30 July 2006The Independent
Hot weather will return by the end of the week, after a brief respite from the heatwave, the Meteorological Office said yesterday.
Tomorrow, Britain, like several other European countries - including France, Germany and the Netherlands - will officially declare this July to have been the hottest month since records began.
Meanwhile, a new report, published yesterday by Washington's prestigious Earth Policy Institute, has revealed that the last big European heatwave, three years ago, killed a total of 52,000 people, mainly in France, Italy and Germany. More than 2,000 died in Britain.
After a few days of wet and cooler weather sweeping in from the Atlantic, temperatures are expected to rise even further.
The drought that has gripped the UK for 20 months - the worst in over a century - is one of the main reasons for the extreme heat. The sun's energy is going into heating up the air and land, whereas under normal conditions some of it would be diverted to evaporate water.
Another factor is that Britain's cool, wet, prevailing westerly winds have largely disappeared. Instead, huge anticyclones have taken up residence over the North Sea, drawing warm, dry air from continental Europe, and even from the Sahara. The same phenomenon was responsible for the cold weather last winter. Again, the westerlies, which bring warmth from the Gulf Stream in winter, were replaced with cold air.
The anticyclones are thought to be caused by a northwards shift in the jet stream, the giant, high current of air that governs much of the northern hemisphere's weather. No one knows if this is the result of global warming, but it is the sort of development that would be expected as climate change takes hold.
But during this summer's heatwave across the northern hemisphere, the worst toll so far has been in California, more specifically its Central Valley agricultural heartland, where temperatures have topped 112F for a record 11 days in a row. Bodies are double stacked and decomposing in Fresno County's morgue, which was recently extended in readiness for a possible bioterrorism attack, but, even so, it cannot cope. Power failures have struck California's overloaded electricity grid. Managers had not foreseen the demand for air conditioning. The problem was compounded by the proliferation of big plasma televisions, which use as much power as a large refrigerator.
This weekend, the scorching weather is due to spread across the United States to the east coast, claiming victims and straining power grids there too.
Pineapples take root in civil servants' favourite park
Britain's top mandarins - and spies - are in for a shock as they take their habitual stroll round St James's Park in London. For, as the heatwave blazes on, gardeners are uprooting traditional begonias and geraniums and planting pineapples and rubber trees instead.
The Royal Parks Agency is planting the tropical species for the first time ever in some particularly dry beds next to Oliver Peyton's lakeside café, Inn the Park, where the establishment relives its nursery days by breakfasting on soft-boiled eggs and soldiers.
Dennis Clarke, the agency's head of park services, says: "British gardeners have always experimented by trying out new plants. We are not planning to replace every plant in the Royal Parks with tropical species, but we are evolving as the climate changes."
HOT STUFF
20% drop in vegetable crops due to the heatwave, according to the Processed Vegetable Growers' Association
£154m potential cost to the UK economy in daily output if soaring temperatures continue
£10m worth of profits lost after a power cut in the West End of London on Friday
£150,000 worth of crops destroyed in the West Midlands in blazes caused by barbecues and cigarettes
750% rise in sales of solar panels, according to reports from solar panel retailers Maplin Electronics, compared with two weeks ago
40% rise in sales of air conditioning units and fans at B&Q stores
36.5C temperature recorded in south-east of England this month, making it the hottest day in July for 95 years
30C maximum working temperature being called for by the TUC
26m bottles of water sold last week in the UK
17.7C average temperature this month, the hottest July on record
