2022 United Kingdom heatwaves
[7] A level two heat-health alert was issued by the UK Health Security Agency to cover the East Midlands and south-west on 15 June.
][12] Crowds arrived at swimming pools, parks, seaside destinations in the south and east of England early in the morning of 17 June.
[18] On 15 July, the UKHSA increased the Heatwave Alert Level to 4, "illness and death occurring among the fit and healthy – and not just in high-risk groups".
[28] Between 18 and 19 July, the United Kingdom experienced its highest recorded minimum nighttime temperature, at 26.8 °C (80.2 °F) at Shirburn Model Farm, Oxfordshire.
This record was broken in at least 34 places across England on 19 July, six of which were over 40 °C, the Met Office reported,[33] stating that "the UK's recent extreme heat was far more intense and widespread than previous comparable heatwaves".
[32] Aysgarth Falls, a popular waterfall in the Yorkshire Dales, almost completely dried up after the high temperatures and no rainfall in the area for many weeks.
[36] British minister Kit Malthouse told parliament that at least 13 people died in water-related incidents during the heatwave and that at least 41 properties were destroyed in London and more than a dozen elsewhere in Britain.
[37] Network Rail announced that the East Coast Main Line, servicing all stations between London King's Cross and York & Leeds, would close on most of the day on 19 July.
[38] Many companies such as Greater Anglia, Great Western Railways and LNER introduced amended timetables, imposing speed restrictions on their trains to avoid track buckling.
East Midlands Railway was running very limited services between Derby, Nottingham, Luton, Bedford and London, which stopped entirely during the hottest part of the day.
[52] Low rainfall and prolonged sunshine in Kent, Herefordshire, Lancashire, and Norfolk provided excellent growing conditions, promoting the strong growth of ripe sweet berries.
Weather forecasters from the BBC, Met Office and the Royal Meteorological Society were subjected to online abuse and questioned validity over their coverage of the heatwave, most prompted by reports that linked it to climate change.
[56]On 19 July, steep lapse rates in the mid troposphere associated with the plume of hot air led to the development of a line of elevated dry thunderstorms that initiated along a cold front, affecting mostly southern England, progressing eastwards throughout the day and overnight.
[59] On 3 August, Marks and Spencer announced that it would stop selling disposable barbecues "to help protect open spaces and reduce the risk of fires".
[67] On 13 August, a set of safety barriers on the A63 road at South Cave buckled in the heat, less than a year after being installed the previous winter.
[76] Because of the prolonged hot weather, gardeners reported an increased ability to grow plants that would usually have difficulty flourishing in the UK, such as figs and avocados.
[83] On 26 July, and with water supplies beginning to run low, the National Drought Group met to discuss a strategy for dealing with the conditions.
[88] On 7 August, with another heatwave expected to occur in the coming days, George Eustace, the Secretary of State for the Environment, urged water companies to impose further hosepipe bans.
[93] John Curtin, executive director of local operations for the Environment Agency, warned lack of water would be an issue for several months, and that the UK would need above average rainfall through the autumn and winter to avoid another drought in 2023.
[94] A drought was declared in the West Midlands region on 23 August, with the Environment Agency warning it had been using groundwater resources and reserves from reservoirs in Wales to help maintain the flows of the River Severn, which supplies six million people in the area.
[121] A large grass fire began near Wennington, London, which quickly spread to the village and destroyed 19 homes, twelve stables, five cars and more than 20 ha (49 acres) of grassland.
[146] A wildfire broke out sparked from a train on the Swanage Railway in Dorset, which burned grassland on an embankment between Harman's Cross and Corfe Castle.
[161] In Watford, a caravan park was evacuated after 20 ha (49 acres) of fields, hedgerows and trees burned close to an industrial estate which houses the headquarters of UK National Lottery operator Camelot Group.
[166] On 14 August, Mark Hardingham, chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), said that the hot and dry conditions in 2022 had resulted in a 200% increase in the number of wildfires compared to the previous year.
[171] Provisional figures published by the Met Office on 1 September 2022 indicated England had experienced its joint hottest summer during 2022, with an average temperature of 17.1°C during June, July and August.
[176] Met Office data published on 14 October 2022 indicated that temperature records were broken at 56 of the UK's 109 oldest weather stations during the July heatwave.
[177] On 5 January 2023, the Met Office confirmed that 2022 was the UK's warmest year since records began in 1884, with an average annual temperature above 10 °C (50 °F) for the first time.
[180] On 19 July 2022, Extinction Rebellion activists smashed windows of The News Building in London in response to coverage of the heatwave by The Sun and The Times.
[181] Writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, journalist Jon Allsop criticised right-leaning British publications in particular for downplaying and detracting from the effects on the hottest days before covering them more seriously following the series of wildfires.
Allsop also found that, while climate change has had more attention in stories on the heatwave, media exploration of its role and impact is still limited and lacking.
