TORONTO – Though Britons don’t normally enjoy the summer-like temperatures that we do, they may have had enough following a heat wave that has persisted over the past week.
On Monday, the Met Office — Britain’s meteorological office — reported that temperatures had risen above 33 C, making it the hottest day of 2013 so far.
The entire nation has suffered from unusually high temperatures. In Wales, Scotland and London, wildfires have spread, and one English council reported melting roads. There has also been an increase in hospital admissions across the country, as Britons try to cope with the unfamiliar weather.
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According to the BBC, this has been the country’s longest heat wave in seven years. But it wasn’t as bad as the great heat wave of 1976.
That year, in what many Britons consider to be the worst heat wave in recent memory, temperatures rose above 32 C for 15 consecutive days throughout June and July.
London’s average July temperature is 22.5 C.
Temperatures will finally drop tomorrow to a more tolerable 26 C. That is expected to last for the rest of the week.
Last week, Eastern Canada and the United States were sweltering under high temperatures and humidity of their own. The humidex in Toronto reached 45 C on Thursday.
–with files from The Associated Press
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