Latest news with #SarahKeithLucas
Daily Mail
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Daily Mail
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Heatwaves: The New Normal? It used to be called ‘summer', now a hot spell has the BBC in meltdown
Heatwaves: The New Normal? (BBC2) Marilyn Monroe started a heat-wave in 1954, by 'letting her seat wave', in a fiery number from the musical There's No Business Like Show Business. 'Her anatomy, made the mercury, jump to 93!' But to hear the BBC tell it, you'd think there was no such thing as a heatwave before climate change. Weather presenter Sarah Keith-Lucas was having a meltdown in Heatwaves: The New Normal? as she predicted wildfires sweeping the UK and 'extreme heat' with 'extreme consequences'. This was the language of hysteria, matched with pictures of burned-out houses and forest infernos. 'When Los Angeles burned, home after home was razed to the ground,' she warned. 'In Australia, hundreds have died and millions of hectares devastated as a result of bushfires. ' Britain, too, could be on the verge of similar heatwave hell, Sarah believes, thanks to 'human-induced climate change'. We cut to clips of anxious members of the public, voicing fears of 'climate collapse'. A buildings expert declared that old buildings with the wrong sort of windows 'will just become uninhabitable'. How this will happen, he didn't explain. Maybe he was worried about rusty hinges that won't open. But a bit of WD-40 will fix that, and it's cheaper than abandoning your home and moving into an air-conditioned refuge. Temperatures above 26°C could cause thousands of deaths, Sarah claimed, citing the Office for National Statistics. Before climate change, a week of 26°C used to be known as 'summer'. Now, it's the end of civilisation. Car valets of the night: Following a fatal stabbing, Mark and Johnny set about restoring a blood-soaked Renault to showroom condition for a rental fleet, on Crime Scene Cleaners (Ch4). Somebody could have died in your next holiday hire vehicle. There's a grim thought. Sarah did admit that a heatwave happened in 1976, though she reported it as a moment of national crisis, with police evacuating countless people from their homes, probably because they couldn't open their windows. But the problem, according to Candice Howarth — spokeswoman for the Quadrature Climate Foundation — is that 'we culturally and historically aren't used to heatwaves in the UK'. I'm sure she's right. Cinema-goers in the Fifties probably came out scratching their heads and saying, 'You know what, Doris, culturally and historically I've got no idea what Marilyn Monroe was singing about.' The reality is that anything can become an alarming new phenomenon if it's served with a spin of panic. Sarah took us into her BBC weather studio, a cubbyhole with a camera and a green screen, and showed us a map on which the jet stream locked Britain under a 'heat dome'. As the temperatures rose, the colours on the map turned a more vivid red. By the time it hit 30°C (86°F), the UK was glowing fire-alarm crimson. Then she met a farmer who was planning to cope with 'weather extremities' by planting a vineyard. Sadly, Sarah was left holding an empty bottle because the vines haven't produced grapes yet.
BBC News
01-07-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Weird cloud in Portugal looks like humongous wave
Watch as this rare weather phenomenon rolls in from the sea at a beach in relaxing on Furadouro beach, south of the city of Porto, saw a huge cloud rolling in from over the the cloud looked like a giant wave heading towards them, it was nothing to worry about for those on the beach. While some sunbathers got up and moved away, others stayed and were caught in breezy and blustery conditions as the cloud passed overhead. Portugal is in the middle of a heatwave with highs of 42C and the conditions are likely to have been the cause of the strange cloud. "This is a spectacular example of a roll cloud. It's a type of arcus (curved) cloud that can form near to a powerful thunderstorm," said Sarah Keith-Lucas from BBC Weather. "Cool moist air from over the ocean rolls in to meet the warm, dry air over land," added Sarah, explaining that the heat it can cause water in the air quickly to turn into tiny droplets which forms a cloud. "Due to air flowing in different directions above and below the cloud, it can form into the distinctive cigar shape - a long, thin cloud which is most common close to the coast."
BBC News
24-06-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Anglian Water sees record demand in East during heatwave
A water company said it had received a record level of demand from its 4.3 million customers during the recent hot Water supplies homes and businesses in Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and parts of Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk and week it saw a 30% increase in demand and said its average daily 1.1 billion litres of drinking water supplied to customers had risen to 1.4 billion - the same level as a record set in 2022. However, on Friday a new peak was reached at 1.6 billion litres. The company has previously urged people to "use a little less [water] wherever they can". England was under an amber heat health weather warning last week and temperatures widely topped 30C (86F).Suffolk became the first county in the UK to officially enter a heatwave, after temperatures surpassed 27C (81F) for a third consecutive month Anglian Water confirmed it had "no plans" to enforce a hosepipe ban across the East of England. However, with an increase in demand the company urged people to "use a little less wherever they can, so we can meet the demand and keep taps running for everyone". The BBC's lead weather presenter, Sarah Keith-Lucas, said with climate change, heatwaves in the UK could become the "new normal"."What would have been a 'hot' day 30 years ago, would now be considered pretty normal," she average global temperature has risen by just over 1.1C (34F) since the pre-industrial era, which is enough to drive a large increase in the frequency, intensity and duration of Met Office said heatwaves were now 30 times more likely than before the industrial revolution, and were projected to potentially occur every other year by the 2050s. Follow East of England news on X, Instagram and Facebook: BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks, BBC Cambridgeshire, BBC Essex, BBC Norfolk, BBC Northamptonshire or BBC Suffolk.
