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A former UK government scientific adviser warned amid the ‘shattering’ heat that worse is still to come
Met Office has just offered an update on temperatures across the UK, with several stations already reporting temperatures above 30C – and it’s not even 11am.
It’s 30.4C in Wych Cross, 30.3C in Charlwood, 30.2C at Kenly Airfield.
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PM to look at imposing restriction on devices in public spaces, though campaigners fear it does not go far enough
The government will look at banning disposable barbecues as wildfires continue to rage across the UK, Andy Burnham has said.
Disposable barbecues have been the cause of a number of serious fires over the last few years, but campaigners were critical of the prime minister’s failure to link those fires more broadly to the climate crisis.
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Rejecting North Sea drilling licences and protecting nature are just some measures Andy Burnham must implement to ready country
From record-smashing temperatures, wildfires, hosepipe bans and thousands of premature deaths, the climate crisis has left its mark across the summer of 2026.
Tackling the root cause – the burning of fossil fuels – and ending the crisis will take years. So will fixing the UK government’s calamitous failure to protect lives and livelihoods against the long-predicted affects of global heating.
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The gigantic aquatic acrobats are exciting Brazil’s tourists as numbers recover from whaling. But some marine biologists question how booming tourism and conservation can coexist
The anticipation is palpable onboard the Boaventura II as the yacht sets off from Rio de Janeiro at sunrise. Once beyond the Cagarras Islands, rocky outcrops just three miles off Ipanema beach, the group gathers at the bow and starts scanning the horizon.
They do not have to wait long. “Eleven o’clock!” someone calls out, as a pod of bottlenose dolphins appears, playfully diving in and out of the water. Then, two spouts of vapour hanging in the air signal the reason for the outing: a pair of humpback whales. The majestic mammals surface to breathe with an unhurried chuff, before revealing the underside of their fluke as they dive back underwater.
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It might seem an unlikely way to stop overheating, but many owners have found the tech a lifeline in hot weather
“If it is 35C outdoors, I can get the temperature down to 21C,” says Andrew Ingram of the sanctuary that his living room has provided this summer.
“On the nights I’ve slept in there, you have to put your thick pyjamas on,” jokes Ingram, who lives in Maidenhead, Berkshire, with his wife, Sue.
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Populations starting to stabilise but much still needs to be done to reverse loss of 30m that almost led to species vanishing
How do you lose 30 million house sparrows? That is the number that have vanished from Britain’s hedgerows, fields and gardens during my lifetime.
I can recall clouds of sparrows rising up in the fields behind my suburban childhood home on the edge of London. But by the late 1990s they had simply vanished from many of their former haunts.
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Frome, Somerset: While other plants are withering or skeletal, tansy is growing in great profusion, and it rewards close observation
At first light, the scent of ’76 hangs in the air, a reminder of that endless summer burning itself into autumn, just like this one. I first caught a sniff of it walking home one sweltering evening in the June heatwave and said: “Too soon, too soon.”
Now the toasted aroma of spent grass is everywhere – on crispy playing fields, straw village greens, and these scorched tawny meadows of the combe. Scattered groups of cattle have their heads down here. For them I think eating the grass must be like consuming a Pot Noodle before the water is poured in.
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Two years after southern Brazil’s worst climate disaster ravaged the city, and with poor areas still recovering, many fear official neglect has left them exposed once again
In the backstreets of Porto Alegre, a state capital in southern Brazil, you can still see signs of the devastating flood that swept through the city two years ago: scattered debris, waterlogged homes and destroyed businesses.
In May 2024, flooding killed 183 people in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and displaced more than 600,000. The neighbourhood of Sarandi was one of the hardest-hit parts of Porto Alegre, with water levels reaching up to 5 metres above normal, completely submerging many of its streets.
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Söderåsen national park is one of Europe’s largest protected broadleaf woods, offering wild swimming, spectacular hiking trails and an inspiring story of regeneration
From the bus window, the ridge looks like a giant slumbering beast stretched deep green across the flat farmland. “It feels alive,” I say to the woman beside me. “Yes,” she answers. “It is where you would run for safety, don’t you think?”
I am in southern Sweden to explore Söderåsen national park, established in 2001 to protect more than 1,600 hectares (4,000 acres) of the larger Söderåsen ridgeline. Shaped over millennia by immense geological collisions, fractures, volcanic eruptions and ice ages, today it is one of northern Europe’s largest continuous protected broadleaf forests, and only 90 minutes by car from Copenhagen or, in my case, two hours by public transport.
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The science behind summer storms – and why they have yet to break the hot spell gripping the country
“The English summer: three fine days and a thunderstorm,” George II is reputed to have said, although the line has also been attributed to Charles II and others. It was not recorded until 1867, by which time it was already in common circulation.
A brief hot spell ending in a thunderstorm is a familiar pattern, but it is not what we have experienced in recent weeks.
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