Around 650 people killed in heat wave, UK :-
London: Britain’s first prolonged heat wave in seven years
has taken the country by surprise, with rails buckling, shops selling out of
electric fans, and scientists estimating the surge in temperature could have
caused hundreds of premature deaths.
After a washout summer in 2012 and the coldest spring for
over 50 years, temperatures have soared across the country due to a northward
shift in the high-altitude jet stream, prompting several authorities to issue
public warnings over the heat.
Figures released by the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine on Thursday estimated about 650 people may have died
prematurely due to the heat over the past nine days, producing data based on
deaths during previous heat waves.
“The excess is likely to have been overwhelmingly among
the elderly, especially those over 75, some of which may have been among people
who would have died just a few weeks later if there had been no heat wave,” Ben
Armstrong, an epidemiological statistician, told Reuters.
The research followed warnings from police about taking
excessive risks to escape the heat after four people died in separate incidents
on Wednesday.
A 16-year-old boy and 41-year-old man were found dead in
unrelated incidents in lakes in the eastern county of Norfolk while in
Cornwall, a 40-year-old woman died swimming in the sea. In the central city of
Lincoln a postman died after collapsing in the heat during his round.
The soaring temperatures caused transport problems in
London earlier this week when the city’s busiest commuter station, Waterloo,
closed four platforms due to buckled rails.
“The only bad thing about the heat wave is traveling
when the tube is busy. It’s so hot,” said one commuter sunbathing in a park at
Canary Wharf in London’s docklands.
Britain’s national weather service, the Met Office, said
Britain reached its highest temperature of 2013 on Wednesday, with 32.2C
(89.9F) recorded at Hampton, southwest of London, and forecasters are expecting
the mercury to rise over coming days.
The hottest July temperature in Britain was 36.5 C,
recorded in Surrey, southern England, in 2006. The hottest ever in Britain was
38.5 degrees in the southeastern county of Kent in 2003.
July is also expected to become the driest July since
records began in 1766 and may beat the record set in 1955 when only one inch
(30mm) of rain fell.
“We have had 9mm of rain in the UK and 4mm in England –
that is well below the average for the time of year. Although it is too early
to say definitely, we could be looking at the driest July on record,” a Met
Office spokeswoman said that the heat has proved a boon to coastal resorts as Britons rush
to the beach to cool down.
But although shops and hotels are enjoying the increase
in trade, one Tesco supermarket in the popular Cornish surfing resort of New quay has felt forced to act to preserve decency by insisting its
swimwear-clad customers cover up before entering.
“In stores such as this one which are close to the beach,
we ask that customers wear a T-shirt and shoes,” said a spokesman in a
statement e-mailed to Reuters. “We want all our customers to feel comfortable
when shopping.”
