Easy News: UK temperatures reach record highs in July heatwave

1. 

   Between 15th and 19th July, the UK experienced a heatwave. A heatwave is what we call weather that is unusually hot and lasts for 3 days or more.

2. 

   This heatwave was so hot that on July 19th, the UK reached its highest ever recorded temperature of 40.3 degrees centigrade in Coningsbury in Lincolnshire.

3. 

   Extreme heat can be dangerous. On 15th July, a National Emergency was declared.

4. 

   A National Emergency is declared when something is likely to be a big risk to people’s health, as well as cause problems to transport, food, power and water supplies.

5. 

   The people most at risk of getting ill or dying in heatwaves are older people, and people who have heart conditions.

6. 

   When lots of people get ill at the same time because of the heat, it can mean ambulances cannot reach everyone as fast and hospitals get too busy.

7. 

   This heatwave caused lots of problems for transport. Trains across the UK were cancelled or delayed.

8. 

   Some road and airport runway surfaces started to melt, causing road closures and flight cancellations.

9. 

   The extreme heat also caused lots of fires and some fire services declared major incidents. This means they were finding it hard to put out all of the fires.

10. 

    100s of fire fighters put out fires across Greater London, including Wennington, where a grass fire spread, destroying several houses.

11. 

    Heatwaves like this are likely to happen more often and happen for longer because of global warming.

12. 

    Global warming is what scientists call the slow warming up of Earth’s atmosphere.

13. 

    The atmosphere is the collection of gases that surround Earth. It keeps us warm, gives us oxygen to breathe and is where our weather happens.

14. 

    Humans burning fuels like coal and oil, and chopping down lots of trees, has changed the balance of gases in Earth’s atmosphere over the last several 100 years, by creating more of the gas called carbon dioxide – also called CO2.

15. 

    More CO2 in the atmosphere means more heat from the sun gets trapped, which causes Earth to slowly warm up.

16. 

    Scientists have warned that unless humans make some big changes to the way we live, temperatures in 80 years could be 3-4 degrees warmer than they were 30 years ago.

17. 

    This would lead to some parts of Earth being too hot for people to live, with sea levels rising, leaving many places underwater, including parts of England.

18. 

    Scientists say that to stop the amount of CO2 rising, people all around the world need to agree to stop burning coal and oil.

19. 

    This means we will have to change the way we live and find other ways of making electricity, driving cars and growing and delivering food.

20. 

    China, the USA and India are the countries having the biggest effect on the atmosphere, but every country needs to stop burning coal and oil to make a difference.

21. 

    The UK Government has agreed they will stop burning oil and coal by 2050, but scientists think we should be stopping sooner.

22. 

    There are other ways to create energy, including using the sun and the wind. The UK is using more of these new forms of energy but it costs a lot of money to set up.

23. 

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