'Our country just isn’t prepared for this level of heat': record-breaking temperatures in UK

Added: 2026-05-29

[00:00:00]Every year, we're experiencing record-breaking heat pretty much. I've seen some Americans online saying, "Oh, it's only 30°C. We have that every day."

[00:00:09]The difference is our homes aren't built for these temperatures. They're built to retain heat, and we don't have air conditioning. That means in old people's homes, in schools, overcrowded flats in London, and across the country, where you have people on lower incomes, they're the ones who are most at risk of heat stress, and they're often people who are already vulnerable and already have health conditions. I mean, we're going to have to look to Southern Europe and other countries to sort of learn from them because it feels like the infrastructure, rail networks, just collapse as we reach this type of heat.

[00:00:39]>> Rail tracks, they're stress tested up to 27°C, and that was reasonable because that was pretty much the average hot summer temperature that we got. That means that they're not reinforced in the same way that rail tracks are in other countries that are hotter because if you reinforce them too much, you end up having issues when it gets cold below freezing. The tarmac on the roads also melts because other countries, they mix into their tarmac to reinforce it to make sure it doesn't melt in the same way it does here. Our country just isn't prepared for this level of heat because why would you prepare for something that never happened really before or only happened occasionally, but now it's happening all the time?