In the Central England temperature record, it was the warmest summer in the series until being surpassed in the 21st century.

The British government implemented water rationing to mitigate the impact of the drought.

As the hot and dry weather continued, devastating heath and forest fires broke out in parts of Southern England.

[citation needed] In Ireland the temperature reached 32.5 °C (90.5 °F) in County Offaly on 29 June 1976.

The 1976 heatwave is understood to have been the cause of 20% "excess deaths" and there was a significant increase in hospital emergency admissions from 24 June to 8 July 1976 compared with the same period in 1975 or 1974.

[12] Massive swarms of seven-spotted ladybirds (Coccinella septempunctata) occurred across the country, with the British Entomological and Natural History Society estimating that by late July 23.65 billion of them were swarming across the southern and eastern coasts of England.

[13] The extensive fires paradoxically helped preserve many areas of heathland that had been becoming scrubland through natural succession because of reduced grazing pressure; the only long-term effect of the fires on Dorset heathlands was a change in the composition of scrub.

[14] The impacts of the extended drought on mature trees, especially beech, were still evident in UK woodlands in 2013.

[citation needed] The highest temperature during the 1976 heatwave was 35.9 °C (96.6 °F), 0.8 °C below the record at the time of 36.7 °C (98.1 °F) set on 9 August 1911.