Britain records the highest temperature ever

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom temporarily recorded a temperature of over 40 degrees Celsius on Tuesday for the first time ever in the country, the Met Office said.

The authority reported that it recorded a temperature of 40.2 degrees at Heathrow Airport in London at 11:50 GMT.

Earlier on Tuesday, a record temperature of 39.1 degrees Celsius was recorded before noon in Charleswood, near Gatwick Airport in southern England, topping the previous record of 38.7 degrees set in 2019, according to provisional data from the Met Office.

The authority expected the heat to intensify further due to a heat wave that has already damaged airport runways and railway lines.

The Met Office said on Twitter: "If confirmed, this will be the highest temperature ever recorded in Britain. The agency will need to validate the equipment used to record any temperature record before it is officially announced."

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said it would take many years before Britain could fully modernize its infrastructure to deal with the high temperatures, after at least two runways showed signs of damage and some train tracks twisted.

"We've seen a lot of disruption in travel. The infrastructure, much of it from the Victorian era, wasn't built to withstand these kinds of temperatures," he told the BBC.

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