London burns: "Welcome to Tenerife on the Thames!"

"Welcome to Tenerife on the Thames"... Were the words of the

, while the thermometers broke the "ceiling" of 40 degrees in the United Kingdom for the first time in history.

"

," he warned.

"What we have is not exactly good weather, but dangerous weather that can be life-threatening. Perhaps it is time to stop making jokes about bad weather in the British Isles."

We were precisely on the banks of the Thames, at the international summit on air quality and climate solutions, convened by Khan himself without suspecting in advance the historical confluence: "It is not by chance that this happens.

in the UK, it's now every two or three years. And temperatures are getting higher, and will continue to be higher in the future if we don't take action."

The famous heat wave of 1976 stayed at

for the typical and bland summer on the islands.

The 40 degrees seemed little less than a distant utopia, with that exotic degree that the tabloids like to highlight so much: "Hotter than in Jamaica, in the Maldives and in Malaga...".

The bar was exceeded after noon at Heathrow, one day after the temporary closure of Luton airport due to damage caused by excessive heat on the runway.

The Met Office confirmed that 40.2 degrees had been reached, rivaling high temperatures recorded since early morning at

.

"The feeling in London is made even more suffocating by the 'heat island' effect that characterizes urban areas," said Khan, who is chair of the C40 group of cities on climate change.

And that

that triggers the "wind chill" several degrees in the British capital.

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The United Kingdom exceeds the ceiling of 40 degrees

• Writing: CARLOS FRESNEDA(Correspondent)London

The United Kingdom exceeds the ceiling of 40 degrees

What in Spain may seem like a normal temperature in summer, in a relatively cold country like the United Kingdom it is an extraordinary event.

The average temperature in the month of July was 18.7 degrees in the seventies.

, so the record set on Tuesday has doubled the record for a "normal" London summer day.

The Met Office has stressed that climate change makes heat waves up to 10 times more likely.

For the first time in the history of the United Kingdom, the red alert or national emergency has been activated these days due to extreme temperatures.

have been declared so far this year, 30% more than the previous year, although the devastation is not comparable to that of Spain, Portugal or the south of France.

The fire declared at a solar plant in Dorset, the melting of asphalt on roads in the south of England and Wales and the suspension of hundreds of railway routes (and several London Underground lines) between Monday and Tuesday have been some of the most direct, as well as the

, unable to keep their services operational with temperatures hovering around forty degrees.

"

", recognizes the mayor Sadiq Khan.

"The London Underground was the first to open in the world, but its depth and the size of the tunnels make ventilation and air conditioning extremely difficult. The Elizabeth line that we have just opened is really the first designed to withstand high temperatures. The same can be said for buses, although our ambition is to have a fully electric and air-conditioned fleet by 2030."

"London has its own climate action plan, but

when it comes to preparing for extreme heat," says Khan.

"We need to install more fountains, guarantee the water service to hydrate the population, continue planting trees, rehabilitate and adapt old buildings, limit how we are doing the circulation of combustion vehicles, with the largest ultra-low emissions zone in Europe" .

A new and 'dangerous' terrain

The Mayor of London insists on the close relationship between climate change and pollution in cities.

For this reason, he invited

, head of the WHO Department of Public Health and the Environment, to give the opening talk of the historic Tuesday meeting in the British capital.

"People may ask themselves,

" warned María Neira.

"And the problem is that it affects agriculture and food production, it affects the lack of water and it affects the quality of the air in cities. What we are feeling these days is something real and it has a great impact on our health. We have to make climate action a health issue."

"In a few decades we will look back and

," predicts Imperial College climatologist Friederike Otto, author of "Raging Weather."

"What we need to do is prepare our societies, educate people on how to behave in the face of heat waves, redesign our societies and our homes to make them more resilient... and stop burning fossil fuels as soon as possible."

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The heat wave in the United Kingdom causes the closure of Luton airport and the cancellation of hundreds of train journeys

• Writing: CARLOS FRESNEDA(Correspondent)London

The heat wave in the United Kingdom causes the closure of Luton airport and the cancellation of hundreds of train journeys

Few images define what is happening these days more than the contrast between the hordes of Brits crowding London's beaches and parks, losing their lustrous green and exhibiting a worrying Augustan brown.

"This summer may mark the entry into

," warns University of Reading Professor of Hydrology Hannah Cloke.

"I don't understand how politicians can keep throwing balls out on climate policy with everything going on."

Throughout the day

: from Essex to Cornwall, passing through Kent and London itself.

More than 30 fire engines were involved in extinguishing another spectacular fire in Upminster, where heavy smoke caused traffic to be cut off on the M25 motorway.

Mayor Sadiq Kahn

and acknowledged that the fire brigade was "under enormous pressure" throughout the afternoon.

The most spectacular fire occurred in Wennington, a small neighborhood in the east of the capital, where more than a hundred troops went to put out the flames that burned several homes.

King Cross and Euston stations also suspended a large part of the journeys to the north of England due to a fire near the tracks due to the fall of the power lines.

Throughout the country

;

three of them teenagers

Prince Charles, on an official visit to Cornwall, took advantage of the situation to remind British politicians: "

now that we're seeing record temperatures in Europe and the UK." The 'premier' Boris Johnson, who missed the two Cobra emergency cabinets in the heat wave, stayed in the background, although he reminded the hopefuls conservatives the importance of maintaining the goal of 'zero emitters'.

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