The 2026 heatwave in the UK seems to have peaked at a record high of 37.3C in the UK on 26 June.
This is higher than a previous record of 35.9C in Cheltenham on July 3, 1976.
The UK Independent reports:
How does this year’s record-breaking heatwave compare to 1976?
The previous record for the hottest June temperature of 35.6C was set in 1976 in Southampton
The 1976 heatwave was blamed on drought whereas this heatwave is blamed on man-made climate change (i.e. heightened Co2 levels).
Maybe the exceptional 1976 heatwave was also in fact a 'climate-change' event - we just didn't know - but now the 1976 event is being subject to the discourse of 'it may have been exceptional then but now, in the era of climate change, we can expect this kind of heat to become the new normal'.
1976 was hot - FNN was there - but it also lasted a lot longer than in 2026 with '15 consecutive days hitting 32C or higher' as opposed to a handful of days in June 2026.
There may be more to come over the summer in the UK as it's only June but it's fair to say that 1976 was more of an exception, for longer, than 2026 (so far) and this occurred at a time (the 1970s) when the earth was experiencing a cooling trend, another form of climate change.
The Conversation is rather more didactic in its recommendations:
UK society and the infrastructure on which it depends is built for a climate that no longer exists. It is urgent that it adapts to weather extremes happening already and those anticipated in the next few decades.
Journalists should report that greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from burning fossil fuels, have made all heatwaves hotter and more deadly than they would otherwise have been.
And they should use photographs of the serious consequences of extreme heat instead of those of people fortunate to be enjoying time at the beach.
The Met Office reports:
In recent years, the absolute extremes of temperatures seen in 1976 have been exceeded multiple times. For example, in today’s warmer climate, temperatures of 36°C have been recorded on multiple occasions, including six days in the past decade, and the UK’s highest record temperature now stands at 40.3°C, recorded at Coningsby in 2022. But the reason 1976 stands out is because of the persistence of the warm, dry, sunny conditions. 1976 is still the UK’s hottest summer on record for average maximum temperatures, the UK’s sunniest summer on record and an exceptionally severe event in terms of lack of rain for a prolonged period extending through the preceding winter and back to summer 1975.
And there were two 'heatwaves' recorded in the UK in 1976 as the Met Office chart shows.
In the end what really matters is how many people died specifically as a result of the heatwave?
But that seems to difficult to figure out, just as it was during COVID, as actual numbers are either not available or clouded in 'excess death' percentages which mean very little.
Someone drowning due to inability to swim or poor choices in terms of where they went swimming are not heatwave deaths. Sure they were swimming because there was a heatwave but their death was not specifically due to the heatwave itself.
It feels like these events are being 'talked' up to suit an agenda rather than being focused on exactly how many people died as a direct result of the event.