whereas in this country with temperatures that high, many of us will be trying to get on a train to go to work, many of us will be working outside in heat like that. we are not prepared for temperatures like that in the uk. the infrastructure around us isn't prepared to cope with temperatures like that in the uk. a lot of our homes and a lot of our places of work are far too hot inside when it gets to these high temperatures and there's not many places for people to go for respite. we can forecast these things in advance, so we have some early warning, so i think what we need to do is really change that housing and our cities and the way that we're living, because it's often those types of things that go wrong. so, after we've had that early warning, people don't know what to do, they don't know where to go, their houses are built wrongly or they're living on the top floor in a very unsuitable apartment for very high temperatures.

so, really thinking about going forward into the future, you know, how we're building in the future and when we are redeveloping somewhere, you know, what standards we're building to to making sure that railways don't buckle or people are not living on the floodplain. above all of that, of course, there is the great concern about what a0 celsius means about our changing climate. decades ago, it's thought that number wasn't even possible in the uk and now, here we are and the future suggest it's going to happen more often with the widespread disruption, with the impacts on people's health. and that, of course is down to climate change. that, of course is down to greenhouse gas emissions and how we've changed the world around us. so, the cause of this extreme heatwave is twofold. it's a combination of the chaotic natural variability of the weather and human—induced climate change. so, we are having the weather conditions that lead to heatwaves, bringing hot airfrom spain and portugal to the uk,

but we also have been burning fossil fuels for over a century. we have 1.2 degrees of global warming, which means hotter temperatures than we used to have at the beginning of the industrial revolution, and that means that this heatwave is a lot hotter than it would've been without climate change. heat isn'tjust dangerous, it is deadly. during the 2003 heatwave in the uk, 2,000 people died, and heat is a main factor or contributing factor to thousands of deaths worldwide every year. but, of course, there are simple things we can do to stay safe during a heatwave. if you have to be outside during the hottest part of the day,

be in the shade. drink plenty of water. and stop your home becoming a greenhouse. after letting in the overnight cool air first thing in the morning, close the curtains, close the windows. if you have your windows open during the day and it's hotter outside than it is inside, all you're doing is heating your house up even more. we've got to look out for the vulnerable members of our society, to make sure that they're 0k. so, if you've got someone on your street or a relative or you know of someone that might actually not be able to get out to the shops, imagine when it's the snow is there and the ice and you're thinking they're not going out. think of those people in this heat as well. they may will not have heeded the warnings to keep themselves well hydrated and ventilated. so, how do we measure record high temperatures? well, around the uk, there's a network of official weather recording stations, where they're set up to be as accurate as possible. and the most important thing

about the thermometers in them is that they are not where i'm standing right now — in the sun. the thermometer should, in fact, be located right here in the shade, because you want to measure the temperature of the air, not the effect of the sun's heat on the thermometer. you know if you put a thermometer in your own back garden in the sun, it's going to give you a much higher reading than compared with the current temperature on your weather app, for example. and when all of these temperatures are gathered together from these official weather stations, the met office looks at them, compares them with, in some cases, hundreds of years of data to decide if there is a new weather record. we need to show most care when it's hot during a heatwave but it's not just you and i who decide it's a heatwave — there is more to it than that.

let's head into the bbc weather studios to find out more. so, let's define a heatwave. let's find out what that actually means, and it means different things in different parts of the uk. it's at least three days with the temperature above a certain threshold, and that threshold differs by county. look at this map from the met office which shows the different thresholds. the white areas, for example — all of scotland and northern ireland, much of wales — that threshold is 25 celsius, so at least three days with the temperature at or above that and it's a heatwave. the threshold rises to the darker red around the london area, that's 28 celsius. of course, parts of south east england are more accustomed to higher temperatures than elsewhere. and how do we get hot weather into the uk in summer? well, it's a familiar weather pattern. we draw up high temperatures from africa, from iberia on a southerly wind into the uk. there's nothing unusual about that. of course it gets hot at times in the summer.

what's unnatural is how much higher those temperatures are compared with many decades ago because of climate change, because of greenhouse gas emissions. so, we certainly expect in a warming climate to see more and more intense heatwaves. a0 degrees is an exceptionally rare temperature. we think that should be i—in—100 to i—in—300 year event in a non—disrupted climate and we predict that could be one in 15 years or even more frequent than that by 2100. and that depends on the emissions path that we choose as a species and how quickly we reduce towards net zero. extreme heat can have significant impacts on our bodies, both physiologically and mentally. especially the longer the extreme heat goes on for, those very high temperatures during the day and warm nights making it tough for sleeping. the two combined just raise heat

stress, even if you think you're a perfectly healthy person. i am concerned about it and i would encourage people to heed the warnings that are out there. we have that balance where we might not see very much good weather and we want to enjoy it, but it's — we're talking about temperatures that we've not experienced in this country, ever, never mind for a long time. 0ur bodies, our houses, our culture, our way of life is just not geared up for it. we look at some of our continental neighbours who are used to this type of heat and we laugh about people having a siesta in the afternoon. they're doing it for their health and we need to think about how we change our lifestyle to be able to accommodate that and look after people. simple things like keeping your curtains closed on the sunny side of the house. that can make a big difference but it's not within our culture to do it because we've never needed to do that. high temperatures can be — can be very harmful, particularly for those who are most vulnerable, and those people are people

who are in older age groups or people with longer — long—term health conditions, such as heart and lung problems. what's really important is that they are aware of the advice, the simple measures that they can take to stay — to remain safe, including drinking plenty of fluids, staying cool, they might want to check that they're storing their medicines safely, but also, for all of us, we should go check on those people who are most vulnerable and make sure that they — they are ok. it can be really tough to sleep during a heatwave because the house just gets warmer and warmer — and in fact, when temperatures overnight don't drop below 20 celsius, that's what's called a tropical night and they are happening more and more often in the uk. of course, the key is to try to stop the house from heating up as much

as possible during the day and then, when it does cool down a bit overnight, opening as many windows as it's possible to do and stay safe and let that cooler air in. keep your bedroom cool in the first place, so don't let it warm up, so keep your curtains and windows closed during the daytime to keep the bedroom itself cool. open up the windows and curtains in the evening when the air�*s got cooler outside to let that cooler air in. also keep yourself cool, so don't eat anything too hot, heavy or spicy near to bedtime. don't do any exercise near to bedtime, and you can always have a cool showerjust before you get into bed to help yourself be cooler. use a fan in your bedroom to move the air around, which will help you to feel better. you can even place a frozen water bottle in front of the fan to blow cooler air around the room. also, if it gets too unbearably hot, then consider sleeping in a lower place — as in if you're sleeping on a bunk bed, sleep on the floor. if you're sleeping in a bedroom, then moved downstairs because heat rises, so if you sleep downstairs, it's going to be cooler downstairs

than in the bedroom upstairs. and lastly, make sure that you're sleeping in good sheets, so a light sheet instead of a duvet, and make sure that your bedding itself is of natural fibres because they help to wick away sweat, so natural linen, cotton is much better than polyester, for example. i don't think it's just me, but aren't we are getting more and more fascinated by the weather all the time? perhaps it's something to do with those weather extremes, although i'm sure it's a large part down to how much we are concerned about climate change and its impact on the conditions around us. of course, you can keep up to date with the weather all the time through bbc weather, through the app, online, the tv and radio forecast and, of course, they'll let you know about the latest weather warnings, extreme heat or otherwise, and when any weather records are broken. for now, though, that's enough time for me in the sun.

i'm off to find some shade, have a nice, cool drink. there has been hardly any rain at all. on sunday we have seen some rain around but the majority of that has been falling across parts of northern ireland and scotland and we have had that zone of rain

stretching and across parts of wales as well bringing some welcome relief from the very dry conditions we've seen and one of our weather watchers spotted something rare forjuly in wales... a puddle. it has been a warm and sunny day, hot across parts of east anglia where temperatures in a number of sites reached over 30 celsius. looking at the weather forecast overnight it will be south—westerly winds feeding in a few patches here and there are more persistent and heavy rain across northern scotland and that will slowly begin sinking southwards towards the end of the night. a fresher night for scotland and northern ireland before england and wales another warm night, 16 to 18 degrees for many. this area of low pressure, on monday it works out towards and away. get the note to north—westerly winds following in and that will bring a few patchy fans of rain. 0ur temperatures

dropping across the board, high teens generally across the north of the uk. england and wales also seeing the cooler weather, but still quite warm across east anglia and the south—east. not into the 30s, but mid 20s, warming. high pressure dominates the weather picture for much of the week ahead until we see this low moving in towards the end of the week and that will bring a return to wet and fairly windy weather to northern ireland and scotland. tuesday's forecast, a dry picture for many of you with some sunny spells. a few showers around eastern england running from north yorkshire down to about kent. many of the showers that do form probably not bringing that much rain and there will be areas that miss them altogether so it won't change the overall theme of that dryjuly we seen. high pressure for england and wales, dry and sunny weather developing. scotland and northern ireland will see rain for a time towards the end of the week.

this is bbc news, the headlines at 8pm. delays around the port of dover and folkestone are easing after holidaymakers and hauliers faced a third day of disruption at the channel tunnel. we got to folkestone at about 9am yesterday morning fora train at10:30am, and then we have slowly been crawling along for the past 21 plus hours. the entire board of cricket scotland resigns ahead of a review expected to find scottish cricket to be institutionally racist. a major incident is declared in surrey because of a large fire. crews in london are also tackling several weather—related fires. meanwhile — firefighters in california struggle to contain a huge blaze there. it comes as the us special envoy for climate john kerry says president biden may announce a climate emergency.