UK Weather Extreme Heat Breaks Records Again — and Experts Say This Is as Good as It Gets

Early readings show that the temperature at Kew Gardens in west London reached 38.1C on Thursday afternoon. The front-of-house manager at the Pickled Plum pub in Pershore, Worcestershire, said that people were “melting as they walked in off the street.” It was cooler outside than in the kitchen, even tho the blinds were closed and the fans were on. The kitchen is usually the hottest room in a building. Tho it seems like a small thing, it shows something real about Britain in the summer of 2026.

It’s been hot in the UK five times this year. Five. A number that wouldn’t have made sense ten years ago. According to the Met Office, Thursday was the fifth warmest day in Britain since records began. 2026 is also on track to be the warmest year in British history. A yellow warning for extreme heat covered a large part of England, including the east, southeast, Midlands, northwest, and parts of Yorkshire. In Wales, it was 35C, and Northern Ireland was getting ready for thunderstorms. In different ways, the whole country had to deal with a climate that doesn’t act the way people remember it from their childhood.

As more and more records are made, they seem less like news and more like a pattern. In June, it got to 38C in Lingwood, Norfolk. That was a new record for that month in the UK. On Wednesday, it was 35C or higher for the first time in August. This is the fourth month in a row that it has been that high. By Thursday, there had been 38 days this year in the UK when temperatures were above 30C somewhere in the country. This beat the previous record of 34 days. Since records began, there have been nine times when the temperature was above 37C. Three of those times have happened just in 2026. Reading those numbers over and over again could make you lose your mind. But it’s worth it to sit with them.

The heat doesn’t just feel bad. It’s hurting people in real ways. This is England’s busiest summer ever for A&E departments. More than 2.4 million people visit each month in May, June, and July, which is the highest monthly total ever recorded. NHS workers say they have to work in dripping sweaty wards with no air conditioning, which they call “inhumane.” Public health officials in Germany say that the heat of the summer has already killed 12,500 people. They found that the first two heatwaves this summer were responsible for more than 2,000 deaths in England. The study was done by the Met Office, Imperial College London, and the UKHSA. Doctors have said that heat is a “silent killer” because it rarely shows up as the cause of death but makes everyone more likely to die.

It is now dry in all of Wales and more than two-thirds of England. For the first time in 20 years, Southern Water has asked the government for a drought order that would let it limit how businesses use water. For example, commercial car washes and garden nurseries would be limited in how much they could use. Nine water companies already don’t allow hosepipes in homes. The cracks and brown color of Hollow Pond’s dried bed in east London make it look more like a set from a nature show than a city park. In Hungary, builders have been putting rocks in the Danube to raise the water level so that a nuclear reactor can keep running. Romania had to shut down its second nuclear reactor because there wasn’t enough water in the river to cool it. In ways that are quietly alarming, the heat is getting into the infrastructure.

There was a question this week about whether things would get better with Baroness Brown, Britain’s top climate adaptation adviser. Her answer was too direct for me. She said that this summer is “as good as it gets” until the country has net-zero emissions. It’s not a plateau. A roof. From here on out, things will only get worse if emissions aren’t cut down significantly. When you read that assessment, you get the sense that the conversation has changed from warning to taking stock.

The weekend will make things better. The temperature is going to drop back down to about 26C by Sunday. Next week, it might rain in more places. A few rainy days won’t end the drought, tho. It takes a while for hydrology to work. Researchers are keeping an eye on whether it will rain enough this fall and this winter to fill up aquifers. Oxford University’s Professor Tim Palmer said that next summer could be a lot like this one if it doesn’t rain the right amount. That outcome is not certain. But it doesn’t sound so crazy anymore.