Britain on Wednesday saw its hottest September day since 2016 as temperatures soared to 32C (89.6F), said the national weather service, warning that the warmest day of the year will likely be recorded this week. “Today has been the hottest September day since 2016 with Kew Gardens, London reaching 32.0°C,” the Meteorological Office, commonly known as the Met Office, said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Saying that temperatures will rise even further over the coming days, it noted that the UK is likely to exceed the current top temperature of 2023, which stands at 32.2C (89.96F), which was recorded in June.
On Tuesday, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Met Office issued an amber heat-health alert (HHA) for eight regions in England, including the capital, London.
The alert is currently in effect from noon on Tuesday until 9 p.m. on Sunday and the regions included in the alert are London and the South East, South West, North West, East Midlands, West Midlands, East of England, Yorkshire and the Humber, the UKHSA said in a statement.
The amber alert indicates that weather-related impacts are likely to affect the entire healthcare system. It has been issued due to a forecasted temperature increase exceeding 30°C (86°F) by the country’s meteorological department.
Meanwhile, the summer of 2023 was the hottest ever recorded.
"It was the hottest August on record – by a large margin – and the second hottest ever month after July 2023," the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said Wednesday.