Trains across the country have been cancelled or put on go-slow orders, schools and medical facilities have closed and people are being told to consider staying at home in the heatwave “crisis” for which the Government has issued a “red severe weather warning”, but which most of us just call summer. Here’s the Telegraph.
Blanket speed restrictions will be imposed on all railway lines, with both the train operators and Highways England warning people not to travel.
The Met Office said that “in general” it would be safer for people to stay indoors if possible.
Some GP surgeries and operating theatres have already closed as hospital bosses warned that the extreme weather made it hard to keep services running. Job centres in areas covered by the red severe weather warning will also be shut.
Schools in several counties, including Nottinghamshire and Hampshire, confirmed that they would close for two days following the health alerts. Others have reduced hours amid Met Office warnings that temperatures will soar to highs of 38C and 40C in some areas.
The UK’s first red extreme heat warning covers a large swathe of England from London to Manchester and York for both Monday and Tuesday and the UK Health Security Agency issued a heat health warning at level four, which is described as a “national emergency”.
Tracy Nicholls, the chief executive of the College of Paramedics, warned that the “ferocious heat” could kill people.
But Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, said the country should be resilient enough to withstand the pressures brought by the heat and urged people to “enjoy the sunshine” as long as they take “common sense” precautions.
David Davis, a senior Tory backbencher, said: “Obviously, if you’re at risk, if you’re a young child or elderly or you have some other condition, take care and obviously use hats and sunscreen and use the shade. But people exist in Mediterranean climes and handle it. So, if we use common sense we can do the same.”
Another senior Tory MP said he thought the public health messaging was “grossly inflated and scaremongering of the worst kind”.
I note that the forecast already seems to have been lowered to 38°C.
At the Daily Sceptic we want to put the forecasts to the test and invite any readers who have an outdoor thermometer (in the shade) to send in the temperature readings throughout the afternoon (and then again tomorrow). You can either put them in the comments below or email us here. If you know what the forecast was for your area then mention that as well so it’ll be easy to compare. Don’t forget to include your location. If you don’t have a thermometer you could use the current reading (not the forecast) from your phone weather app (mine currently, at 2:30pm in Warwickshire, says 37°C; the forecast yesterday was 39°C), though if it’s from an app rather than a thermometer do mention that.
We’ll see how close it really gets across the country to the 40-plus degrees predicted.
Stop Press: Plenty of replies to the post promoting this article on Twitter. Check them out.
Some replies by email:
- “BBC forecast was for a max of 40C, actual max Barbican City of London 33C.”
- “Rickmansworth. Met Office forecast 36. BBC Forecast 37. Actual Max outside my house (sensor connected to central heating system) 32.9 and cooling down a bit now.”
- “Colchester 17:00. Outside temperature in the shade 35C Forecast from the xc weather site was max 37C.”
- “The following temperature measurements were taken outside in the shade in Welburn, York this afternoon. The Met office forecast for the same location and time are in brackets: 14:00 28.8C (31C); 15:00 28.5C (32C); 16:00 29.1C (33C); 17:00 29.5C (34C).”
- “BBC predicted 34°c at 4pm, and 35°c at 5pm. Actual temperature taken in our garden in the shade at 4.10pm was 30.1°C”
- “Outside to the NE of the house it was 33.5°C in the shade at 16.30 h. The Met. Office forecast for Shobdon (5 km away) at 17.00 h was 35°C.”
- “Bolton Greater Manchester outside thermometer appears to have peaked out at 30.5C. Daily Mail prediction for Manchester 34C!”
- “Peaked at 31C at approximately 3:30pm on shaded north side of brick built house. Rural location, Dorset.”
- “Daventry, at one point 40 was forecast, downgraded to 38 this morning, now downgraded again to 36 and [at 5pm] we are still below on 34.”
- “Lavenham Suffolk. 5pm 33 deg Celsius on outdoor thermometer. Current max temp is 33. In the shade.”
- “Right now [at 4:30pm], weather.com says it’s about 33° down the road from the mothballed Plymouth Airport. I’ve checked the temperature with my thermometer and it’s about right.”
- “St Ives, Cambs: shade thermometer at 16.00 hrs is 34.5C. BBC weather site says 37C. Funny, because normally the BBC and my thermometer are within 1°C.”
- “16:00 temperature in Stroud = 36.2 degrees Celsius. In the shade. Outside.”
- “Rainhill, Merseyside, in the shade. Forecast 34 celsius at 3pm. Actual 30 degrees at 3pm.”
- “Owslebury, Hampshire, 29 degrees on my wall thermometer [at 3pm]. Met Office prediction was 31.”
- “Portsmouth via weather app on iPhone [at 3pm] 28 Deg.”
- “14:50. Back garden, Tidworth, Wiltshire: 34 Degrees measured with thermistor linked to multi-meter.”
- “38C at 1450 on our max/min thermometer at rural Watford Gap, Northants. Device is in the shade, north/east facing.”
- “St Ives, Cambs: shade thermometer at 14.25 hrs was 33C. Forecast/BBC weather tells me we are 35C heading for 37-38C”
- “14.25 BST in Temple Cowley, Oxford: North facing location outside, away from buildings and concrete, in the shade: 32 degrees Celsius.”
- “31 degrees here in Gittisham, East Devon [at 2pm].”
- “My favourite weathercam site with a sophisticated weather station has 28C recorded against Met Office’s 33C at 1400.”
- “Outside air temp at 2pm was 27C near Cockermouth, Cumbria. Met Office app gives me 28C, BBC Weather says 27C.”
- “It’s 30 degrees (via car thermometer) in Bradford / Leeds [at 12:45]. Forecast was for low 30s so not too far off.”
- “The temperature in central Paris at 14:10 is 31C (in the shade). They told us it would be 40 today… still a few hours left, I suppose.”
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26c here in S.Wales on an app, which also predicts 32c “At Noon”. Seeing as it’s noon already, it’s not looking good for Mystic Meg. The car thermometer says 25.5c.
We already know how this will go; “There was a switch in wind patterns, thankfully bringing the temperature down before it was too late!”
I wonder if anyone from the BBC will ask the very pertinent question. ‘If you can be out by 5c plus over a three day period, what confidence should we put in predictions of 1.5c over 30 years.’
It’s 33c in London at Noon. Hot, but a long way off the forecasts.
I suspect they give a worst case scenario to cover themselves (possibly mindful of Michael Fish).
There seems to be a similar thing when there is any possibility of lightning.
For what it’s worth, we were about one degree celsius below what the BBC predicted for a nearby city.
A worst case scenario for the BBC is not having high temperatures to justify their scare mongering.
More probably because the BBC decided long ago to abandon their legal Charter for impartiality, and become climate alarmists.
Bristol BS9 mid-day:
In the sun (behind a white screen) 28.8C
In the bushes 23.5C.
(results from wireless thermometers)
28.3 here in Gloucestershire by the river Severn. Shaded temp gauge my garden. Incidentally the pressure must be dropping because my electronic gizmo is showing rain!
3 fine days and a thunderstorm? Probably.
28C in Swansea a mile from town centre, at 12:20
predicted highest at 16:00 34C
32 degrees in Thames Valley – meant to be 35 by now.
32 is really nothing exceptional.
35 (car thermometer and weather app) in IG9. Forecast dropped to 37.
34 degrees in the shade, Hertfordshire.
Car thermometer in full sun at 12;30 says 29. So far it’s a hot summer’s day, nothing exceptional, this is in Warwickshire.
33C at 12,30pm in Kent.(Weather app.)
Railway restrictions are due to possibility of rails buckling, not so much from high air temperature, but continuous direct overhead Sumer sunshine.
In my experience this is not unusual in summertime on very sunny days.
I think it is a feature of continuous welded rails to give smoother, quieter ride, rather than use of fishplates and expansion joints of former days.
And they haven’t worked out how to build expansion joints into these yet – after all these years!
It’s 28.5 in Mitcham, South London at 12.45pm Met Office says 34
Rural Herefordshire
12:50 AND 27c (via app) – forecast claims should already be 34 on way to 36….
30c here on the Wirral – have kept my winter woollies on until the UKHSA tell me otherwise!
31.7C a couple of miles southeast from Bedford, thermometer in the shed on a north-facing wall of the house. Timed at 1pm.
BBC weather app says 35C for the same location.
28c in Fife. Imagine it feels very hot in the sunshine (not been out yet) but it’s not uncomfortably hot indoors with the windows open and half a curtain drawn.
34.3 °C just north of Swindon, around 13:05. At least it’s not humid outside at the same time. Some years ago, I had some experience of it being hot and humid together, in Hong Kong.
In addition to the home reading, this site is potentially interesting: https://www.westweather.co.uk/ It’ll have the daily extremes on that page. They are not forecasting anything above 34 though. It’s based on the American GFS model, I think.
Bristol BS9 13:20:
In the sun (behind a white screen) 41.9C (was 28.8C at mid-day)
In the bushes now 28.2C (was 23.5C at mid-day).
(results from wireless thermometers)
Car inside garage with open door 27.0C.
33c in Huddersfield on car themometer, about spot on with the forecast, however I have not read any of the government public safety advice so I am probably dead and in hell.
Using our weatherstation we recording 35.4 in Somerset today. You can check out the weather station network here: https://app.weathercloud.net/map
On the Peak District Borders, we’re at 35.2c Maybe another degree as the afternoon wears on, but thats the max for today. Supposed to be 38c plus here tomorrow, (the Met Office had 42c…) but then 22c all week, so this a short, freak event.
So I had the BBC news on this morning in the background (I know, I know, apologies), and they had what seemed like 30 continues minutes of unrelenting fear porn “news” devoted to our apocalyptic and “unprecedented heat wave”.
Scientists, meteorologists, self-proclaimed “experts”, businesses and ordinary people all stepped up with opinions peddling the climate change narrative.
A reporter at a campsite (live) interviewed a couple of campers, all discussing how hot it was. Then the reporter asked a lady camper something on the lines: “I bet it was really hot last night!”, of which the lady replied: “Well actually, I was a bit cold, I had to put a jumper on.”
This was followed by an errm, uhm and a quick pan away from the lady with a passing, hurried comment from the reporter to the effects: “Well, anyway, it’s gonna be hot.” That genuinely made me chuckle.
Ah BBC, the perils of live reporting with the unrehearsed general public not eschewing the prevailing narrative, eh? Queue adding campsites to the list of live interview scenarios requiring a 5 second delay.
33c full sun south coast near Worthing
Not going to mention the temperature here but I want to comment on the responses from “experts” to Dominic Raab’s sensible comments about being careful. Cancer campaigners said it was irresponsible for him to encourage us to enjoy the weather but take precautions like drinking a lot and using sunscreen. They claimed that he didn’t go far enough in his warnings. STOP TREATING US LIKE CHILDREN!!!!!!! Raab’s comments are perfectly sensible, most are capable of reading the instructions on a bottle of sunscreen and I’m sick of so many announcements to keep “hydrating” (what happened to “drinking”?).
Rant over. Enjoy the day everyone.
What have coronavirus campaigners said about depressed levels of vitamin D because of people not getting enough sun, or not benefitting from it if they do get it due to excessive use of sun cream, I wonder?
True story, apparently – companies selling bottles of water were banned from describing their product as being “hydrating”. Due to EU rules or something. These pharmaceutical companies…
Wokingham peaked at 35.5 and is now 34.8 . the forecast had been 39c.
http://www.wokinghamweather.co.uk/
33 degrees here in Oaksey right now.
36.8 maximum at 13:56 today in full sun at the bottom of the garden. I am just south of Bolton.
That’s measured on a half-decent Bresser Weather Station.
For comparison the Apple Weather app on my phone was predicting a high of 34c today.
I took the reading I gave above from the 24h high reading as measured by the weather station. It’s placed in the open at the bottom of the garden in direct sun and not screened so it wouldn’t count as an official reading but it’s accurate for what it’s worth.
38.8c just now (15:07pm)
Inside in the shade, south-facing room is 27c
33 here in Kent at a push. If it gets to 40 my arse is a hippodrome as they say.
You’ll never know if it reaches 40℃ as it’s impossible for human beings to survive at such temperatures. Good luck.
They’re all going to DIE!
Here in West Somerset it’s 29C in the shade and 31C in the sun.
And we’re still alive!!
School thermometer gives extreme unprecedented crisis reading of 31℃. Please help. We are literally dying in West Yorkshire.
Saddleworth 14:18 at the front of the house and in full sunshine 35°.
An app on the ‘phone shows outside temperature at 33°.
App on iPhone (weather-station based) says 34C, 4C short of maximum predicted yesterday. Gut feeling says (after moving through the sun for a while) warm but not hot, maybe a little more than yesterday. Absolutely nothing compared to temperatures I have already endured in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Another emergency of national headlines about one.
Out of curiosity: Does anyone have an idea what a ferocious temperature is supposed to be? The number looks as peaceful as all others do.
From one of my Twitter followers: At 14.25 BST in Temple Cowley, Oxford: North-facing location outside, away from buildings and concrete, in the shade: 32 degrees Celsius. South-facing In direct sunshine: 37 degrees. Temperature inside house, in north-facing room: 33 degrees. Thermometer is an alcohol thermometer, uncalibrated with any other thermometer, so reading taken with that in mind.
So it’s 27/81 in Glasgow. Taps aff weather as we say here.
Warwickshire, 34C measured on car thermometer in dappled shade under a tree at 3pm.
So 27.5 degrees here in sunny south Hampshire, 29 degrees predicted, but we’ve already peaked.
Met Office shows 33C on top of Swansea City FC stadium at 15:00
10 mins walk uphill I have 28C in the shade.
Hi there In Colkirk mid Norfolk .Some numbers for you .
Midday fcast 27c actual 28c
1.00pm fcast 28c actual 30c
2.00pm fcast 28c actual 31c
3.00pm fcast 35c actual 31c
Actuals taken from a shaded ,basic B and q garden thermometer ,just cross checked with another from indoors and reading seem accurate ish .
At 14:00 in West Sussex (not far from Gatwick airport) my car thermometer said 34.5’C. I’m sure the “official” Gatwick weather station – at the end of the runway where the engines rev up – will report much higher.
Car thermometers are rather dodgy – if the vehicle has been cooking in the sun it will naturally record a high temperature. Travelling from Oxfordshire to Somerset today the car thermometer read 35C as we set off; after a few miles of actual travel it had reduced to 28C.
Indeed they can. A few years ago I had one with an obvious temperature gauge fault that gave a false output on display,, and another one (in the same car) that affected the coolant temperature gauge, and resulted in the engine dropping into it’s “limp mode”. It was one of the older Honda Civics, and in limp mode the max engine speed was 2000 rpm – so it could run at 70 mph on the level.
These are the sort of temperatures that humans are designed for and often seek out by flying to exotic locations. It’s actually really nice to have the good weather come to you for a change.
Hi Toby, just tried to vote for some comments on here and get message that I had already voted for them.Bit difficult to believe as they were new with zero votes!!!.This has happened before I hope the met office or 77th are not trying to downplay reality or is it the mighty manboob himself Billy boy…
Try refreshing the page… that usually works.
At 1530 it is 33.3C inside my north-facing shed against the north wall of the house.
BBC app says 37C for my location a few miles SE of Bedford.
Car said 37C while driving, sensor is about 9″ above ground so tends to read the warmer air above the tarmac.
4.00 pm Batley Forecast 34; Actual 27.5
16:30h LE16 near Market Harborough. Outdoor thermometer in shade, NNW facing 39°C
Just checked BBC weather app. Says it should be 36°C.
West Glos by the Severn – was 35.7 at 3pm (highest), now dropping swiftly. Currently 34.4.
However, pressure is still dropping. I wonder if this is going to break sooner than they think?
Quite likely; tomorrow there could be a large shift in temperature – say at least 10 °C lower than now, with a north westerly wind.
Liz Bentley who apparently is Chief Exec of the Met Office said on Talk TV today that 1976 (with 16 consecutive days over 30 C) was a “localised” heatwave. Really Liz! They are shameless these people. 1976 is inconvenient for them so they come up with “localised”.
All of the UK’s weather is imported from elsewhere so she must know that that is nonsense.
52 C standing here in the conservatory with the doors closed!
But seriously, this is most odd, since the BBC weather website usually gets it bang on for our locality. I wonder if they plan on continuing with exaggerating the weather whenever it becomes unusual.
They have a tendency for “defensive forecasting” since Autumn 1987, when they had a bad press for the storm damage in London and the surrounding areas.
That is interesting
At 5.50pm it’s 34.5 outside in the shade here in Haxby (near York) compared to 34/35 or 36 depending on which weather app I look at!.
36.6C in semi-shade at 6pm in Cheshire. 38.7C was the highest today. Put up the marquee for the local beer festival this morning. Slightly sweaty but nobody died. Didn’t even wear any sun cream – what I fool I am.
It’s sun screen that promotes skin cancer: intense cocktail of chemicals to put on the skin, add radiation and hey presto! Best to limit exposure and as you say not daub yourself in that stuff, even the nice smelling ones!
At 1800 temperature in the shaded shed is 35.1C having peaked at 35.3C 15 minutes earlier.
BBC weather app shows 37C for a few miles SE of Bedford.
By the River Wharfe it’s 28.
The guy next to me is on the phone to someone, telling him that,
“London is currently the hottest place on earth. Yeah. Amazing, mate. Yeah, that’s what they’re saying. Crazy, innit. Hotter than the Sahara they’re saying. I wouldn’t want to be in London now, mate.”
PS in the shade, obviously, under the trees. Lovely spot. Bring your vulnerable relatives.
Bit hot here in Wiltshire/Dorset borders…cucumber sandwiches curled up…it’s just after 7am, probably about 25C.
0900, shaded north facing shed currently at 28.7C
BBC observations says about 27C.
What a great country we live in now (not)! As soon as a blip or even a hint of ‘danger’ appears, all our public services, who are supposed to *support* us in these times, shut up shop.
My Weather Channel app says it is 37 at circa noon today where I am in North London. My Oregon Scientific digital thermometer, sitting in the shade just outside on the balcony reads 29. In the US, I recall the use of a Heat Index that factored in the humidity. In the winter you have the actual temperature and then the wind chill effect. Yet again we need to question the narrative.
35 degrees in Hurst, Berkshire, just down the road from Theresa May’s constitutency office, at 12:30. According to my App it is 36, but its not, and they still have the forecast for this time at 37, but its not that either.
Bedfordshire – Tuesday 15:15 39 on my iPhone weather app.
Aberystwyth
Monday max 31.4
Tuesday briefly 33.2 midday then 31
Measured in a no-sun spot but against the house that never gets sun
Went to Bournemouth for a jolly left home it was 30° at 9:30 by 10:30 the thermometer hit 32° along the coast. Sensible precautions in and out of the shade and drinking plenty of water – even had an ice cream on the beach. Heading back to the car (we’d parked in a multistorey) it was a comfortable 26°. A little uncomfortable heading home when the thermometer hit 35° full sun but gave the children an ice-lolly and sent them to bed with a fan next to then – we had a lovely day there was no need for the alarmist reporting.