Britain to swelter again as it looks poised for a record hot summer

LONDON (AP) — Large parts of western Europe will be sweltering once again on Thursday, with Britain poised for its fifth heat wave of an exceptional summer that is expected to be the hottest on record.

Forecasters are predicting the mercury to rise as high as 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) in central and southeast England, falling just short of the August record of 38.5 C in 2003.

The Met Office said earlier this week that only average conditions were needed for the rest of August to beat last year's record for the hottest year.

For a country that's largely not equipped to deal with these levels of heat, it's been a particularly uncomfortable few weeks.

That's particularly true in hospitals where nurses have been known to collapse from heat exhaustion, according to the Royal College of Nursing.

“When nursing staff are collapsing, feeling dizzy, sick or even being admitted to the very hospitals they work in because their workplaces cannot handle the heat, it shows just how badly they are being failed,” said RCN chief executive and general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger.

The bulk of the country is now officially in drought, heaping pressure on water resources for households, agriculture and the environment.

Southern Water, which oversees supplies in the south of England, has applied for a rare drought order which would ban businesses from nonessential water use, including cleaning cars and filling nondomestic swimming pools, saying an “exceptional” lack of rain has threatened supplies in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Environment Secretary Angela Eagle will decide on the application, which would be the first such ban since May 2006.

Meanwhile, wildfires have been blazing uncontrollably, most notably this week in the New Forest in southern England. Some 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data from the National Fire Chiefs Council, the same as last year’s record-breaking total.

Though not on the level as those witnessed in France, Greece and Spain, they provide ample evidence of the need for the U.K. to adjust to a new reality.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will consider imposing a ban on disposable barbecues amid the risk of further wildfires as extreme heat continues to grip parts of the U.K.

“I do believe we need to get the message out loud and clear,” he said. “People should not be using those barbecues outside at this moment in time.”