News and entertainment worth sharing – York and North Yorkshire

As it happened – York heatwave day 2

Tuesday, 19 July, 2022

Updates as York prepares for its hottest day. Got info or pix? Let us know on Twitter, or at [email protected]

Full council meeting cancelled

 
Selby Abbey (Google).

A meeting of Selby’s full council has been cancelled due to the extreme weather.

The meeting had been scheduled for 6pm in the council chamber at the civic centre in Doncaster Road.

Temperatures in the town reached 37C on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Met Office.

A Selby District Council spokesperson said: “The items on the agenda will be carried forward to the next full council meeting on the 27th September.”

Full council meetings, attended by councillors of all parties, typically include motions, petitions and reports from senior councillors.

From Local Democracy Reporter in York and Selby, Joe Cooper

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Shops close early as temperature unofficially hits 40C in York

A frightening number on the dashboard. Photograph: David Green

According to several unofficial sensors, parts of York have now hit the 40C mark.

That milestone number has been recorded by the WX Station on Weathercloud, based at Westfield in the city. It recorded 41.8C at 3pm today, with an average at that time of 40.1C.

The Apple iPhone weather map also placed York at 40C at 3.40pm, and MD of YorkMix Radio David Green’s car sensor put the temperature at the same new maximum this afternoon.

Other weather stations recorded a max of 39.4C (York Weather Station, Strensall, Weathercloud) and the same figure at the Osbaldwick Observation Station (Met Office Weather Observations Website).

The good news is, the temperature is dropping on all these sites.

Meanwhile, a number of shops have closed early in the stifling heat.

The Twitter account of York shop Angela Bare said:

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40.2 at Heathrow, 40.3 in Lincolnshire

 

The temperature has hit 40.2 (104.3F) at Heathrow Airport – a new all-time UK record.

The previous record was 38.7C (101.7F), set in 2019 at Cambridge Botanic Garden.

Later in the day at Coningsby, Lincs, by 4.12pm, the temperature there had risen to 40.3C – the highest ever recorded in the UK.

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Here’s how hot it was in York at midday today – and how hot it stayed last night

The July sun over York Minster on Tuesday morning. Photograph: YorkMix

It is hot. And that’s official.

We’ve been looking at the temperatures recorded at various weather stations around York and North Yorkshire, and this is how it was looking as it reached high noon.

Bear in mind that most of these weather stations aren’t official. But they give us a good idea of how high the mercury’s going…

York

  • York Weather Station (Strensall, Weathercloud) 35ºC
  • WX Station (Westfield, Weathercloud) 37ºC
  • Terry’s South (South Bank, Weathercloud) 33ºC
  • Paul YO30 (Clifton, Weathercloud) 38ºC
  • Lowfield Green (Met Office WOW) 34.7ºC
  • Osbaldwick Observation Station (Met Office WOW) 37.4ºC

And according to York Weather Station – which is used by the Met Office – it dropped no lower than 18.4ºC – at 4am – last night:

North Yorkshire

  • Topcliffe (Met Office) 35ºC
  • Leeming (Met Office) 33ºC
  • Selby Central (Weathercloud) 36ºC
  • Green Hammerton (Weathercloud) 35ºC
  • Helmsley Weather Station (Weathercloud) 37ºC
  • Scarborough (Weathercloud) 35ºC
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New record set for a top temperature in the UK

 

Charlwood in Surrey has reached 39.1C (102.4F) which is the hottest ever recorded in the UK.

Much of England remains under the Met Office’s first ever red warning as the heatwave continues.

Charlwood is a village in the Mole Valley, 4 miles from Gatwick Airport.

The previous record was 38.7C (101.7F), set in 2019 at Cambridge Botanic Garden.

Yesterday RAF Fylingdales, the highest weather station in North Yorkshire, recorded a maximum of 31.6°C, making it the hottest temperature ever recorded here.

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Living without power on Britain’s hottest night was murder

 
A Northern Powergrid engineer working on an overhead electricity line. Photograph: Northern Powergrid

Hundreds of properties to the south and west of York suffered a power cut last night. For once one of the most important electrical items to fail was not the TV or cooker but the fan!

The issue was with power equipment overheating in the hot weather.

Some people are still waiting to be connected.

There were issues in Tadcaster, Sherburn, Cliffe as well as other rural areas.

It caused a sleepless, sweaty night for customers already struggling to keep cool on what turned out to be a record breaker of a night with temperatures higher than most UK summer days.

The message people found on their phones when trying to contact Northern Powergrid

June Horner Ferguson and her husband live in Sherburn-in-Elmet and lost power at 7:30pm.

She told us: “It was murder last night.

“We get a message when there is a power cut because my husband has a machine that helps with his sleep apnea.

“They sent one to say it was going to be off till nine and then we got another message to say it was going to be off till midnight and after that no more messages and my husband had to make do without his machine last night.

“The front of our house gets all the afternoon sun, so about nine o’clock we ended up sitting in the garden because it was cooler outside than it was inside.

“But once it got dark we had to come back in. We were using mobile phones and tablets to keep us occupied because obviously there’s no TV and as batteries were going down we couldn’t charge them.

“My sister, who lives in Cliffe, and looks out for our parents who also live there said they had to have a Barbecue as it was the only way to have a meal”

Northern Powergrid says 530 properties in the Front Street area of Acomb have lost power. It’s been caused by an ‘unexpected problem with cables or equipment’.

The distributor says It estimates supplies will be restored by 12.30pm.

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Britain experienced its warmest night on record

 

The UK experienced its warmest night on record on Monday as the extreme heat saw temperatures remaining in the mid-20s.

The Met Office tweeted: “It has provisionally been the warmest night on record in the UK.

“Temperatures didn’t fall below 25C in places, exceeding the previous highest daily minimum record of 23.9C, recorded in Brighton on 3rd August 1990.”

The highest overnight minimum temperatures recorded were 24.5C in Aberporth, west Wales, 25.8C in Kenley, in the London borough of Croydon, and 25.9C at Emley Moor, near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

On Monday the temperature peaked at 38.1C in Santon Downham, Suffolk, making it the hottest day of the year and the third hottest day on record, after 38.7C in Cambridge in 2019 and 38.5C in Faversham, Kent, in August 2003.

‘Travel only if absolutely necessary’ says Network Rail

York Station. Photograph: YorkMix

Here are today’s travel headlines.

Most routes across England and Wales will be affected by the hot weather on Tuesday, according to National Rail, with customers told only to travel if “absolutely necessary”.

Network Rail said: “There will be delays, cancellations and last-minute changes to train services due to the unprecedented record heat on those days.”

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LNER isn’t running any trains from south of York and south of Leeds to London King’s Cross. No Grand Central services are operating today.

Hull Trains will not be running any services to and from London Kings Cross either today.

The RAC anticipated that the number of vehicle breakdowns on Monday and Tuesday could be up to a fifth higher than normal.

Here are your links to the key rail operators:

‘Like a tandoori chicken on a rotisserie being basted by Satan himself’

Photograph: iStock

With temperatures not dropping below 20ºC last night, we asked the question: how did you sleep?

And our readers and listeners had a very mixed night.

Here are some of your comments…

  • ‘Slept lovely . Ended up down stairs on the sofa with the fan on. Full 7 hours sleep’
  • ‘Like a tandoori chicken on a rotisserie being basted by Satan himself. Bathing in napalm would be cooler!’
  • ‘Absolutely fine, windows and curtains wide open. Nice little draught coming in, bit of noise but worth it for comfortable sleep.’
  • ‘Worst nights sleep ever but that was more because the dogs couldn’t get cool. My son gave them a quick shower at 1am which seemed to help a little’
  • ‘Kids slept in the living room as their bedroom was too hot. I slept in my own bed with a fan on and window open. Didn’t even need the air cooler on. Good sleep, can’t complain. Kids are still sleeping’
  • ‘I didn’t’
  • ‘What is this thing you call “sleep”?’
  • ‘Spent the night spraying cold water at a fan!’

Revised forecast for York’s hottest day

The day dawns over the River Ouse. Photograph: YorkMix

Right, are you ready?

It could be York’s hottest day today, as the Met Office’s red warning for heat remains in place until 11.59pm tonight.

Today’s forecast from both the Met Office and BBC Weather is that York will reach a maximum of 39ºC by 3pm today.

Here are the latest headlines:

We’ll keep you updated as the day goes on.

Keep safe – and cool if you can!

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