'Controlled burn' strategy at Elstow waste site fire
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Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Here comes the sun! Brits are in for damp day or two before ANOTHER heatwave hits... and summer finally seems to stick
Brits will be needing both an umbrella and their sun cream only days apart as the weather in the next few days is set to swing from one extreme to another. Thunder and lightning were seen across the UK yesterday, with flood alerts in place in some areas of England. But as the clouds begin clearing up today with some light showers, the country is looking ahead to its third heatwave of the summer, with the mercury hitting above 30C by the end of the week. However, the muggy weather will stay into the nights, making it difficult for some to sleep. Hay fever sufferers will also be cursing the heatwave as they will be blighted by high pollen count. Today will be drier and brighter for many, with lengthy sunny spells, though a few showers lingering in the southeast, which could be heavy at times. In the north, it will be cloudier with patchy rain as well as cooler. From tomorrow til Thursday, high pressure from the west will build bringing widely dry, settled conditions for the south. Further north it will be breezier with spells of rain at times but temperatures on the rise nonetheless. Wednesday is looking to be the start of the warm period, with the weekend predicted to stay in the low 30s. The duration of the hot spell remains difficult to gauge, and there are uncertainties about just how high temperatures will rise. It also appears as though the UK will avoid the stifling weather of the high 30s and low 40s seen in the Mediterranean. The heat will feel unrelenting for many, as the UK will have only just come out of its second heatwave last week and the warmest June on record for England. Marco Petagna, senior meteorologist at the Met Office, said: 'I think Wednesday is probably going to be the day when we could start to reach the thresholds of 25 to 28 degrees, depending on where you are. 'But of course, you need three days at those temperatures for it to be able to be called a technical heatwave. 'So, although the temperature will be reaching the criteria, we probably won't actually reach an official heatwave until around Friday, to give the three consecutive days at those temperatures. 'But temperatures are going to continue to climb as we go toward the end of the week and certainly by Friday and Saturday we could see 30 degrees, perhaps just nudging into the low 30s. 'At the weekend, we could just start to see humidity increasing a little bit as well and nighttime temperatures look like they are going to be, so it will be starting to become more uncomfortable by night.' Mr Petagna added: 'It's a bit of a question mark going through the weekend early next week as to how long the heat will last and how high the temperatures will get, because some models are sort of pushing the heat away a bit more quickly, whereas others keep the heat going. 'At this stage it looks as though certainly into next weekend, we should hold on to hot weather across the south of the UK and temperatures could again certainly get into the low 30s in a few spots. 'And we are going to see some very high pollen and very high UV levels as well. 'But at this stage, we've managed to escape some of the very highest temperatures, those seen across Spain and Portugal in particular, where it has reached the mid-40s.' The hot spell comes after a yellow warning was activated for the East of England, East Midlands and Yorkshire & Humber between 7am and 7pm yesterday. The Met Office warned on the weekend that hail, flooding and lightning strikes may be possible in these areas that will result in damage to some buildings. Specific areas that were set to be impacted by the adverse weather conditions include Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Peterborough, Suffolk, East Riding of Yorkshire, Kingston upon Hull, North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire. Thunderstorms were expected to cause widespread travel disruption with the Met Office saying there is 'a good chance driving conditions will be affected by spray, standing water and/or hail, leading to longer journey times by car and bus.' Locals were also told to expect delays to train services. Parts of eastern England were ready to see a downpour of 15-25 millimetres of rain which some feared would lead to flooding of homes and businesses. The heavy rain came as relief for some after the UK soldiered on through two heatwaves last month which posed a 'risk to life'. Met Office figures showed that England saw its warmest June on record with a mean temperature of 16.9C, and the second warmest for the UK overall since records began in 1884 with a mean temperature of 15.2C. Sunseekers basked in searing 34.7C in St James's Park, London, on July 1 as the UK saw its hottest day of the year reached. It followed the warmest and sunniest spring on record for the UK. Scientists warned the searing temperatures earlier in June were made 100 times more likely because of human-caused climate change. In Bedfordshire, the council gritters were dispatched to protect the roads and provide grip for drivers amid concerns the heat could cause the tarmac to soften. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) activated a five-day warning starting last Friday due to concerns that there could be 'a rise in deaths, particularly among those ages 65 and over or with health conditions'. The amber heat health alert covered the East Midlands, South East, South West and East of England, alongside Somerset - where Glastonbury was roaring ahead. Meanwhile, Europeans were warned to stay indoors as the continent goes on high alert for extreme 47C heat. Indeed, a new Spanish high temperature record for June of 46C was confirmed on June 28 by the AEMET - Spain's state meteorological agency. Forest fires and flash floods wrecked chaos across the continent, with warnings of an intense heatwave. Sweltering infernos melted roads in Italy while raging wildfires tore through Greece. Two-thirds of Portugal were be on high alert last week for extreme heat and forest fires, with 42C expected in the capital Lisbon. It was so hot that Sicily and areas of northern Italy banned outdoor work in the hottest hours of the day. In Nice, on the French Riviera, nearly 250 portable fans were distributed to schools to help students cope with the heat. As July kicks off, forecasters said temperatures in the mid-30Cs are still relatively uncommon for the month in the UK, although they are becoming increasingly frequent with climate change.
The Independent
8 hours ago
- The Independent
The UK's third heatwave of the summer is imminent
The UK is set to experience its third heatwave of the summer, with temperatures expected to exceed 30C in some areas this week. The Met Office has warned of warm and uncomfortable nights as temperatures are forecast to climb from Wednesday. An official heatwave is anticipated by Friday, requiring three consecutive days of high temperatures to meet the criteria. Temperatures could reach the low 30s by Friday and Saturday, with increased humidity making nights uncomfortable. High pollen and UV levels are also expected, though the UK is likely to avoid the extreme temperatures seen in the Mediterranean. How long will the third heatwave of the summer last and how hot will it get?
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ben Stokes' waning influence with the bat on display in England's soggy defeat
It was raining hard in Birmingham on Sunday morning. A weight of great black clouds broke over the city while it was feeling its way into the day. On the streets people pressed themselves together under the cover of bus stops and awnings: revellers off to the Queens Heath pride festival, heavy metal lovers making their way home after Black Sabbath's farewell gig at Villa Park the previous evening, and cricket supporters bound for the ground, most of them with last-minute tickets, split between anxious Indian and wry English fans, the only people in the city who were happy enough to be getting wet. The bad weather was about the only way England were going to get out of this match with a draw. A team who have spent three years learning how to do the improbable were in no position at all to attempt the unremarkable and bat out the match, even after the rain had washed out the first hour-and-a-half of the day. Their attempt to play out the remaining 80 overs of the game was as good as up by the lunch break, broken by a superb spell of fast bowling by Akash Deep, who had only played seven Tests before this, but is 28, and has spent years in Indian first class cricket learning how to get every last bit out of unhelpful pitches like this one. Deep took as many wickets in this match as England's four quicks managed between them and gave them one long lesson in how to bowl in their own conditions. He produced more good balls in his first spell on Sunday than they had between them in the match. One of them got Ollie Pope, dismissed playing the sort of janky defensive shot that makes people question his spot in the order all over again, and another did for Harry Brook, who was beaten by a jaffa that nipped back off a crack and smacked into his thigh bone. So in came Ben Stokes, England's last hope now the clouds had blown over. Strange to say about a man who's performed so many wonders, but it felt like no hope at all. Stokes is just the sort of man you might hire to slay the Nemean Lion, but it's less obvious that he's the one you would send in with a shovel to muck out the Augean Stables. Time was when he could do it for you. It's easy to forget, among everything else he's done for England, that he's played a series of rearguard innings over the years for captains before him, 66 off 188 balls against New Zealand in 2018, 62 off 187 against India at Trent Bridge later that same year. But anyone who's watching knows those days are a way behind him. On Sunday, Stokes managed just over an hour and a half of batting. There was one of those familiar pull shots against Prasidh Krishna, like a lumberjack making the last cut on a California redwood, and a couple of crisp glances to fine leg, but that was about the best of it. He was, he always is, bamboozled by Ravindra Jadeja's way of bowling into the rough outside off-stump. It's like watching a grizzly bear try to solve a Rubik's Cube. He was eventually done, in the last over before lunch, by one of Washington Sundar's innocuous off-breaks. Stokes has such a big influence as captain that it goes almost unnoticed that he has so little influence as a batsman. He's made one century in the past three years, and that was a bar-room brawl in a losing cause against Australia at Lord's, when he was furious that Alex Carey had run out Jonny Bairstow. Since then, he's scored six fifties in 33 innings, none bigger, or better, than the 80 he made in the first innings of an English victory in Christchurch last November. His batting average was 39 in the first year of his captaincy, but was 28 last year, and is just 19 so far in this one. Among all the other records Shubman Gill set this week, he outscored Stokes by 397 runs in the match, which is the largest gap between two captains in the history of Test cricket. Gill, of course, doesn't have to do any of his team's bowling. Stokes was superb with the ball at Headingley just last week. For all the hard work he's put into that over the past 12 months, you wonder how he would be batting now if he had been willing, or able, to put the same sort of time into the other side of his all-round game. He didn't play at all for Durham this year, and aside from his England commitments, he's had exactly one red ball innings in the past year. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion It's asking a hell of a lot of him to bat as well as he bowls, and bowl as well as he leads, but that's what England need.
