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BREAKING: Railroad tracks bent in Britain due to the abnormal heat!

BREAKING: Railroad tracks bent in Britain due to the abnormal heat!
photo: Network Rail/BREAKING: Railroad tracks bent in Britain due to the abnormal heat!
20 / 07 / 2022

Tuesday was Britain's hottest day on record, with temperatures exceeding 40°C. A heat wave that has gripped Europe has intensified, forcing railway tracks to bend and causing a wave of fires in London, writes Reuters.

The Met Office said Coningsby, in central England, set a new record temperature of 40.3°C, with 34 locations across the country beating the previous record of 38.7°C set in 2019. Stephen Belcher of the Met Office said he had never expected to see such temperatures in Britain in his career but is climate change really that surprising to so many people?

"Research here at the Met Office has shown that the UK can't reach 40°C due to an unchanging climate, but climate change caused by greenhouse gases has made such extreme temperatures possible," he said.

Trains on routes from London to the country's east and west coasts have been cancelled, power companies have reported widespread disruptions and normally busy city centres appear quiet.
Network Rail posted a series of photos on Twitter showing the large bends in the railway tracks.

To the east, a large fire engulfed homes in the village of Wennington, with flames engulfing approximately 40 hectares of nearby dry fields. Elsewhere, large meadows around London caught fire, with plumes of smoke visible over the capital's main roads.

London's Ambulance Service said it was receiving 400 calls an hour due to the extreme heat. "We are seeing an increase in patients experiencing heat stroke, difficulty breathing, dizziness and fainting," said Peter Rhodes, deputy director of emergency operations.

Struggling to maintain key transport services in extreme heat or snow, Britain has declared a state of emergency due to unprecedented temperatures. "My thanks to all the firefighters and frontline services who are working incredibly hard to keep us safe on this scorching day," Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter.

Transport Minister Grant Shapps said there were significant disruptions to traffic. "The infrastructure, much of which was built in Victorian times, is simply not prepared to withstand this type of temperature," he said.

Operator Network Rail advised passengers to travel only if necessary. They warn that, due to the extreme heat, lines are blocked, and services are suspended. Climatologists have said that once unthinkable temperatures in London are likely to become more common in the coming years. Soni Kapur, a professor of climate and macroeconomics at the European University Institute, said he had long believed that people underestimated the physical effects of climate change in our time. However, he stated that he had never thought we would see 40°C in London in 2022.

After Tuesday's heat, the weather service said temperatures would drop on Wednesday, but warned that severe thunderstorms were possible.

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