: people react to ‘severe alert’ on phones over UK wildfires

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Many complained online that piercingly loud tone was ‘overreach’ while others lamented lack of action on decarbonisation

On Friday at 7pm, Thérèse Coffey was nine miles away from a nuclear power station when her phone made a loud, piercing and very worrying sound: it was a “severe” emergency alert. “Was expecting [a] much more specific alert, not a generic message on wildfires,” the former Conservative cabinet minister said on X.

She wasn’t alone in being alarmed by the alarm sent to phones in England and Wales. In the aftermath, thousands of social media users expressed their shock at alert. Some shared funny memes and others lamented what they viewed as lack of government action on decarbonisation. Academic John Ritzema called it a “massive overreach” and said the alert system should be “be for ‘drop everything and prepare for something terrible’ situations”, something Coffey echoed, saying alerts should not become commonplace to avoid “Peter cries wolf situations”.

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Emergency alert warning of wildfire risk sent to phones in England and Wales

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People urged not to light barbecues, campfires or anything else that could spark fire during period of extreme heat

Millions of people across England and Wales received an emergency alert to their phones on Friday as the government warned against activities that could start fires.

The deputy prime minister, Louise Haigh, said it was the most extensive use to date of the emergency alert system, with phones beaming a siren noise about 7pm, with the warning: “There is a serious risk of wildfires nationally.”

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Romania shuts its last nuclear reactor as drought-hit Danube river drops to record low

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Cernavoda shutdown poses immediate problems for Moldova, which relies on Romanian power ​to cover its own electricity shortages

Romania has been forced to shut down the last working ⁠reactor at its only nuclear plant after drought caused the Danube river to fall to record lows – a rare move that will immediately affect power supplies in neighbouring Moldova.

Drought and record-low water levels have deepened fears of an energy crisis across Europe, which is facing a new summer heatwave.

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Immigration minister says poorer areas have taken ‘fair share’ of asylum seekers – UK politics live

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Anna Turley backs up Andy Burnham’s suggestion that affluent areas should house more asylum seekers in future

Just 20 staff are working on climate adaptation within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the part of government tasked with protecting the environment and maintaining food security, a freedom of information request has revealed. Sandra Laville has the story.

On his visit to Stevenage, Andy Burnham also said he would visit the town on Remembrance Day to mark its 80th birthday.

I’m going to come back to Stevenage on 11 November. We will pay our respects for Remembrance Day around that time, but I’ll be here because if I’m right, that will be 80 years to the day that the post-war Labour government created the first new town right here in Stevenage.

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Andy Burnham to chair emergency Cobra meeting amid extreme heat

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PM touts ban on disposable barbecues as areas hit by wildfires – but some Labour MPs will be hoping for more ambitious ideas to tackle crisis

Andy Burnham will chair an emergency Cobra meeting in response to extreme heat, which has caused wildfires and plunged many parts of Britain into drought.

The prime minister will meet ministers, officials and agencies as high temperatures continue across the UK, with temperatures of 33C forecast on Wednesday and up to 38C on Thursday.

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Just 20 of 6,600 Defra staff working on climate adaptation amid drought and wildfires

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Exclusive: England ‘desperately unprepared’ for effects of crisis including water shortages and heatwaves

Just 20 staff are working on climate adaptation within a key government department tasked with protecting the environment and maintaining food security, a freedom of information request has revealed.

The officials make up 0.3% of staff within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

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UK heatwaves may have cost economy £4.4bn in lost output so far this year, analysis finds

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Verdant thinktank says cost could top £25bn a year by 2030 and calls for maximum temperature for working and urban redesign to cool down cities

Repeated debilitating heatwaves this summer are likely to have cost the UK economy more than £4bn in lost economic output by the end of July, new analysis shows.

Green thinktank Verdant had suggested June’s unseasonally hot weather had an economic cost of £2.36bn. Updating its assessment to include last month’s high temperatures, it finds a £4.4bn hit to output.

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UK temperatures could hit 36C as fifth heatwave of summer looms

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Met Office considers amber or red warning as forecasters say Thursday is likely to be hottest day of the week

Temperatures could reach 36C (97F) or higher this week, forecasters have said, with possible disruption to railway lines and power networks as the Met Office considers issuing rare amber or red extreme heat warnings.

Parts of the UK are forecast to experience the fifth heatwave of the summer as the country continues to bake in an unprecedented period of dry, hot weather.

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World’s seas have hit hottest temperature on record for July, say scientists

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Average sea surface temperature outside polar regions was highest on record for July, beating previous high in 2023

The world’s seas were hotter last month than in any July on record, scientists have said, as devastating heat struck western Europe.

Sea surface temperatures hit record highs for July on the Atlantic coast and western Mediterranean, the EU’s Copernicus climate change service found, with severe marine heatwaves roiling Europe’s seas. Globally, the average sea surface temperature outside the cold polar regions was the highest on record for the month, beating the previous July record set in 2023.

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Nazi shipwrecks emerge from the depths as Europe’s Danube dries up

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Unexploded ordnance and a military motorcycle also recovered following record heat and drought conditions

Record-low water levels in the Danube have exposed remnants of Europe’s Nazi past, with dozens of second world war ships emerging from the riverbed during an intense drought.

In the middle of the river on the Serbian and Romanian border, a broken-up hull was visible on a sandbank that is normally underwater. Other vessels were partly submerged, some still believed to be laden with weapons.

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Sadiq Khan calls on Andy Burnham to commit to climate action as pressure grows over North Sea oil

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London mayor points to ‘terrifying scenes’ this summer amid speculation Burnham may back Jackdaw and Rosebank projects

Sadiq Khan has called on the government to commit to revamped climate action and to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas, as the UK endures a summer of drought, wildfires and heatwaves.

Writing in the Guardian, the mayor of London said that Andy Burnham’s administration must reaffirm its commitment to net zero and make clear it will continue to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas “to get Britain back on track.”

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‘I couldn’t breathe’: the deadly health burden of wildfire smoke

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Scientists race to untangle complex links between exposure and mortality as fire weather grows more prevalent

A thousand kilometres from the infernos gorging on northern Ontario’s boreal forests, Erin O’Connor watched the sky above Canada’s biggest city turn an “almost post-apocalyptic” orange as it filled with light-scattering particles of soot and ash. Stepping outside the halls of Toronto General hospital, where air filters were keeping patients safe from the worst of the fumes, she was struck by a smell so strong it felt like standing by a campfire.

“It really hit you in the face as soon as you walked outside,” said O’Connor, who runs University Health Network’s emergency department and saw a rise in patients presenting with allergies and shortness of breath. “As the days progressed, it was like that everywhere. It seemed even inside you could smell that burning.”

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Adapting to global heating: which UK public services are struggling in hot weather?

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As NHS told to prepare for extreme weather, strain also felt in other areas including transport and farming

The NHS has been told it must become more resilient to increasingly frequent heatwaves supercharged by the climate crisis, as the UK government puts adaptation to extreme heat high on its agenda. But what other public services are already feeling the strain?

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Adapting to global heating: which UK public services are struggling in hot weather?

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As NHS told to prepare for extreme weather, strain also felt in other areas including transport and farming

The NHS has been told it must become more resilient to increasingly frequent heatwaves supercharged by the climate crisis, as the UK government puts adaptation to extreme heat high on its agenda. But what other public services are already feeling the strain?

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