While summer so far this year in the UK hasn’t been particularly, erm, summery (but fear not, at least some sunnier weather seems to be on the way), the situation elsewhere has been much, much worse. The extreme heat and catastrophic forest fires which have swept across Europe in the last few weeks certainly aren’t to be envied.
However, it looks like similarly ridiculously hot summers might not just be on the cards for the UK – they might be inevitable. According to the Met Office, heat exceeding 40C is becoming ever more plausible.
It’s no news that climate change is at the root of these ‘extreme weather events’. And it's no longer a case of reducing our emissions just to help us in some distant future. Climate change is now a very present threat that is affecting huge swathes of the planet right now.
The Met Office’s Oli Claydon explained that: ‘We’re already experiencing the impacts of climate change now, so there’s already a need to adapt to the types of weather extremes that we can see in the UK.’
As we saw last year, the UK is already capable of experiencing the kind of weather once projected to be the average summer temperatures in 2050. And many climate professionals believe the UK is vastly ill-equipped to handle that kind of heat.
Dr Candice Howarth of the London School of Economics explained that infrastructure and public welfare services need more preparation, as during the July 2022 heatwave they ‘only just managed to respond’.
A failure from the government to lead better preparation for extreme heat could lead to ‘heat-related deaths, wider impact on workers’ health and productivity and increasing rates of overheating in UK homes and buildings,’ said Dr Howarth.
‘If it’s extremely hot, you ought to keep out of the sunshine, but it doesn’t help if indoors is very, very warm,’ explained Sir David King, chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group.
‘We don’t have to have air conditioning, but moving air is critical – just to get the perspiration off our skin. That’s how we cool ourselves down.’
Cities are likely going to be worst affected and counteracting the heating properties of tarmac is one way to help keep places cooler. Last year, we spoke to Professor Joanna D. Haigh, the former co-director of the Institute of Climate Change at Imperial College London, who said that ‘planting more trees and green areas in cities is a simple thing to do to make them better for the temperature and environment.’
It seems that plenty can be done to help us prepare for the inevitable increase in our average summer temperatures – but whether these recommendations will be acted on soon enough is another question.
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