The Conversation (0)
Liam O'Dell
Jul 17, 2022
Rishi Sunak dismisses question about Boris Johnson's Chequers party amid heatwave emergency
PA
For many, warnings of extreme heat on Monday and Tuesday, possible temperatures of 40C and potentially even excess deaths is a cause for concern, but there are still some individuals who think the Met Office issuing its first ever red warning is nothing to worry about.
GB News host Bev Turner told an actual meteorologist to be “happy” about the weather, actor Will Mellor told people to “chill out” because “it’s called the summer”, and others are referring back to the summer of 1976 as a reason not to be alarmed.
Fortunately, there are people like BBC weatherman Matt Taylor out there doing their bit to shut down the misinformation about the weather from what he described as the "'it’s summer’ brigade”.
And he did it with just six points.
“40C is NOT normal for the UK. 25C by night is NOT normal. UK infrastructure is not built for it.
“Heatwaves are among the most dangerous of natural hazards. Heat records are becoming more frequent. Seven out of 10 hottest UK days have been since 2003,” he tweeted on Friday.
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Other Twitter users reinforced the issue in their replies and quote tweets:
\u201c@MetMattTaylor Seeing far too much misinformation from the "it's summer" brigade. Not good.\u201d— Matt Taylor (@Matt Taylor) 1657865383
\u201c@MetMattTaylor It\u2019s honestly terrifying. \ud83d\ude22\u201d— Matt Taylor (@Matt Taylor) 1657865383
\u201c@MetMattTaylor And still it feels like the world\u2019s governments are sitting on their hands when it comes to climate change. We need to act faster. We need to act smarter!\u201d— Matt Taylor (@Matt Taylor) 1657865383
\u201c@MetMattTaylor Plus, if a country that normally enjoys 20s\u00b0 starts getting 30s\u00b0, and countries that normally get 30s\u00b0 start getting 40s\u00b0, and those who normally get 40s\u00b0 get 50s\u00b0 then life on the planet becomes completely unsustainable.\u201d— Matt Taylor (@Matt Taylor) 1657865383
\u201cTo put things in perspective, I live in Australia - a notoriously hot country.\n\nIn Sydney we might get one or two days that hot a year... the fact that this is happening in Europe and even Antarctica is cause for massive alarm.\u201d— Sean Knight (@Sean Knight) 1657958860
In addition to the Met Office warning of a “potentially very serious situation” next week with the risk of “widespread impacts on people and infrastructure”, the UK Health Security Agency – which replaced Public Health England last year – has issued a level four heat alert over the extreme weather conditions.
It means the “severe heatwave” could “have impacts beyond health and social care with potential effects on transport systems, food, water, energy supplies and businesses”.
Experts and government ministers held an emergency Cobra meeting on the crisis on Saturday, with Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse understood to have chaired the discussion while Boris Johnson had a party at the Chequers countryside retreat.
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