‘Like a sauna’: London tube travellers swelter in temperatures higher than legal limit for cattle. The tube cannot easily be adapted to cope with heatwaves, making conditions almost unbearable

 

In the UK, it is illegal to transport cattle above 30C, but the mercury hit 32C on the train and 34C on the Victoria Line platform at Finsbury Park. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

by  Rosie Peters-McDonald

 

As the escalator descends below ground at King’s Cross St Pancras station in London, the shift from what was already a hot station entrance to the furnace-like subterranean depths is perceptible.

On the tube it’s worse: a man leans back in his seat, eyes closed, sweltering; people hold electric fans an inch away from their faces. London commuters are known for their stoicism and the heat appears to be another tribulation to accept. They will need to: heatwaves in the capital are becoming routine.

“We’re quite lucky that this platform is almost empty, because when the platform gets packed it’s [like a] sauna,” Anna, a passenger at Oxford Circus, says. “When it’s peak hours, it’s quite difficult.”

The tube infrastructure is difficult to adapt because of its age and the surrounding clay. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

 

Anna says she usually adapts well to hot temperatures, but even she finds the heat on the platform hard to bear. Craig, another passenger, says he has to travel in gym clothes and change into his work clothes at the office because of the heat on the tube.

London’s underground isn’t adapted for the 30C+ heatwaves that have hit the city over the last few summers. Lines such as the Victoria line – the deepest on the network – and the Bakerloo line – which TfL says has some of the oldest trains in passenger use anywhere in the country – are particularly bad when it comes to withstanding the heat.

A traveller tries to keep cool with a handheld fan. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

Sharmin, a barista at the Pret a Manger stationed by the barriers at King’s Cross St Pancras, says she has seen people faint in and around the station. She finds the heat so oppressive that she has asked to go home early during some of her shifts this week. She wonders why there are no coolers or industrial fans set up near Pret or the barriers. “I’ve felt like I was going to faint,” she says.

A quick glance at the thermometer I’m carrying on this unscientific investigation shows that the station is about 30C. On the platform and tube it crawls up to 32C, and then at the Victoria line platform at Finsbury Park it hits 34C. In the UK, it is illegal to transport cattle above 30C; transporting people at 34C, though, might be becoming the norm.

Anna, pictured at Oxford Circus, says the platform becomes like a ‘sauna’ during peak hours. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
 

 It’s ten degrees higher underground than it is outside at this point, according to my iPhone’s built-in weather app. Between 8am and 9am the thermometer shows readings of 34C on the Victoria line platforms at Finsbury Park, on the Victoria and Bakerloo line platforms at Victoria, and on the northbound Bakerloo line platform at Oxford Circus.

 Tube tunnels are ‘basically radiators’, taking on the heat of the clay and concrete around them. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

 

Asher Minns, executive director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, a partnership across several UK universities, says that tube tunnels are “basically radiators”, taking on the heat of the clay and concrete around them. The carriages, platforms and surrounding tunnels are also warmed by the hundreds of kilowatts of heat the trains produce while breaking. And the warmer it is outside, the worse it gets underground.

But Minns adds that the infrastructure is difficult to adapt because of its age and the surrounding clay. It will likely be years before the network is better suited to dealing with the heat, so for now he says the focus needs to be reducing risks to passengers.

“It can’t go on like this, and it’s not going to get any better,” he says. “[The underground] absolutely has to adapt to the impacts of climate change, but right now I think [the focus] has to be looking after passengers.”

Craig has to travel in gym clothes and change into his work clothes at the office because of the heat on the tube. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

He suggests limiting the number of passengers allowed to travel when the temperature is above a certain limit, or reducing the number of tubes in service during heatwaves.

Nick Dent, TfL’s director of customer operations, said TfL was continuing to invest in making the network more resilient and comfortable as hotter summers become more common, as well as introducing new air-conditioned trains on the Piccadilly line and DLR.

Dent added that the “short-term and stop-start nature of funding over recent years has meant that TfL has had to carefully prioritise its investment and – while remaining open to measures that will help manage the impact of increasing temperatures due to climate change – has focused on programmes that will see the biggest benefits to customers”.

UK swelters in third heatwave of the year as western Europe counts cost of hottest-ever June. Britain expands heat alerts while estimates suggest June’s death toll could surpass 20,000 across continent

People shield themselves from the sun at the Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace in London. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/Sopa Images/Shutterstock

 

by  Pippa Neill and Ajit Niranjan

The UK is sweltering through the peak of its third heatwave of the year as countries around Europe struggle to recover from an early onslaught of baking summer heat.

Punishing temperatures pushed higher by fossil fuel pollution have broken records across the continent in recent weeks. Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record, scientists confirmed on Thursday, accompanied by high global ocean temperatures that could cause “mass-mortality events” for some species.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on Thursday expanded amber heat health alerts to cover all regions of England except the north-east, meaning significant impacts are likely across health and social care services owing to the high temperatures.

 

The UK Met Office said high temperatures would remain through much of next week, which could make the heatwave one of the longest lasting since the 1976 heatwave that killed 250 people. On Thursday temperatures surpassed 35C (95F) in Surrey, falling short of the provisional high of 37.7C recorded at Lingwood, Strumpshaw Hill, in Norfolk on 26 June.

The Met Office said Thursday was the eighth day this year where temperatures had surpassed 34C, breaking the previous records from 2020 and 1976 by one day.

Friederike Otto, a professor of climate science at Imperial College London, said the climate crisis was making every heatwave hotter, with events such as this month’s heatwave more likely to occur.

“The heat we have seen this summer is only possible because of the 1.4C of climate change we have to date, due to the burning of fossil fuels,” she said.

Otto said it was misleading to use the term “new normal” when describing this year’s scorching summer heat. “The climate we have today is not stable and continues to warm as long as we continue to burn fossil fuels. As a result, what is ‘normal’ keeps shifting and we’re likely to see much hotter heatwaves like this one in the years to come.”

 Many countries across Europe are still reckoning with the fallout from the last heatwave. On Thursday, Belgium’s public science institute said its June heat was “exceptionally deadly”, with 1,747 excess deaths, while the Robert Koch Institute reported 5,120 heat-related deaths in Germany this summer. Early academic estimates suggest the death toll across the continent could be higher than 20,000.

A firefighter sprays water on spectators watching the sixth stage of the Tour de France between Pau and Gavarnie-Gèdre in the French Pyrenees. Photograph: Loïc Venance/AFP/Getty Images

In France, where a nuclear reactor reportedly shut down in high heat on Thursday, scientists said the transformation of homes from “thermal kettles” into decent housing was a public health imperative.

France’s high council on climate, an independent body responsible for evaluating government climate action, urged policymakers to improve housing stock and make the creation of shaded green spaces an integral part of urban regeneration. In hospitals, care homes and schools, it recommended installing shutters, shade structures, ceiling fans, cooling systems, and fixed air-conditioning units.

The annual report, which is in its eighth edition, found France was not ready for the dangerous consequences of climate breakdown and said current policies were insufficient to avoid a sharp increase in risk.

A boy rests inside the Roman theatre in Arles, France. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock

The scientists lamented the slowdown in climate action and called for a consolidated plan to phase out fossil fuels. “The cost of inaction is much higher than the cost of the transition,” the authors wrote, “which makes unilateral decarbonisation by major economies a rational choice that brings considerable welfare gains for societies”.

The NHS in England has said it is facing a “summer onslaught”, with the heatwave and the World Cup to blame. Average A&E attendances exceeded 80,000 for the first time ever in June, a new daily attendance record.

The NHS national medical director, Prof Frankie Swords, said the figures showed that summer was putting the NHS under just as much pressure as winter. South Central ambulance service NHS foundation trust said during the June heatwave there was a 118% increase in the number of times 999 emergency call takers directed members of the public to collect a nearby defibrillator for someone in suspected cardiac arrest.

More than 1,000 schools across the UK were either closed or partially closed during the June heatwave, and some schools have taken similar measures this week as they struggled to cope in poorly insulated buildings.

 

Water companies have reported increased demand, with a hosepipe ban already in force for South East Water customers in parts of Kent. Hosepipe restrictions are also being introduced for about 1 million Southern Water customers across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight from Friday.

Supermarkets across the UK have struggled to keep their fridge and freezer units running in the extreme heat, with many shoppers finding empty shelves at their local store and a hastily erected sign apologising for the inconvenience.

Rupert Ashby, the chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation, said the trade association heard from a number of members who had encountered problems, and shops with older fridge-freezer units were being worst affected.

In older models, the refrigeration cycle components that pump out hot air are typically stored outside the building and are designed to work in ambient temperature. In an extreme heat event they do not work as efficiently, as they cannot pump the heat away.

 

Signs on blinds covering fridges in the chilled food aisle of a Sainsbury’s supermarket in England. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

 

 

 “These systems just weren’t designed to deal with this type of temperature because, historically, we rarely had it,” Ashby said. “But a major supermarket chain is probably looking at hundreds of millions of pounds to replace all its older units because they have so many.”

Phil Pluck, the chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, said 50% of cold warehouses in the UK were more than 20 years old with old refrigeration systems, and the hot weather had massively increased energy usage and pressure on the system.

“As an industry, we are finding ourselves under more and more pressure,” he said. “I think we’ve got to admit that our climate is now clearly in crisis, and one of the things that will have to change will be our access to food via retail outlets. It will look different.”

He said open fridge-freezers in supermarkets would become less common, and standard practice would shift to using Perspex doors to keep heat out. Some supermarkets have installed pull-down blinds on their fridge units to help keep food cool.

 Additional reporting Jessica Murray

UK waters hit with extreme heatwave as global sea temperatures reach record levels. Experts warn that some marine species are at risk of ‘mass mortality events’ in ever-warming oceans

 

The archipelago of St Kilda. Marine temperatures in UK seas have been on average 2C higher than usual, with some areas 4-5C warmer. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

by  Pippa Neill

 

UK waters are being hit with an “extreme” marine heatwave, the Met Office has said, as scientists warn that high ocean temperatures globally could result in “mass-mortality events” for some species.

The forecasters said these elevated temperatures have developed rapidly because of last month’s heat dome, during which most of Europe sweltered in its worst ever heatwave that scientists said would have been impossible without the climate crisis.

The third heatwave of the summer has arrived in the UK this week, with temperatures on track to exceed 30C for up to 10 consecutive days. Dr Ségolène Berthou, an air-sea interaction specialist at the Met Office, said these atmospheric conditions drive the marine heatwave.

“The ocean didn’t have enough time to cool down between the two land heatwaves,” she said.

 

Oceans absorb more than 90% of the excess energy in the Earth system, which is primarily caused by burning fossil fuels.

Berthou said this is the third and most intense marine heatwave the UK has seen this year, with temperatures on average 2C warmer than usual and with some locations reaching “severe” conditions where the water temperature is 4-5C warmer than usual. “There’s no sign of an end to it,” Berthou added.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Copernicus Marine Service have confirmed that global sea surface temperatures have surpassed the previous records for this time of year, which were set in 2023 and 2024. This had been anticipated to follow the development of El Niño conditions, which scientists forecast to be the strongest in decades

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, speaks at a conference on the future of AI in Geneva. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said the world must treat the arrival of El Niño conditions as the “urgent climate warning it is”.

He said: “The only effective response is climate action equal to the crisis: ending the addiction to fossil fuels, accelerating the shift to renewables, protecting the most vulnerable, and delivering early warning systems for all.”

 

Prof John Pinnegar, principal scientist and lead adviser at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, said these extreme marine heatwave conditions can result in “mass-mortality events” for some marine species and alter the distribution of commercially important fish and shellfish.

He said: “Prolonged periods of elevated sea water temperatures can also encourage new species to visit UK waters, establish new populations, potentially shaking up UK ecosystems.”

Record numbers of octopuses were found off the south-west coast of England last year, transforming the fishing industry and the marine ecosystem. A record 100 tonnes of octopus was sold in one day at Brixham market last month.

Alemanha teve 5.655 mortes a mais durante onda de calor em junho

 

Termômetros passaram dos 40ºC na Alemanha durante a onda de calor no final de junho

Termômetro marca 41°C em Berlim, na Alemanha, no dia 27 de junho deste ano - Axel Schmidt/Reuters 

País superou marcas históricas de temperatura por três dias seguidos

Em dias quentes, chegou-se a registrar o asfalto derretido perto de trilhos de bonde

Redação DW

 País registrou 23,6 mil óbitos de 22 a 28 de junho, quando recordes de temperatura foram quebrados, contra uma média de 18,1 mil no mesmo período de 2022 a 2025. 

A Alemanha registrou 5.655 mil mortes a mais que o esperado na penúltima semana de junho, quando o país foi varrido por uma onda de calor extremo que quebrou recordes históricos de temperatura, informou o Escritório Federal de Estatísticas.

Foram 23.665 mil óbitos de 22 a 28 de junho, contra uma média de 18.179 no mesmo período dos quatro anos anteriores. Os dados são preliminares, mas, como apontou o portal n-tv, há 26 anos não morriam tantas pessoas em uma única semana de verão.

Naquela semana, o país superou marcas históricas de calor por três dias seguidos. A pior marca, 41,7ºC medidos em 28 de junho, foi registrada em Coschen, em Brandemburgo, no leste do país. Na virada de 26 para 27, o país teve sua noite mais quente, com sufocantes 29,4ºC medidos em Kubschütz, na Saxônia, também no leste do país.

Na mesma época, o calor extremo produziu cenas insólitas na Alemanha, como o asfalto derretido no entorno dos trilhos de bonde em Leipzig, no estado da Saxônia, e autoestradas "estouradas" pelo país.

Calor levou à interrupção do serviço de bondes em Leipzig

Uma semana antes, de 15 a 21 de junho, as autoridades alemãs contabilizaram 18.427 mortos, muito próximo da média dos quatro anos anteriores para o mesmo período.

Onda de calor castigou boa parte da Europa

Outros países europeus também foram duramente afetados pelo calor no final de junho.

 

Dados preliminares apontam mais de 4,7 mil mortes adicionais para o período na França, Holanda, Bélgica e Espanha, com a expectativa que o número aumente ainda mais, conforme outros países ainda atualizam seus balanços.

Embora o alto número de mortes esteja muito provavelmente relacionado ao clima extremo, não se pode falar automaticamente em mortes por calor. Esses casos são difíceis de determinar, principalmente quando se trata de idosos e pessoas com doenças preexistentes.

"Que as altas temperaturas têm influência é incontestável — mas em que medida muitas vezes não está claro", disse o diretor médico do serviço de emergência da cidade de Colônia, Alexander Lechleuthner, citado pela revista alemã Der Spiegel.

A crise climática tem tornado ondas de calor mais intensas e frequentes. Por isso, alguns especialistas apontam que as altas temperaturas serão cada vez mais consideradas um fator de risco à saúde.

"Com certeza temos mais mortes associadas ao calor do que ao trânsito", afirmou Uwe Janssens, diretor da Associação Interdisciplinar Alemã de Cuidados Intensivos e Medicina de Emergência (DIVI), à Spiegel.

Ao portal t-online, Sebastian Klüsener, diretor de pesquisa do Instituto Federal de Pesquisa sobre População, disse que se o número de mortos nas próximas semanas se mantiver nos níveis esperados em vez de diminuir, é sinal de que o calor provavelmente não só "antecipou" a morte de quem já tinha baixa expectativa de vida, mas também precipitou a morte de pessoas consideradas mais saudáveis.

 

Europe’s livestock sector faces heatwave reckoning after millions of chickens die

 

by  Joshua Poole

France’s late-June heatwave killed an estimated 2.5 million to 3 million broiler chickens, according to Le Monde, with Brittany among the worst-hit regions. The scale of mortality overwhelmed rendering services and forced authorities to allow emergency on-farm burial in some cases, turning the heatwave into an animal welfare crisis and a logistical emergency for farmers. 

The heatwave’s impact extended beyond France. In Belgium, farmers warned that cows and pigs were suffering heat stress, reducing feed intake, milk yields, and growth rates. The rolling effects are expected to result in losses for dairy and meat production. 

 

The deaths have opened a wider debate over how European livestock farming can protect animals and farmers from climate extremes, while also cutting the emissions that help drive those extremes. 

 

Climate change-driven heatwaves

World Weather Attribution, an international scientific collaboration that studies the influence of climate change on extreme weather events, says this heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” 50 years ago without human-caused climate change.

The organization concluded that climate change is “unequivocally to blame” for its severity. It says a similar heatwave in 1976 would have been about 3.5°C cooler, and that the overnight temperatures experienced in Western Europe in the final week of June are about 100 times more likely today than during the 2003 European heatwave. 

We spoke with World Weather Attribution, which told us that Europe’s infrastructure, including farms and animal housing systems, was largely built for cooler historical conditions. This means Europe’s increasingly frequent heatwaves are a growing concern for animal welfare and livestock farmers.

 

Heatwave hell for farmed animals

Last year, Compassion in World Farming released a report on how climate change-linked extreme weather impacts farmed animals. The report says that heat stress can seriously harm livestock, causing breathing and heart problems, dehydration, weaker immunity, reduced fertility, lower milk production — and in severe cases, death.

“Factory farming contributes significantly to climate change, and, as temperatures rise, animals trapped in factory farms suffer even more,” Compassion in World Farming tells Food Ingredients First. “Millions of animals are confined in overcrowded sheds, left without enough water, and transported in vehicles where temperatures can become dangerously high.”

Brittany’s agriculture authority has reported significant deaths as a result of June’s heatwave, mainly on poultry farms. It has fast-tracked burial exemptions for farms hit by mass poultry or pig mortalities and expects a return to “normal collection and processing capacities” in early July.

 

European Livestock Voice responds

We also spoke with Anton van den Brink, chair of European Livestock Voice, a Brussels-based livestock-sector coalition. Van den Brink accepts that the livestock sector is both vulnerable to climate-driven heatwaves and a contributor to the emissions driving them.

“But the discussion needs to be fair and practical,” he tells us. He refers to a leaked draft of the EU Livestock Strategy, expected to be published this week, which suggests EU livestock accounts for 8% of total emissions in the EU (66% of agricultural emissions), around 4% of global agriculture emissions, and less than 1% of global total emissions.

“Livestock farmers are on the frontline of climate change: heatwaves directly affect animal welfare, productivity, farm workers, feed availability, and farm economics. At the same time, livestock production has emissions, and the sector accepts its responsibility to reduce them,” says van den Brink.

The transition to more sustainable livestock farming should be done, van den Brink says, through innovation, efficiency, and investment — not by pushing production out of Europe. “The worst outcome would be to weaken European farmers, while increasing imports from regions with lower standards,” he says.

 

 Preparing for future heatwaves

Compassion in World Farming has called for robust emergency protections ahead of further heatwaves. These include reliable access to water, lower stocking densities, good ventilation, and restrictions on transporting animals during extreme heat.

Commercial broiler farming, it adds, should urgently transition to slower-growing breeds, which are more resilient in higher temperatures.

 ¨Although these measures will help in the short term, the long-term solution is to move away from factory farming toward higher-welfare, more resilient farming systems that are better for animals, people, and the planet,” the NGO says

 

For European Livestock Voice, the question is how to support a more adaptable, lower-emission livestock sector.

“Adaptation has to become part of everyday farm management. This includes better ventilation and cooling systems, shade, access to water, adjusted feeding strategies, heat-resilient housing design, early-warning systems, contingency planning, and investment in animal health and welfare monitoring,” says van den Brink.

 

Costly business for farmers

However, transitioning to more climate-resilient farming is expensive, cautions van den Brink.

“Farmers cannot be expected to carry the full burden alone, especially when many are already under severe economic pressure. Public policy must support investment in climate-resilient farms through targeted funding, faster permits, practical guidance, and research that works under real farm conditions.”

He says a “sensible approach” includes improving feed efficiency, animal health, breeding, manure management, renewable energy use, precision farming, and circular use of resources.

The deaths in France reveal that extreme heat is testing the limits of Europe’s livestock systems. The question now is whether farms can adapt quickly enough to protect animals and farmers, while also reducing the sector’s contribution to the warming that is making such heatwaves more severe.

'Hotter and hotter and hotter' - Europe's new climate in seven charts

 

Outdoor workers can be particularly vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat, such as that seen in the UK and Europe last month

by

Mark Poynting,Climate reporter,

Becky Dale,Senior data journalist, BBC Verify

 

 

We might only be a few days into July, but two record-breaking summer heatwaves have already provided the UK and Europe with a snapshot of their new climate.

Hot on the heels of May's heat, June saw temperature records not only broken but smashed in what the UN's weather agency called an "extraordinary" event across the continent.

And after a brief period of respite, another heatwave is on the way.

If this feels unusual, that is because it is. But it is also exactly what scientists predicted in our warmer world, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels releasing heat-trapping greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.

"Human-induced climate change has made events like this more likely and more intense," said Prof Stephen Belcher, chief scientist at the UK Met Office.

 The intensity of these heatwaves is evident from how far temperatures were above normal in May and June averaged across the UK, marked here in red.

 

 

While the June heat was strongest in southern England and south Wales, few areas escaped the warmth.

 

 

Temperatures peaked at 37.7C in Lingwood, Norfolk, according to provisional figures. It was one of several stations to surpass the UK's previous June high of 35.6C, set in 1957 and tied in 1976.

"To see temperatures like this in the UK in June is sobering," said Belcher.

Not every weather station has data as far back as the famous summer of 1976, but even some of the longest-running stations saw their previous records broken by 2C or more.

"We normally expect the records broken by small amounts – tenths, maybe up to a degree or so," said Ed Hawkins, professor of climate science at the University of Reading.

"So to have it shattered by such a large amount is noticeable and extraordinary, and of course this comes after a similar event in May."

 

June's heatwave may have felt particularly oppressive because it brought a double whammy of high temperatures and humidity. High humidity means it is harder for our bodies to cool down by sweating.

It also stayed very warm even after the Sun had set, making it difficult to sleep. Our bodies rely on cooler nighttime temperatures to recover from the heat of the day.

In Cardiff, temperatures did not drop below 23.5C on the night of Wednesday 24 June into Thursday – the warmest June night ever recorded around the UK.

Most of England and Wales experienced at least one tropical night in June, where temperatures do not fall below 20C. Historically, these have been very rare in the UK.

"We would definitely expect to see more and more tropical nights, as global temperatures keep rising," said Hawkins.

The same "heat dome" that brought extraordinary heat to the UK in June also saw records tumble across Europe.

The German weather service, Deutscher Wetterdienst, named it "a heatwave for the history books". The French weather agency, Météo-France, described it as "exceptional" and "historic".

More than a dozen countries across western, central and eastern Europe broke their June temperature record – with gaps of up to two or three degrees between old and new highs.

Some countries faced temperatures above 40C and set a new record for any time of year - even though June is typically cooler than July.

 

 France and Spain also recorded their hottest June days in terms of a national average, although higher temperatures had been reached before at individual weather stations.

"Compared to historical measurements, this was obviously very unusual," said Sonia Seneviratne, professor at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

The Alpine nation reached 39C, surpassing the previous June record by more than 2C.

"[But] I would say as a climate scientist, I was not that surprised to see this happen... when you know that we have a warming climate," she added.

Global temperatures have been rising over the past century due to humanity's emissions of greenhouse gases, but local or regional geography shapes the speed at which different places are warming.

And as Europe is warming particularly quickly, it is more exposed to frequent and stronger spells of extreme heat.

 

Europe's rapid warming is partly the result of the melting of bright snow and ice, and a drop in the number of tiny polluting particles in the air. This means that less of the Sun's energy is reflected back into space, leaving more energy to heat the Earth's surface.

Some scientists also argue that the warming climate may be changing atmospheric circulation patterns around Europe in a way that brings more of the high-pressure systems that can lead to heatwaves, although this is not certain.

Europe's seas are exceptionally warm this summer too. Marine heatwaves conditions around the UK's coast have strengthened partly because of last week's record-breaking air temperatures.

But as water takes longer to cool down than the air, sea heat can be longer-lasting. This can help to intensify future heatwaves on land by reducing the cooling effect from sea breezes.

Scientists are certain that climate change has already made warm spells like the June heatwave significantly hotter than the same weather systems of the past.

"The only way to explain [such strong heatwaves] is to taking into account this [long-term] warming," said Seneviratne

"When you have a high-pressure system, this heatwave will tend to be much hotter [now]. This is very well understood."

 

And scientists warn that as average temperatures continue to rise, hot spells of the future will be able to reach even higher temperatures.

Only a few decades ago, the UK reaching 30C in June was a relatively rare event. Now it has become the norm.

 

The long-term warming trend across the UK and Europe does not mean that the next heatwave will be hotter than the last, nor that next summer will necessarily be hotter than this one.

But scientists warn that UK and European summers will inevitably keep getting warmer on average as carbon emissions continue to heat up the planet.

"Our heatwaves will get hotter and hotter and hotter until we get to global net zero greenhouse gas emissions [and] we stabilise the climate," said Hawkins.

At least 25 people die in US as record heatwave scorches swaths of country. More than 20 states reported temperatures above 100F as heat dome sits over eastern US during holiday weekend

A woman grabs water from a bucket on the National Mall in Washington DC during 250th anniversary celebrations on 4 July. Photograph: Dominic Gwinn/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

 

 by Lucy Campbell

 

At least about two dozen people have died amid the perilous climate crisis-driven heatwave that has scorched swaths of the US with record temperatures.

As a huge heat dome sits over the county’s eastern half, extreme heat gripped millions of people in the days leading up to the US’s semiquincentennial on Saturday – and beyond it. More than 20 states experienced have reported stifling temperatures more than 100F (38C), marring celebrations. And more than 140 million people remained under active heat alerts across the US on Sunday.

Officials in New Jersey believe the extreme heat was a factor in the deaths of 22 people across 10 counties there, mostly in central and northern parts of the state. Many of the individuals were found in homes with no air conditioning, outside their residences, on the street and in parked cars, according to officials.

 

The first of those deaths occurred on Thursday, and the ages of the deceased in question mostly range from their mid-30s to their 80s. Preliminary findings cause investigators to believe the deaths are heat-related, though the chief state medical examiner for New Jersey would later determine the exact cause of death for each.

“This is not a typical summer heatwave,” the New Jersey department of public health said in a statement. “This type of heat can quickly become life-threatening to humans and to animals of all ages.”

 

The National Weather Service (NWS) has said cool air from the north in the coming days is going to lower some of the most extreme temperatures in the region, including New Jersey. The Fifa World Cup final is scheduled to be held in the New Jersey city of East Rutherford on 19 July.

Elsewhere, a heat-related death was reported in Cook county, Illinois, Natalia Derevyanny, a government spokesperson, told NBC News. The cause of that death was recorded as organic cardiovascular disease – with heat stress as a contributing factor.

Hinds county in Mississippi reported the death of 74-year-old Mitchell Ray Cooley due to heat exposure on Thursday, state officials said. Cooley had been reported missing, and his body was found the next day behind a gas station, the county coroner said in a statement.

 

People watch the Sail 250 parade of ships at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey, on 4 July. Photograph: Adam Gray/Reuters

 

“Mr Cooley suffered from a medical condition that impaired his judgment,” the coroner’s office said. “Based on the investigative findings, scene examination, and subsequent evaluation, the cause of death has been determined to be weather-related heat exposure. At this time, there is no indication of foul play.”

Meanwhile, on 27 June, Martha Irene Van Egmond, 83, died in Bolton, Mississippi, after falling in her garden. When her husband, Rick, tried to help her up, he fell too. The couple were unable to get up and spent hours in the heat.

Rick Van Egmond said he and his wife called out for help, and eventually two men from a nearby apartment complex came – but it was too late for Martha. She died surrounded by flowers, doing what she loved, he said to local news outlet WAPT.

Jeramiah Howard, Hinds county’s chief death investigator, attributed her death to the heat combined with her age, WAPT reported.

A person cools off with water from an open fire hydrant during a heatwave on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois, on 2 July. Photograph: Octavio Jones/AFP/Getty Images

As Donald Trump spoke during rain-dampened celebrations in Washington DC on Saturday, emergency services there had treated 51 people with heat-related issues as of 8pm ET, with 12 taken to nearby hospitals, according to local emergency response officials.

Other events scheduled for Saturday – including the Independence Day parade in DC – were cancelled amid the blistering heat. Among other weather-related disruptions, Trump’s so-called Great American State Fair on the National Mall also temporarily closed down on Friday after reports that 44 visitors had been treated for heat-related illnesses.

The worst of the heat started moving out of the US’s north-east and midwest regions by Sunday, shifting farther south into the mid-Atlantic and south-eastern parts of the country.

But scientists warn that heatwaves with extreme temperatures are indications that the world must lower the greenhouse gas pollution driving the global climate crisis.

The NWS is urging the public to avoid heat sickness by drinking plenty of fluids as well as staying out of the sun and in air-conditioned environments. Officials have also asked people to check on relatives and neighbors