May temperatures, meanwhile, hit a new UK high of 35.1C at Kew Gardens on May 26 \u2013 a significant increase on the previous high mark of 32.8C, which had been set back in 1922 and equalled in 1944.<\/p>\n
Both heatwaves were caused by a “heat dome” – a stalled area of high pressure that trapped hot air over the region, say experts.<\/p>\n
The heat dome was made worse by human-induced climate change, the researchers say. This has warmed the planet by around 1.4C since pre-industrial times and scientists believe it added between 3 and 4C to the maximum temperatures recorded in May and June.<\/p>\n
Hot tropical nights added to the sweltering conditions, offering little respite.<\/p>\n
Many UK homes are not built to cope, leaving people vulnerable to prolonged, high temperatures. <\/p>\n
Heat puts immense physical strain on the body, made worse if you are dehydrated, with the heart pumping harder and faster to cool you off.<\/p>\n
Babies and older people are among those most at risk of harm, as well as those with existing health conditions.<\/p>\n
It can lead to more heart attacks, strokes and other potentially fatal emergencies. <\/p>\n
Intense heat can affect anyone, including fit and healthy people, and is dubbed a ‘silent killer’ because early symptoms are easily overlooked. <\/p>\n
And when the hot air is very wet or humid, like it was in June, it’s more difficult for the body to cool down through sweating. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May temperatures, meanwhile, hit a new UK high of 35.1C at Kew Gardens on May 26 \u2013 a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-688401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}