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Climate Change

23rd Jul 2022

Shocking NASA pictures show how parched and brown the UK is versus one year ago

Jack Peat

And more hot weather is on the way

Another 40C scorcher could be just weeks away, according to weather models, as Britain continues to bask in unusually hot weather.

The UK broke its hot weather record on July 19th as temperatures soared to 40.3C in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, beating the previous hot record weather of 38.7C in 2019.

Forecasters are saying another bout of hot weather could be on its way in early August as prolonged periods of dry weather create significant drought threats.

Shocking NASA satellite images have been released showing the toll the heat has taken on the UK.

In comparison to a mainly green landscape from a year ago, the images now show the country looking dried out and brown.

The images, which were shared online by Dan Holley, a BBC weather presenter and meteorologist, have laid bare the damage caused by the unprecedented heat.

They reveal how Britain’s once largely green landscape has now become much dried, being scarred by this week’s high temperatures.

The Met Office’s Mike Kendon said: “Temperatures on 18 July were exceptional but they moved 2 to 4°C higher on 19 July, making this date unprecedented in the context of long term climate records.

“What’s particularly notable is how much more widespread the heat was from this event than the previous two occurrences of temperatures in excess of 38°C in the UK.

“Temperature records tend to get broken by modest amounts and by just a few stations, but the recent heat broke the national record by 1.6°C and across an extensive area of the country from Kent to North Yorkshire and from Suffolk to Warwickshire.

“Even when you factor in the temperatures seen in summer 1976, they didn’t reach anywhere near the levels seen this week, although that was a much more prolonged spell of hot and dry weather.”

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