The UK has recorded its hottest June on record this year, both in terms of average temperature and average maximum temperature, the British Met Office reported on Monday.
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“The mean mean temperature of 15.8 degrees Celsius (60.44 degrees Fahrenheit) for June 2023 in the UK is the highest in the series since 1884,” the Met Office said in a statement.
The average temperature for June 2023 was 0.9 degrees higher than the previous joint record of 14.9 degrees recorded in June 1940 and 1976, according to provisional figures.
“It’s officially the UK’s hottest June on record,” said Mark McCarthy of the Met Office. On the hottest day of June, the temperature reached 32.2 degrees Celsius.
“What is surprising is the persistence of heat for much of the month, with temperatures in many cases hovering around 20 degrees Celsius, and sometimes even below 30,” he added.
The four countries that make up the United Kingdom – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – also recorded “their respective warmest Junes on record”, according to the Met Office.
Restrictions on water use have been imposed in parts of south-east England amid record demand for drinking water.
Scotland, for its part, has put some regions on water scarcity alert due to concerns about the levels of their rivers and lakes.
Last year, England experienced the hottest summer in its history, tied with that of 2018, and the fourth hottest in the whole of the United Kingdom, which caused the closure of schools and the cancellation of trains.
Temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius for the first time.
“Along with natural variability, background warming of the Earth’s atmosphere due to human-induced climate change has boosted the possibility of record temperatures,” said Paul Davies of the Met Office.
Mel Evans, climate manager for the environmental organization greenpeace UK, claimed temperature records were “falling like dominoes” and blamed fossil fuels for global warming.
Evans criticized British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for being “asleep at the wheel” and failing to take action on climate change.
“If the heat waves, droughts and wildfires ravaging the world aren’t enough to shake Sunak out of his complacency, people will wonder what the hell will.”
Last week, Sunak’s own advisory body on climate change criticized the government for its slow transition to clean energy, warning it was running out of time to meet its targets.
He also lost his international environment minister, Zac Goldsmith, who accused Sunak of “apathy” on environmental policy.
*With AFP; adapted from its original in English
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