Listen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated using AI-based technology. Pronunciation errors may occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve results. The UK recorded its hottest day of the year on Thursday, reaching 38.1C in west London, the national weather service said, as an intense spell of hot weather continued to hit Europe. The Met Office said the temperature surpassed this year’s previous high of 38C recorded on June 26. It remained below the UK’s August record of 38.5C set in 2003. Britain, like France, is experiencing its fifth heatwave of the year, with the first recorded in May. The latest extreme heat means 2026 has had a record four days with temperatures of 36C or higher. It has also matched 2022 with two days that reached 38 dog races in California on dry grass in front of Tower Bridge during the fifth heat wave of the year in London on Thursday. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/The Associated Press) Meanwhile, temperatures in France have risen further, approaching 41C in several areas, from Aquitaine in the southwest to the Rhône River Valley in the east, according to the national weather service. The most intense heat is forecast to move eastwards away from Britain and France on Friday and then recede over the weekend. A boy rides a bicycle in Greenwich Park among dry grass in London on Tuesday. (Kin Cheung/The Associated Press) This summer has shown that both Britain and France are ill-equipped to cope with these levels of heat. Air conditioning is a rarity outside of shops and offices, for example. In Britain, nurses have collapsed from heat exhaustion while working in hospitals, many of them housed in old buildings that lack adequate cooling, the Royal College of Nursing said Thursday.WATCH | Europe is susceptible to power outages and water shortages: Rising temperatures make Europe more flammable, scientists say. Europe has been considered the fastest-warming continent, something that scientists say has made the region more flammable and more susceptible to power outages and water shortages. “When nursing staff collapse, feel dizzy, sick or are even admitted to the very hospitals they work in because their workplaces cannot withstand the heat, it shows how badly they are being failed,” said Nicola Ranger, the university’s principal. executive director and general secretary. A woman cools herself with a folding fan as she walks under the intense summer sun in Grenoble, France, on Wednesday. (Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty Images) Like many parts of Europe, Britain and France are facing widespread drought conditions that have withered crops and drained rivers, increasing pressure on water resources for homes, agriculture and the environment. A field of sunflowers burned by drought and heat in Guidel, France, on Wednesday. (Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty Images) Britain’s Southern Water, which oversees supplies in southern England, has applied for a rare drought order that would ban businesses from using non-essential water, including cleaning cars and filling non-domestic swimming pools, saying an “exceptional” lack of rain has threatened supplies in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Environment Secretary Angela Eagle will decide on the application, which would be the first such ban since May 2006. A heron fishes in a reservoir in Sowerby Bridge, England, on Thursday. (Jon Super/The Associated Press) With the ground parched and no sign of significant rain, authorities in Britain and France remain on high alert for wildfires. In Britain, which is increasingly turning a sandy brown instead of its traditional luscious green, firefighters have been hard at work this week trying to contain a wildfire in the New Forest in southern England. A visitor uses an umbrella to protect herself from the sun as she walks around Stonehenge, near Amesbury, Britain, on Thursday. (Toby Melville/Reuters) Some 1,017 bushfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data from the National Fire Chiefs Council, the same as last year’s record total. Although not at the same level as those witnessed in France, Greece and Spain, they provide ample evidence of the need for the UK to adjust to a new reality. British PM considers barbecue ban Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will consider imposing a ban on disposable barbecues amid the risk of new bushfires as extreme heat continues to hit parts of the UK. “I think we need to get the message out loud and clear,” he said. “People shouldn’t be using those barbecues outside right now.” French firefighters are also back in action after a desperate summer and are threatening to go on strike to demand more staff and resources to deal with increasingly extreme weather events. One erupted Wednesday night in the northern Pas-de-Calais region and another in Brittany, far from the hotter, drier and fire-prone regions of southern France. A historic fire devoured forests near Bordeaux last month and forced a quarter of a million people from their homes.
