What happens when it reaches 40 degrees in a country where summer is a season that doesn’t always make its appearance on the calendar?
The official response is to declare the first alert in its history for extreme heat.
The British observe these days with a mixture of joy and dread as the thermometer rises and reaches historical records. And, while the barbecues are not enough and many are happy to finally be able to put on their sandals and shorts and sleep -yes, you can- without a blanket, the truth is that high temperatures are collapsing parts of a country that is not adapted for intense heat.
What in some Caribbean countries could be considered winter, in Scotland is a heat wave: three days in a row with temperatures above 25 degrees. In England, somewhat less cold, the thermometer has to rise above 28 to be considered a wave. The 40 that will be reached this week exceeds anything imaginable by the British so far.
melted runway
Luton Airport, north of London, had to suspend all operations on Monday because the airfield’s runway had literally melted. The heat deformed some areas of the esplanade, turned into a huge frying pan under the 36 degrees that were recorded.
While other southern European countries build their roads using polymers to prevent them from melting, in the UK this is not as common, so on some roads operators have had to spread sand to prevent molten asphalt from causing accidents.
Insurers have also alerted drivers to check the pressure of their tires due to the risk of bursting due to high temperatures.
Nor are the train tracks prepared for the heat. High temperatures have forced the cancellation of hundreds of rail services because the tracks are at risk of warping in the sun.
Or to catch fire, as happened last week on a bridge that connects Victoria station, one of the most important in London, with Brixton. A spark caught the wooden crossbars of the tracks, causing a fire that had to be extinguished by emergency services.
ℹ️ ☀️ One of the ways the heat can affect our railway. A kink in the tracks was spotted near #Vauxhall earlier today. Our team are working to fix this, and thankfully trains can be re-routed to avoid the affected section, so delays should be minor. ???? https://t.co/WO3WHQxeJd pic.twitter.com/iELaqPdRXN
— Network Rail Wessex (@NetworkRailWssx) July 18, 2022
The rails can reach a temperature of over 60 degrees with the heat, dilate and deform as the trains pass, so their speed has been limited. On some routes in the south of the country, where the highest temperatures are being experienced, trains cannot travel at more than 90 kilometers per hour, which translates into delays and added ordeal for travellers.
As a precaution, a few days before temperatures reached records in the United Kingdom, railway system operators had to paint parts of the tracks white to mitigate the effects of the sun.
The London Underground -and its long-suffering passengers- is another of those affected by the heat wave. Most of the lines do not have air conditioning, so the cars have been converted into real ovens. That on the lines that are working.
The same thing happens with buses, most of which are not acclimatized and have tiny windows through which, more than air, fire enters.
But to protect yourself from the heat you also have to know a series of basic rules, and the most basic of all is that you have to take shelter from the sun. Rudyard Kipling is credited with a phrase that would later inspire Noel Coward in the 1930s to compose a humorous song: “Only mad dogs and the English go out in the midday sun.”
The authorities have had to ask the British not to leave their homes unless it is essential, to avoid playing sports outdoors and to stay hydrated.
The problem is that many houses these days have become little hells. Blinds, key elements in countries accustomed to heat, are practically non-existent in the United Kingdom, which has to defend itself from the sun’s rays with net curtains and curtains.
Barely 0.5% of British homes have air conditioning, so these days fans and portable coolers have flown out of many stores.
The same thing happens with schools. The school year is not over yet, but some centers have decided to close earlier to protect children, against government recommendations to keep them open.
Many businesses, especially local ones, are also not prepared to combat high temperatures, which translates into spoiled products.
Refrigerators without doors are frequent, which at these temperatures are not capable of keeping, for example, fresh milk without curdling, while the beloved chocolate bars are folded and languish melted on the shelves or are removed until the wave passes.
In some supermarkets, directly, the refrigerators have been damaged by the effort they are having to make to maintain the right temperature when the environment is very hot.
Even drinking water “could taste and smell funny” these days, people in parts of south London have been warned. It is due, apparently, to the chlorine used to treat it, which does not give time for it to evaporate due to the high demand.
Although many Britons have decided to take it with humor, and social networks are full of jokes and memes like the one of the Internet user who assured on Twitter that “tomorrow it will be so hot that it is possible that two hobbits will appear and throw a ring in my garden” , with a frame from the movie “The Lord of the Rings”, the situation is serious.
Calls to emergency services due to extreme heat have skyrocketed in the past two days, and Britain’s NHS has had to cancel many operations because operating theaters are too hot.
The stifling heat won’t last. Temperatures are expected to drop this week. But heat waves are here to stay, experts warn.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-62222012, IMPORTING DATE: 2022-07-19 14:30:06