Britain is set to swelter in 40°C heat today and Tuesday, with the Met Office issuing the first ever Red warning for exceptional heat.

If you’re wondering what is causing all this heat, the culprit is a high pressure system called the ‘Azores High’.

This system which usually sits off Spain, has grown larger and pushed farther north, bringing high temperatures to the UK, France and the Iberian peninsula.

Heating from greenhouse gases caused by human activity is causing wind patterns to change and the tropics to expand, including the dry zones.

However, heatwaves need a number of atmospherical factors to be in place. In order for the air for be dragged up from the south, there needs to be high and low pressures in the right places.

Current conditions make it ideal for the heat coming in from the Sahara in north Africa which travels further north through Spain, France and then into the UK.

The Met Office has said that the UK will cool a little in the middle of the week as cooler air pushes down from the north, although southern England will still have temperatures in the high 20s.

After this, winds are expected to turn southerly, bringing hot air up from north Africa and the Sahara.

It’s the first time the country is witnessing tempratures so high. A red warning is issued when there is a danger to life when unprecedented highs of more than 40°C could be seen in central England. That is hotter than many parts of the Sahara Desert will be.

Sadly, this looks like it will just be the first of many heatwaves in the future. 40°C heatwaves in the UK are ‘ten times more likely now due to climate change’.

The Met Office has said that by 2100, even with current pledges to reduce emissions this would reduce to just every 15 years.

Source: Read Full Article