We’re facing a Level 3 – Heatwave Action alert this week
The Met Office has issued a heatwave warning to the UK as the country faces its hottest weather of the year so far this coming Wednesday and Thursday.
The warning is issued whenever a region of the UK is set to experience extremely high temperatures – with the south and south-east of England set for scorching temperatures and large parts of the country set for ‘heatwave’ conditions. The next stage up is level four – described as a national emergency.
The warning reads: “Triggered when the Met Office confirms threshold temperatures for one of more regions have been reached for one day and the following night, and the forecast for the next day has a greater than 90% confidence level that the day threshold temperature will be met.
“This stage requires social and healthcare services to target specific actions at high-risk groups.”
Think it's hot now?! 🌡️
As we look ahead to next week, some southeastern areas could reach 34 Celsius, but it will be fresher towards the north and west pic.twitter.com/PRZI1y0uf5
— Met Office (@metoffice) July 21, 2018
An NHS spokesperson said: “Stay out of the sun. Keep your home as cool as possible – shading windows and shutting them during the day may help.
“Open them when it is cooler at night. Keep drinking fluids. If there’s anybody you know, for example an older person living on their own, who might be at special risk, make sure they know what to do.”
Met Office forecaster Simon Partridge said: “The heat this week is going to be highest in the south and south-east of the UK. We are going to see a gradual increase in the temperature through the week as warm air arrives in Britain from the south of Spain.
“It will be around 31C on Monday, followed by 31/32C on Tuesday and then could see temperatures of up to 34/35C on Wednesday and Thursday – higher than 33C which is the hottest recorded temperature this year. In fact, we could see the hottest day for three years.”
