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UK records its hottest June day ever · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: More temperature records have been broken as much of Europe
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  Speaker 1: continues to swelter in a heat wave. Here in the UK,
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  Speaker 1: the hottest temperature of the year was recorded on Thursday afternoon,
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  Speaker 1: with thirty six point seven degrees recorded at Meryfield in Somerset.
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  Speaker 1: A rare red warning for extreme heat meaning there's a
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  Speaker 1: danger to life, is currently in place in southern, central
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  Speaker 1: and western areas of England and parts of Wales. Some
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  Speaker 1: schools have closed, a host pipe band has been introduced
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  Speaker 1: in Kent, and transport services have been disrupted. In France,
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  Speaker 1: authorities say hospitals in Paris are overwhelmed, and the government
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  Speaker 1: says the health alert has been raised to its highest level.
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  Speaker 1: New data shows Europe is the fastest warming continent in
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  Speaker 1: the world. In fact, Europe is heating up twice as
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  Speaker 1: fast as the global average, according to the Copernicus Climate Service.
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  Speaker 1: Long journa by DOTR Chloe Brimingham, a climate scientist who
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  Speaker 1: researches the impact of extreme heat and what policies countries
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  Speaker 1: can introduce in response. Thanks so much for being with us.
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  Speaker 1: Can you explain for us why Europe is increasing in
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  Speaker 1: it's heat more than other parts of the world.
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  Speaker 2: So it's to do with the position of Europe in
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  Speaker 2: the northern hemisphere. So how the climate works is that
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  Speaker 2: we have three different cells around the world, and basically
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  Speaker 2: the positioning of Europe means that we are more likely
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  Speaker 2: to see this faster growing heat on this continent, but
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  Speaker 2: we also do see heat waves across the world. So
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  Speaker 2: there was also a study that showed that nowhere in
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  Speaker 2: the world is safe from heat waves. It's just a
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  Speaker 2: matter of time and a question of when a massive
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  Speaker 2: heat wave or records will be broken in all parts
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  Speaker 2: of the world, but it's very pertinent in Europe because
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  Speaker 2: obviously of the positioning, it's the fastest. Warm heat waves
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  Speaker 2: in Europe are also caused by blocking high pressure systems
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  Speaker 2: and the jet stream, which is a fast moving body
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  Speaker 2: of air high up in the atmosphere, and this heat
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  Speaker 2: wave was partially caused by a divergence in our jet
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  Speaker 2: stream slowing down and making sure that this high pressure
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  Speaker 2: system could move in over Europe from North Africa. So yes,
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  Speaker 2: and obviously there's been a lot of impacts that we've
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  Speaker 2: seen over the last week, and these weather warnings are
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  Speaker 2: going continuing over the weekend, which is obviously concerning for
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  Speaker 2: continued impact.
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  Speaker 1: What would you warn people watching about how to look
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  Speaker 1: after themselves and the impact on the body. I was
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  Speaker 1: caught at myself with all my children ending up in
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  Speaker 1: a John's ambulance side room because he'd not drunk enough
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  Speaker 1: water and overdone it in the heat because just underestimated
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  Speaker 1: the impact of it.
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  Speaker 2: I think you put that quite clearly. I think we
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  Speaker 2: can all very much underestimate the impact of heat. And
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  Speaker 2: a lot of the time we have been speaking about
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  Speaker 2: very much neededly that heat waves as silent killers, so
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  Speaker 2: they can cause excess mortality in European countries and this
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  Speaker 2: is particularly true in the over sixty five. But everybody
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  Speaker 2: can be impacted and their healths can be impacted by
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  Speaker 2: extreme heat, and that's what the red weather warnings across
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  Speaker 2: Europe really talk to. So it's also children, but you yourself,
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  Speaker 2: if you don't drink enough water, if you don't stay cool,
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  Speaker 2: could experience heat stress and in the most extreme cases
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  Speaker 2: can go on to cause a number of heat related illnesses,
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  Speaker 2: one of which is heat stroke. And actually if you
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  Speaker 2: do not access cooling as a result of heat stroke,
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  Speaker 2: and what you might not realize is that you can
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  Speaker 2: actually have lasting brain damage as a result of experiencing
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  Speaker 2: too high temperatures, So it's really important to stay cool
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  Speaker 2: and make sure that everybody around you is staying cool
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  Speaker 2: and safe as well.
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  Speaker 1: And how much worse is it going to get? And
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  Speaker 1: at what pace do you think, I mean, how many
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  Speaker 1: more of these heat spikes will we see and how quickly?
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  Speaker 2: The data from the UK Metaphice shows that for the
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  Speaker 2: UK that within the next twelve years, and this was
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  Speaker 2: produced in twenty twenty two, which is when we last
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  Speaker 2: saw the forty degrees celsius record broken in the UK,
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  Speaker 2: that we were likely to see that again within the
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  Speaker 2: next twelve years. And more research that was issued this
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  Speaker 2: week showed that we could be experiencing forty five degrees
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  Speaker 2: celsius heat waves by twenty fifty six if we don't
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  Speaker 2: reduce carbon emissions. On Wednesday, in the House of Commons,
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  Speaker 2: the UK Government discussed the a seventh Carbon budget for
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  Speaker 2: the UK and luckily that was approved, which means that
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  Speaker 2: that legally binds the government to reducing emissions under a
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  Speaker 2: certain timeframe. So it's really encouraging to see that commitment,
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  Speaker 2: but hopefully that means that there will be actions on
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  Speaker 2: reducing these emissions so that heat waves don't continue to
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  Speaker 2: increase and get to those temperatures by twenty fifty six.
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  Speaker 1: Dr Chloe Brimmickham, thank you very much, and he's for
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  Speaker 1: being with us.