UK weather: No more heatwave on the horizon as UK conditions cool
Wednesday's temperatures will range between 16C to 26C north to south. Tonight will also be cooler, fresher and more comfortable.Temperatures for much of the next week will be in the mid to high teens in Scotland and Northern Ireland and low to mid-20s in England and Wales. However, Friday will likely be the warmest day, when we could see 27C or 28C in the far south-east.Will there be a drought where I live?
After the driest spring on record and a dry start to summer for many, especially in England, there is some rainfall expected over the next five days. The majority will fall in the north-west of the British Isles. Yorkshire and North-west England are already in drought, and the Environment Agency says two thirds of England's river flow are currently classed as "below normal or lower for the time of year". Eastern Scotland and parts of Wales are also seeing low water levels.Thursday and Friday will see some outbreaks of rain, mainly in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Temperatures throughout the weekend will be widely unsettled across the UK and showers will be unpredictable. It is likely that higher pressure will build again into the second week of July, meaning the chance of rain will be lower.This week marked the second UK heatwave of 2025. It lasted six days for parts of Yorkshire and the Humber, and five for people in central and eastern England.An official heatwave is declared when locations reach a certain temperature for three consecutive days.The thresholds vary from 25C to 28C in different parts of the country.It was the result of a large area of high pressure getting "stuck" over Europe – dubbed a "heat dome" by some - and high temperatures are becoming increasingly common in the UK.Scientists have emphasised the role of climate change in these sizzling summers, saying that heatwaves will likely become more frequent and hotter in the future.
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘A war of the truth': Europe's heatwaves are failing to spur support for climate action
'It's just too much, isn't it?' says Julie, a retiree in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, about the 42C (107.6F) heat that her brother had seen scorch Spain last week. The former local government worker has felt summers get hotter over her lifetime and says she 'couldn't stand' such high heat herself. But like many who experienced Europe's first heatwave of the summer, Julie does not sound overly alarmed. She worries about climate breakdown for young people, but is not concerned about herself. She thinks more climate action would be nice, but does not know what can be done about it. She does not have much faith in the government. 'It's like everything else,' she says. 'I think it's all too little, too late.' As heatwaves engulfed large swathes of Europe and North America last week – the latest in a stream of deadly extremes made worse by fossil fuel pollution – green groups are frustrated that increasingly violent weather has not spurred the urgent support for climate action they had expected. Governments across the rich world continue to roll back policies to stop the planet from heating, while far-right parties that deny climate science lash out at environment rules even as disasters unfold. Their voters, while rarely climate deniers themselves, seem to tolerate their energetic attacks on environmental policy, if not support them. The views of someone like Julie – who declined to reveal her voting preference – sounded similar to what was seen across the country, said Ed Hodgson, an analyst at the research group More in Common who has run focus groups on climate action. Polls taken over the second-last weekend of June show most people in the UK found the previous week of weather too hot, are worried it will get hotter, and hold the climate crisis at least partly responsible. But the nonprofit also found the share of people concerned about climate change has fallen over the past year, dipping from 68% to 60%. Support for the UK's target to hit net zero emissions by 2050 fell even further, plunging from 62% to 46%. 'The issue is really that there are so many other concerns now,' said Hodgson, citing the organisation's data tracking the top issues that people face each week. 'Three years ago you'd have the cost of living first, then the National Health Service, and then immigration and climate – those two would compete for third place. Now, when we do those polls, climate is near the bottom of the list.' The contradictions are visible in towns such as Stanford-le-Hope, where Julie lives, which is among the few already represented in parliament by the rightwing populist Reform UK. A YouGov poll last month found just over half of Reform voters wanted a heatwave in the coming weeks. The party, which has promised to scrap the net zero target and 'unlock Britain's vast oil and gas reserves', is projected to win eight of the 10 most flood-prone constituencies at the next general election, according to an analysis in May by the NGO Global Witness and Round Our Way, a campaign group. Far-right parties across mainland Europe have been even more vocal in using the heatwave to take aim at climate policy, even as blazing wildfires force thousands to flee their homes and doctors warn of widespread excess deaths. In Spain, where the current heatwave brought a record June temperature of 46C, the Vox leader, Santiago Abascal, mocked a government promise to regulate fear-based advertising by asking if they were also going to 'ban the propaganda of climate religion'. In Italy, which has limited outdoor work during the hottest parts of the day in most of the country, the Lega party MP Claudio Borghi said: 'Climate change has always existed, the causes are anything but clear, and the solutions are contrary to what … is correct.' Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion In Germany, the Alternative für Deutschland co-chair Alice Weidel shared a social media post from a climate sceptic that compared the heat on Tuesday to slightly hotter temperatures on the same day in 1952, as the country was 'clearing away the rubble of war'. The post took a swipe at the World Economic Forum, the German public broadcaster and the Green party. The biggest political row over the heat erupted in France, where the National Rally figurehead, Marine Le Pen, called for a 'major' air conditioning plan – one week after the party failed in its parliamentary push to halt new wind and solar projects. In an opinion article in Le Figaro on Thursday, the interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, a conservative, called to stop support for renewable energy and expand France's nuclear energy sector. The proposal earned rebukes from the ecology minister, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who described it as 'petty politics' that would write Algeria a check for oil, and the former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who called it an 'incomprehensible' misstep. 'As we endure several days of an unprecedented heatwave, we are witnessing a troubling resurgence of anti-science scepticism,' he said. Some far-right parties have focused their attention on old-school climate denial, while others have moved from questioning the science to aggressively campaigning against solutions. 'I don't think the extreme heat is being weaponised, but the efforts to limit it certainly are,' said Ciarán Cuffe, a co-chair of the European Green party and former Irish environment minister. He added that Le Pen's call for more air conditioning – which he said should be one solution among many – may even represent a shift in strategy. 'It's a recognition that these heatwaves are happening, and that they are extreme.' The paradox is that far-right parties bashing green rules are polling well above 20% in several European countries, even though the share of people who deny climate science is typically in single digits. In the UK, pollsters find just 6% of Reform voters list environmental policy as a reason for voting for the party, according to More in Common. That said, the level of threat perception among their voters is much higher than in other parties, said Hodgson. 'They see threats around them and think we need a strong response. So it makes sense for politicians to campaign around those moments.' Climate campaigners have argued that the far right's success in dominating the climate narrative is weakening support for action and providing centrist parties cover to scrap green policies, even if it has failed to create a widespread backlash against green policy. 'The far right has a strategy but everyone else doesn't,' said Luisa Neubauer, a German activist from Fridays for Future, which staged its first night-time protest against climate inaction outside the German economy ministry on Wednesday, as a result of the high heat. Too many people in power or with platforms 'have not yet understood that we're in a war of language – and a war of the truth – about the climate', she added. 'And too few of us are actively standing in the way of that.'
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Beavers and river restoration boost resilience to drought, conservationists say
Restoring rivers to a natural state and introducing beavers can help make landscapes resilient to the increasing risk of drought, conservationists said. The UK is facing increasing extremes such as drought and heavy downpours as the climate changes, with England weathering the driest spring for 132 years this year and two regions in the north of the country already in drought. But in the South West of England, after the region saw around half the average rainfall in spring, river restoration work maintained lush vegetation and wetlands at the National Trust's Holnicote estate on Exmoor, Somerset. The National Trust embarked on its 'riverlands' project on the estate in 2020, releasing beavers into two enclosures and working to restore the River Aller to a 'stage zero' state with multiple channels, pools and shallow riffles as it would have had before human interference. The approach has been pioneered in Oregon in the US, and the UK's first attempt at scale on a main river landscape involved diggers moving more than 4,000 tonnes of earth to fill the river channel and laying hundreds of logs within the floodplain. Thousands of wetland trees were planted and wildflower seeds sown to attract pollinators. The project to give the river space and connect to its floodplain, completed just two years ago, has created a new natural landscape from once neat agricultural fields, with channels, pools, wetlands and marshes. The wetlands are rich in plants, the young trees are starting to grow and meadows in the floodplain are full of wildflowers. The landscape – along with the nearby beaver wet woodland – slows down the flow of water and holds it in the landscape to reduce flooding and counteract drought, as well as reducing pollution and loss of sediment, the Trust said. The wetlands that have been created are habitat for water voles, as well as an array of birds, insects and fish including eels. Ben Eardley, senior project manager for the National Trust in Somerset, said curbing flooding was a big part of the reason for the project, with communities downstream at Allerford and Bossington suffering from floods in the past. 'But then increasingly, you can see the impacts of hotter dry weather which I think are equally important in addressing,' he said. While some restoration schemes only improve the river channel itself, the work at Holnicote makes the wider landscape more resilient, he suggested. Even after the dry spring, the beaver enclosures, where the animals have created pools, dams and woodland clearings, were still 'brim full' of water, while the restored river catchment stays wet year-round, Mr Eardley said. The denser vegetation acts like a blanket on the soil, holding moisture in and keeping the soil temperature more consistent, he added. 'It's a combination of different things that lead to more resilience. 'And it's not saying that you have to have all of those things everywhere, but if you've got more diverse landscape with a greater mosaic of different habitats. then just by default, you'll have greater resilience,' he said. Farmers and landowners are among those who visit the 'exemplar' river restoration project, which comes amid intense debate over competing uses of land in the UK – for food security, energy production, climate action and to help restore nature and natural processes that can benefit people. Mr Eardley argues that it does not have to be a binary choice between beavers or river restoration and agriculture, but land could be managed to provide both, with benefits for landscapes which are suffering more extreme weather throughout the year as the climate changes. 'You might need to sacrifice some small areas for beaver habitat or whatever. 'But then in that wider landscape you're going to have better, lusher grazing for longer, during those summer months, whereas before, everything would have burnt off,' he said. 'Because you've got higher groundwater levels, your soil and your vegetation are healthier.' Stewart Clarke, senior national freshwater consultant at the National Trust said: 'Water is at the forefront of climate change impacts including flooding and drought, and after a very dry first six months of the year and with many UK regions either in or on the cusp of being in drought conditions, looking after the lifeblood of our landscapes is absolutely vital.' He said that giving rivers more space could create 'nature-rich corridors' through towns and countryside, store water during floods and droughts and give rivers space to adapt to changing flows. The riverlands project is one of a number of schemes the trust had undertaken to 'future proof' rivers, he said, adding: 'The new stage 0 wetland, and the beaver wetlands which it resembles, have created important stores of water and carbon to help in the fight against climate change. 'Over the coming years we aim to create and restore hundreds of such wetlands both for these benefits to people and for the rich wildlife they can support.' And while the Holnicote beavers are currently in enclosures – though prone to escaping – following the Government's recent decision to allow licensed beaver releases into the wild in England, the National Trust is applying to be able to have wild beavers on the estate. Then the beavers could link up with the stage 0 river landscape, and ultimately take over its management in their role as ecosystem engineers.
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Here's why the seeded stars are dropping like flies at Wimbledon - and it's NOT because of the surface
As Jack Draper 's cross-court forehand dropped beyond the chalked line on Thursday evening not only did another British hopeful's Wimbledon dreams fade away but his defeat cemented a curious piece of history that's left everyone searching for answers. Draper, the No4 seed, became the 36th seeded singles player across the men's and women's draws to be eliminated before the third round, the most in Grand Slam history, surpassing the previous record of 35 at the 2020 French Open. It's been the story of the Championships. Twenty-three seeds went out in round one alone, including eight top 10 seeds, including Alexander Zverev and French Open champion Coco Gauff, the most in any Slam since the start of the Open in 1968. Only one of the top five women's seeds began the fifth day still in the tournament, Aryna Sabalenka, who went on to beat Emma Raducanu 8-6, 6-4, and soon No6 seed Madison Keys lost in straight sets to the oldest woman left in the draw, the 37-year-old Laura Siegemund. The talk over the first few days was that the Wimbledon courts were to blame. They were too slow. 'This isn't grass anymore, raged Denis Shapovalov, the Canadian 27th seed who was knocked out in the first round, 'the court is slower than a clay one.' American third seed Jessica Pegula, who lost in less than an hour in the first round, said the courts 'felt different'. Iga Swiatek thought the ball 'bounced differently'. That was to be expected. Wimbledon began in the midst of a heatwave with temperatures north of 32 degrees on the opening day making it the hottest in history. Head groundsman Neil Stubley said the heat would make it play slower as the dry grass grips the ball harder. He revealed his team put stuff in the soil that makes water 'wetter' so it can soak up more moisture from it when the mercury starts to rise. It all felt a bit too much like players looking for excuses. Wimbledon's grass is cut to the same 8mm length every morning. 'I think it's the same as previous years,' said No11 seed Alex de Minaur, fiance of Britain's Katie Boulter. 'It is on the slower side but that's something we all know and are used to. It's about finding ways to use it to your advantage.' 'I can assure you Novak's shots did not feel slow,' added Dan Evans after his second-round defeat to Djokovic. What's more likely a cause of so many upsets is the quick turnaround from the clay court season to the grass with just three weeks between the end of the French Open and the start of Wimbledon. Two completely different surfaces, with different skillsets required as clay plays a lot slower, with higher bounces and more spin to the slicker, lower skid of the grass. It's why only six men in history, with Carlos Alcaraz the most recent, have won the 'Channel Slam' – the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back – and why no woman single's player has completed it since Serena Williams ten years ago. 'This slam out of all of them is the most prone to have upsets because of how quick the turnaround is from clay,' said Gauff, who triumphed at Roland Garros but only played one match on grass before her first-round exit here. It wasn't much better in Paris where 33 – including 20 in the women's draw – were knocked out before round three. 'I feel a little bit of pressure because obviously you feel like the opportunity [of an upset] is there,' admitted 13th seed Amanda Anisimova. The real reason, perhaps, is a simple one. The standard of tennis is just improving. There's less of a gap between the good players and the decent ones. 'The level of tennis increased a lot,' said 14th seed Andrey Rublev, who reached the fourth round on Friday. 'The players even 80 or 90 in the world all know how to play tennis. 'When I started, you could see the difference between top 10 and then the rest. Now you see the difference between Alcaraz and Sinner but from number 3 or 4 in the world, it's more or less the level is there.' It was left to former world No1 and Australian Open and US Open champion Naomi Osaka, now unseeded, to sum it up best: 'I think everyone's really good. That's kind of the issue.'
