British Isles heatwave: risk of wildfires

A heatwave is set to arrive to the British Isles, with high temperatures coupled with a lack of rainfall, threatening a risk of wildfires.

High pressure will be building in from the Atlantic across the British Isles this week, delivering broadly fine, settled and increasingly warm conditions for most, possibly hot by the following week.

Most of our weather systems travel from west to east, but there are occasions where they can become ‘stuck’ when the jet stream weakens or buckles.

The jet stream is a band of fast flowing winds five to seven miles above the Earth’s surface and carries our weather systems like a conveyor belt across the globe.

Whilst the jet stream is mainly staying to the north of the UK over the next week, steering low pressure systems away, some rain may still clip north-western fringes.

Where settled conditions prevail further south, temperatures will rise under the influence of high pressure, perhaps more so if the high shifts further eastwards and centres itself overhead.

This can consequently bring a risk of wildfires, droughts and heat-related health issues, owing to a combination of little to no rainfall, high temperatures and a lack of moisture in the air.

The Po basin in Italy is currently experiencing one of the worst droughts of the century, following extreme heat and recent dry weather in Europe.

With most of July’s temperature records in the UK last set in the 1900s, with figures in the low-30s Celsius, there is certainly the opportunity for these records to be beaten as the mercury continues to rise.