A punishing heatwave fuelling ferocious wildfires in western Europe pushed temperatures in Britain over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time on Tuesday and regional heat records tumbled elsewhere.
Grassland fires erupted on the edge of London, with one forcing the evacuation of 14 people as farm buildings, houses and garages were consumed by the flames.
"I was sunbathing in my garden and then a massive black cloud came across," said Ciar Meadows, a 30-year-old housewife who had to leave her home in the town of Wennington.
"Within an hour it spreads all the way to our house... All of our cars have gone."
After the UK's warmest night on record, the Met Office said a new high of 40.3C had been recorded at Coningsby in eastern England.
At least 34 locations in Britain beat the previous record of 38.7C set in Cambridge, eastern England, in 2019.
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Experts blamed climate change for the soaring temperatures -- and warned that worse is yet to come.
Heatwaves "are becoming more frequent and this negative trend will continue... at least until the 2060s, independent of our success in climate mitigation efforts," UN World Meteorological Organization chief Petteri Taalas told reporters in Geneva.
"In the future these kinds of heatwaves are going to be normal, and we will see even stronger extremes."
Runways melting
The high temperatures have triggered an unprecedented red alert in much of England, where some rail lines were closed as a precaution and schools shuttered in some areas.
All trains were cancelled from London's usually busy Kings Cross station, leaving many travellers stranded.
"It's a little frustrating," said US tourist Deborah Byrne, trying to reach Scotland.
But with road surfaces and runways melting and fears of rails buckling, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps conceded much of Britain's infrastructure "is just not built for this temperature".
