UK Sets New Highest June Temperature as Met Office Records 36.7C in Somerset

The UK set a new highest June temperature as the Met Office said temperatures reached 36.4C at Yeovilton, Somerset, on Thursday afternoon, provisionally making it the UK’s hottest June day on record.

“London, United Kingdom – “At midnight yesterday, the temperature in my home was 31 degrees, which I could not control,” said Bijal Shah, a pharmacist who has spent the past fortnight trying and failing to buy a portable air conditioning unit or even an industrial fan to cool his five-month-old grandson who is unwell”

Al Jazeera

The record was then surpassed when provisional temperatures reached 36.7C in Merryfield, Somerset, and the Met Office said the new record could be exceeded again in the coming hours.

Al Jazeera

The BBC reported the UK could experience its warmest June night ever after the country saw a record temperature for the month recorded on Thursday afternoon with the temperature reaching 36.7C.

The BBC also said overnight temperatures in Cardiff did not drop below 23.5C, exceeding the previous record of 22.7C set in 1976, as the heatwave was driven by a “heat-dome” settling over western Europe.

The Met Office extended a rare red warning for extreme heat until 9pm on Friday for London and parts of south-eastern England, and the BBC said schools closed and a hosepipe ban was brought in for customers in Kent during the heatwave.

London Ambulance Service said it recorded the highest ever number of life-threatening emergencies in its history “driven by the extreme heat” on Wednesday, and chief executive Jason Killens said crews were working “very hard in challenging conditions to care for patients.”

The BBC reported that at least six NHS trusts in England declared critical incidents because of the heatwave, and it said the extreme heat caused problems with IT systems, cancer equipment, lab testing and scanners.

BBC

In Wales, the BBC said a 50-year-old man died after entering the water at a Welsh beach on Wednesday, with South Wales Police calling to Aberavon beach at around 16:25.

The Met Office’s warnings were tied to population-wide adverse health effects, and the BBC said people should expect “population-wide adverse health affects” leading to “serious illness or danger to life.”

The BBC also described how temperatures away from northern Scotland would not drop below the high teens and that within the red warning area temperatures could peak for some at 37C or 38C.

Across Europe, the CBC said Britain’s Met Office extended a red heat alert covering a large area into Friday, the first time such warnings have been issued for three days in a row, while France’s Health Minister Stephanie Rist told a news conference that “We are just at the start of seeing an increase in people going to emergency wards.”

“- Published The UK could experience its warmest June night ever, forecasters say, after the country saw a record temperature for the month recorded on Thursday afternoon with the temperature reaching 36”

BBC

The Guardian reported that the UK’s new provisional high of 36.4C (97.5F) recorded in Yeovilton, Somerset, surpassed Wednesday’s June record of 36.1C in Gosport, Hampshire, and it said the scorching conditions were linked to the death of a three-year-old boy after he became trapped in his family’s car in the suburbs of Paris.

The Guardian also quoted Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire saying there had been an “increase in mortality” in the capital and that “Pretty much all our indicators are in a critical state,” as it cited calls to emergency services and hospital admissions and deaths.

In France, NBC News said the French capital enforced early closures of iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum, and it reported that French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu decided to “activate the highest level of public health mobilization, called ORSAN level 3.”

The Guardian further reported that the UK Health Security Agency found that more than 10,000 people died in Britain owing to summer heatwaves between 2020 and 2024, and it said the UKHSA extended its red heat-health alert by 24 hours to 11pm on Friday.