U.K.’s All-Time Highest Temperature Confirmed in Last Week’s Heat

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. was never hotter.

Last week temperatures reached 101.6 degrees Fahrenheit (38.7 Celsius) at the Cambridge Botanic Garden on July 25, the highest ever recorded in the U.K., according to a statement from the Met Office.

Sweltering temperatures gripped western Europe last week as Saharan heat crossed the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to blanket the continent, also setting records in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The reading was taken at the garden, which serves as a Met Office observation site on the University of Cambridge campus.

The record confirmed Monday breaks an old mark set in August 2003 and is evidence of the impact of climate change.

“The U.K. climate has been warming since the mid 20th Century, and this has been accompanied by similar increase in the hottest day of the year,” Mark McCarthy, a researcher at the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre, said in the statement. “Climate change has increased the likelihood and severity of heatwave episodes across Europe.”

A study conducted in 2018 showed greenhouse-gas emissions raised the potential for heat by 30 times.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tina Davis at tinadavis@bloomberg.net

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