Overview

• The UK Health Security Agency has issued amber alerts for five English regions and yellow alerts for the rest of England from August 12 to 13.
• The Met Office forecasts a mid-week peak of around 34°C in southern and central England, marking the country’s fourth official heatwave of the summer.
• Health authorities warn that the heatwave is likely to drive up deaths among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions and increase demand on health and social care services.
• Resource pressures include nationally significant water shortfalls across England and warnings from Electricité de France that high temperatures may force cuts to nuclear output to protect reactor cooling.
• Across southern Europe, temperatures exceeding 40°C have fuelled major wildfire outbreaks, prompting large firefighting deployments and evacuations in France, Spain and Portugal.