All language subtitles for The.Year.Britain.Burned.Summer.22.2023.1080p.WEB.H264-CBFM

NARRATOR: The hottest year ever.

2022 was unprecedented.

Warmer than the Caribbean
and the Western Sahara,

we flocked to beaches
in our millions.

As soon as the sun comes out

we Brits behave like
completely alien creatures.

We've got our bikinis out,

we got our spare tyres out,
we've got our bingo wings out.

Everyone has the same idea,

"Let's get in the car
and head to the nearest beach."

People had no idea
what they were going to encounter.

Needing to cool off
from the scorching extreme heat

resulted in some fatalities.

In Cheltenham,
the police have confirmed

a 37-year-old man
died at a lake in Pittville Park.

We have a huge amount of rescues
and situations we have to attend

where someone has experienced
cold water shock.

Over three heat waves
in as many consecutive months,

the summer of 2022
became the story of chaos.

A real risk to life.

The Met Office issues
the nation's first ever

red weather warning.

We were rocketing towards
40 degrees.

Our infrastructure
went into meltdown.

They issued a travel ban to all.
"Do not go anywhere. It is too hot."

Effectively, whatever
your normal journey time was

you had to assume that
it would be doubled.

Devastating wildfires
broke out in farmland,

grassland and gardens.

Well, the London Fire brigade,
this week,

has had the busiest day
since the Second World War.

The Wennington fire,
absolutely terrible.

19 homes were destroyed.

An official drought
was declared in parts of England

after the driest July
in over 85 years.

It did pretty much look like
a desert.

And delight turned to fear

as the dream summer
quickly became dangerous.

The heat ravaged
large areas of the country.

To hit those temperatures
was really worrying

and something that I never thought
we'd see.

This wasn't a time
to celebrate the summer.

It was scary.

We've just declared,
in the last half an hour,

a major incident pan London

with our colleagues
in the other emergency services

because of the unprecedented heat
that we're currently facing.

2022 is the year of exhausting,

demanding, perpetually
attention-seeking weather.

The first of
the bank holidays this long weekend

is set fair -
plenty of dry and sunny weather.

Getting warmer tomorrow.

In the best of the sunshine,

temperatures in the high teens
or early 20s.

The summer of 2022,
couldn't come soon enough.

The whole of the UK was anticipating
the first rays of sunshine.

We were longing to get out, get away

and soak up the feel-good factor.

Bear in mind

that we'd effectively
been pretty much locked up

for the previous two years

due to COVID restrictions.

So there was a sense that almost
the war over and, my goodness,

the sun's come out,
and we are going to celebrate.

In this country we are used to

things being stopped by rain.

That if we really do have
the prospect of proper sunshine

it's so unusual for us that we can't
help feeling incredibly festive

and also amazingly lucky.

It's good fortune smiling on us.

The sun's shining,
and there's no prospect of rain.

"What? Hey!
Can this really be happening?"

"Oh, my God, children,
grab the bucket and spade.

"Have a choc ice, quick!"

The country had a reason
to already be jubilant.

June would mark the late Queen's
Platinum Jubilee.

The celebrations were absolutely
amazing for the Jubilee weekend.

The forecast looked pretty good,
and we were very excited about it.

We want to see blue sky
and sunshine.

The weather for the Platinum Jubilee
was just delightful.

It was a beautifully sunny day.

We were outside, you know,
the whole time.

There was all the joy

and abundance of bunting,

and the red white and blue flags.

WOMEN CHEER

APPLAUSE,
CHEERING

It's been a fine start
to the bank holiday weekend

for much of the UK.

The highest temperature of the year
so far

was reached in the Scottish village
of Drumnadrochit -

right on Loch Ness -
peaking at 23.2 Celsius.

We made hay while the sun shined,
going to summer fairs,

beaches, parks,

anything to get our dose
of vitamin D.

But was this an indication
of the heatwave that was to come?

Every month that year so far

had been above average
across the country.

So there was a real trend
going on here.

In fact, that trend continued

right the way through the year
in 2022.

A burst of summer heat
is going to arrive

across England and Wales
over the next few days.

So it will turn hot.

High 20s or low 30s
by the time we get to Friday.

A week later,
forecasters were predicting

that come the middle of the week,

we would experience the
hottest spell of the year so far.

The interesting thing really,

was what was happening in France
at the time.

They were just getting
record-breaking temperatures.

The heat was getting too much.

So we have a flow coming in
from the east, south-east.

The air was going to turn
warmer and warmer.

SEAGULLS SQUAWK

On average in the UK,
June reaches 18 degrees Celsius.

But we were predicted highs
of 28 degrees.

Warmer than some Greek islands,

parts of Barbados and Los Angeles.

We didn't need to go to far-flung
climes to soak up the warmth,

it could be savoured right here.

The hot weather always gets
the British people out.

Out of the house, into their gardens
and smiling with joy.

Like everybody else, I was trying
to make up for lost sunshine.

So I would just travel
pretty much anywhere.

It's not... normal weather,
is it, really, for the UK?

At Kew Gardens,

where, for once, it was cooler
inside the tropical greenhouses

than outside today.

On Wednesday, the first day
of the June heat wave,

the temperature at Kew Gardens,
in London,

hit a high of 28.2 degrees Celsius.

As soon as the sun comes out,

we Brits behave like
completely alien creatures.

We suddenly start living
the dolce vita.

We've got our bikinis out,
we've got our spare tyres out,

we've got our bingo wings out.
We've got absolutely everything out.

We are roasting and frying.

And the reason we do it is

we never know
when we're gonna see the sun again.

So if we get a glimpse of it,
we are out there frying our faces

from dawn till dusk.

So, when good weather was forecast,
well,

guess what?

We all piled into the car
and headed to the nearest resort.

When the hot weather
descends on this country,

everyone has the same idea,

"Let's get in the car
and head to the nearest beach."

People had no idea
what they were going to encounter.

NARRATOR: As the June heatwave
got underway,

it was already setting records.

The first day was the hottest day
of the year so far

and the following two days smashed
that consecutively.

Some of us will
continue to see temperatures rising

as we go into Friday,

getting to highs
in the mid 30s Celsius.

Lots of hot sunshine to be had.

Temperatures getting to highs
of around 34 or 35 Celsius

towards the south-east.

Day on day,
the hot air intensified further.

15th, the 16th
and then the 17th -

and that's where we saw
that real spike in temperature.

Now, because the air was coming from
the near continent,

the highest temperatures were always
going to be across the south-east

and the highest temperatures were,
yes, East Anglia, Santon Downham.

32.7 degrees Celsius on the 17th.

In our animal barns, we've got
small animals like rabbits.

We were having to freeze bottles
of water and put them in the pen

so they could lie against him.

Despite the sky-high temperatures,

the heat didn't reach
the all-time for June of 35.6 -

set back in the notorious long,
hot summer of 1976.

It is unbelievable, really,

considering that we've been seeing
so many hot summers -

yet that record
still stayed in place.

SEAGULLS SQUAWK

WAVES WHOOSH GENTLY

We were officially in a heatwave
by June the 17th.

A period of at least
three uninterrupted days

of exceptionally high temperatures
above the heatwave threshold

set by the Met Office.

The exceptional weather had grabbed
the headlines by the end of the week

and got us all talking
about the blistering heat.

It's been a long time coming.
We've waited weeks for this.

They keep promising hot weather,
and it's not arrived till now.

If you are in
the south of the country

you'll know that
it is already very hot

with temperatures on the way up
to 34 degrees.

That means Kingston upon Thames will
be hotter than Kingston, Jamaica.

And Brighton, hotter than Barbados.

We were just hoping for
a decent weather

to tide us through the summer.

I don't think we had any great
expectations of anything dramatic.

Finally, we've got some real,
good, hot sun.

I can feel it in my bones.
I'm feeling good.

Well, here in Skegness
on the Lincolnshire coast,

temperatures have been pushing
30 degrees.

The message from
the health authorities is,

"Please do take care."

We've spoken to
various ambulance services today

who are already seeing an increase
in weather-related calls.

It is quite nice. I love it.

But we're trying to be safe
and remember to drink our water

and put our suncream on.

We always do go a little bit crazy
in, sort of,

situations of extreme temperature.

We struggle in the snow and the ice

and we go out and fry ourselves
in the sun.

We were embracing
the searing 32 degrees.

Soaking up every last bit
of the golden sunshine.

I think the skin peeled off my nose
not three times, but about 33 times.

When I wasn't working
I tried to enjoy the sunshine.

You know, sitting in the garden,
reading a book.

And I did buy one of those
fairly rubbish paddling pools

to flop into in the garden,

but actually the dogs got into it
more than I did.

And every time the sun comes out

you can see this, kind of,
surge of cars

all heading to the nearest resort.

To make the most
of the tropical weather

crowds flocked to the beaches
as early as 6 AM.

But for latecomers, it wasn't
sand and sea that greeted them.

Everybody has the same idea,

"Let's head to
the nearest bit of seaside."

That just meant that the whole place
became a massive car park

and there was no prospect
of tens of thousands of people

getting anywhere near the sea.

Obviously what happened was
all big resorts like Bournemouth,

for example, closed their car park

from about 11 o'clock
in the morning.

Well, you couldn't really get
more than a couple of miles

from the, er, seafront
because it was utter congestion.

On roads leading to the seafronts
of Southampton and Bournemouth,

traffic was queueing for nine miles
just to reach the coast.

I remember Bournemouth being full

with something in the region of
50,000 people.

Imagine sitting in your car

praying you have
good air-conditioning, right?

And for hours, sitting in a queue

just to get to a car park
that then was probably full.

The number of us trying to reach
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole,

on the 17th of June alone,
led the council to tweet

that all the seafront car parks
were full.

If you were lucky enough
to get to the beach

and rent
one of the 3,000 deckchairs,

you could still have been
queueing for 20 minutes

just to get an ice cream.

Bournemouth wasn't the only resort
to see sunworshippers descend on it.

The seasides across the country
were full of staycationers

making the most of the fine weather.

In Southend,
they know how to celebrate the sun.

Hottest day of the year?
Bring it on.

No, we don't need to go abroad
any more.

We've always come to Skegness.
We love it.

After so long, you know,
after lockdown... Lockdown.

Yeah. It's nice to come out.

The travel industry,

which had had a miserable
COVID pandemic of course,

I thought, "Hurray!
We are now gonna make a mint."

How's it been for you
today? Looks pretty busy.

Very busy. Very busy.
Not stopped all day.

Lots of these hats
and all the usual beach stuff.

Beach balls. These, the rings.

The tide's coming in soon

so it will be busy for rings
all afternoon.

To see people
in their tens and thousands

converging on beaches

was absolute bliss
for the travel industry.

The seafronts weren't the only place

to see large crowds
return to them.

Big prices by the bar!

Royal Ascot
was back to full capacity

for the first time in two years,

and luckily, it would bask in
the extraordinary weather.

I went to Royal Ascot
for the very first time.

Ladies Day at Royal Ascot.

High fashion, high-stakes

and the highest temperature
of the year so far.

That was incredible
because it was super hot.

Hotter than we ever imagined.

It's so good.

I mean, two years ago, 2020,

it was a pretty
miserable experience.

Honestly, it was horrendous.
This place was empty.

But this year,
it's just burst back into life.

It's just been incredible.
I'm so happy for people.

And everyone has made
such an effort.

The colour you see and the outfits
all around the racecourse

is extraordinary - it's like
a rainbow has hit Royal Ascot.

Honestly, the pomp, the ceremony
of the day was magnificent.

There were the men
in their full top hat and tails.

There were the ladies in the long,

flowing dresses
and their fascinators.

I gave them a run for their money.

With the temperature climbing
it wasn't long until the spectators

needed to find shade,
brollies and sunglasses

to protect them from the sun.

There were
plenty of fans on hand

and some were here
for the racing too.

Other options to beat the heat

also available.

Well, it's fabulous.
Absolutely amazing.

It's great to see it
back in full swing.

Lovely to be here.

And when the weather's so great
as well.

As the heatwave peaked
on the Friday,

racegoers and flutter fanciers
started to feel the strain.

The heat
did take its toll for a few,

suffering from a combination
of too much sun or too much fun.

The temperatures at Ascot

were heading up to 31, 32 degrees
by the end of the week.

The traditional formal dress code
for Royal Ascot

started to lose its charm

with the ever hotter
and hotter weather.

Royal Ascot
broke habit of a lifetime.

It was so flipping hot that rather
than risk people fainting,

collapsing and having to be
taken to hospital on stretchers,

they relaxed
their traditional dress code

and allowed men to remove their hats
and their ties and their jackets.

And for the first time as well,
which is completely unprecedented,

they'd allowed people
in some of the enclosures

to bring in water, soft drinks,
just to keep hydrated.

By the third day we wanted
some relief from the roasting heat.

The draw to cool down
was stronger than ever.

There are thousands of people
in this country

who love cold water swimming,
and they do it on a regular basis.

And, of course,
when the weather is super hot,

everyone wants to rush out to
the nearest beach and go and swim.

The urge to cool off
calls some to the Thames

and its foreshore.

Of course,
with temperatures like these,

water, such as the Thames,
looks very appealing,

But this fast flowing tidal river
is potentially lethal.

Those who just want to find coolness
and refreshing conditions

and they dive into the sea,
they dive into a lake.

And what happens
below the surface of the water?

Well, it can be very dangerous.

In Cheltenham, the police
have confirmed a 37-year-old man

died at a lake in Pittville Park

after getting into difficulties
last night.

Stark warnings
were issued to the public

about the risks of swimming
in open water during the heat.

People don't really realise
the temperature.

It's a lot colder
than what people think

when they first jump in.

And then it's that what lies beneath
is the danger as well.

We will be experiencing
extremely strong currents today.

We might now be
officially enduring a heatwave,

but for the lifeguards
at Littlehampton

this means a potentially dangerous
combination

of searing air temperatures with
a very cold sea and strong tides.

What are your biggest concerns
on a hot day like today?

We have a huge amount of rescues.

Erm, the situations that we
have to attend

where someone has experienced
cold water shock.

We are asking everyone,

if you get into trouble in the water
then please 'Float to Live.'

And that's where we do see some
tragic consequences to a heatwave.

We've seen it before
and it happened again.

All good things must come to an end

and after three days
of sustained heat

those that said it wouldn't last
were feeling smug

as the heatwave broke.

This is a very typical setup
for the UK.

When we get a lot of heat,
we call it a thundery breakdown.

The air becomes primed
with lots of energy

and all it takes is something like
a weather front,

which is what happened
during that weekend,

to sink southwards
introducing colder air.

And it's that clash of warm and cold

which really created that explosive
situation and thunderstorms.

When the rain came in mid June,
we did sigh a big sigh of relief.

Because, you know, we thought,
"That's it, the heatwave is over."

Things are resuming normal again.

You know,
we've got warnings being issued

for thunderstorms on the Sunday.

THUNDER RUMBLES
From spending all day outside

relaxing in the warm weather,

that Sunday saw
a yellow weather warning

issued for thunderstorms

urging the public to stay indoors.

But the rain didn't hang around
for long.

WIND HOWLS

24 days after the rain,

forecasters were predicting another
heatwave was on the horizon in July.

This time, temperatures could exceed
35 degrees Celsius.

As a result, an amber extreme heat
warning was issued five days before.

Concern that if those temperatures

do get up get up into
the mid to high 30s

that could cause
adverse health issues

and not just the elderly
and for the vulnerable,

but quite widely across the public.

Transport disruption is also likely.

It was boiling hot.
It was stupefying.

It felt as if you were
gonna be grilled or barbecued

if you just stood still
for five minutes.

But to hit those temperatures
was really worrying

and something that
I never thought we'd see.

The further you go into a forecast
day on day,

the accuracy obviously rises.

The chances of seeing 40 degrees,
smashing the last record,

but then 40 degrees,
we're getting closer and closer.

And that type of temperature is just
unprecedented in this country.

So alerting the nation to that heat

meant that we had to
raise the level to red

and declare a national emergency.

We expect the heat to last for
two days, on Monday and Tuesday,

when there's a possibility
that records will be broken.

"A real risk to life."

The Met Office issues the nation's

first ever red weather warning
on the impending national heatwave.

When you have a national warning
for heat in that way

you've really gotta be careful

and look out for
the more vulnerable in society.

It's the stress that
that puts your body under

when those temperatures
rise to that level

which was a real concern.

Ambulances and hospitals

are set to be even more stretched
in the coming days.

Paramedics from the charity
St John Ambulance

will be out supporting NHS crews.

This was also a threat, potentially,
to business and transport

because of the fact that
that heat could melt

really important parts
of infrastructure.

The public didn't know
what would lie in store for them.

Temperatures rising rapidly

during the course of the afternoon.

Rising into the low thirties
across much of England and Wales.

The June heatwave was just the
warmup for what was to come in July.

With warnings already at
the extreme, the expectation was

that we would hit
a new record maximum temperature.

The day the amber warning kicked in,
it was a Sunday,

so most people weren't working.

There was a broad heat
across the country.

It extended its tentacles
everywhere.

In fact, the highest temperature was
in Wales.

Hawarden, in Wales, saw 33C.

The public's attitude towards
the sunshine changed in mid July,

as the amber warning from
the Met Office made everyone

sit up and rethink the heat.

CROWD APPLAUD

I'm not worried, but I am melting.

I'm off to UCL Hospital by ambulance
tomorrow,

and I'm terrified of travelling
all the way down there in the heat.

In extreme heat on the farm...

all of your senses change,

and it kind of feels like
a completely different atmosphere.

And you know that if this goes on...
things are gonna start to suffer -

the wildlife, the plants,
the livestock and us.

I was in two minds, really,

because really excited about having
hot weather,

because I am a sun-worshipper,

but, also,
I had to be really, really mindful,

because I have an elderly mother
who I help care for,

so I went in and checked on my mum
as soon as I could

when I heard that warning.

So everyone just has to be
really, really sensible about heat.

As a broadcaster, it's a real gift
when there's a huge weather story.

My tendency is to be delighted
and incredibly elated

when the weather gets hot.

So it was quite hard for me,

cos I had to try to be a grown-up
and a responsible broadcaster

and not look
too excited and too thrilled.

The cause of this heatwave, well,

a flow of air coming in from
the near continent,

high pressure reinforcing the heat
day-on-day, night-on-night.

In fact, there was a lot of humidity
in the air,

so it just allows
the temperature to rise further.

And because the air was
so stuck in a pattern,

it's really
a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So the temperature would just go
up and up.

One day after
the amber warning was introduced,

it was raised to a red level
for extreme heat...

..and a national emergency
came into force.

A red warning
has been issued by the Met Office

for the first time ever,

meaning there's
a very likely risk to life.

This was a serious type of
temperature we were going towards.

The values we were seeing
were higher than the Western Sahara.

This wasn't a fun heat.

"Mad dogs and Englishmen", there's
never a truer phrase, really,

because sun comes out, we're all
out there, making the most of it.

And then we kind of get
a bit ragey

and a little bit annoyed with it,

and, you know, people want it to be
cooler again.

I once had a caller
to one of my radio shows

who had frozen snowballs
in his deep freeze

so that if there were to be
a heatwave,

he could take them out of
the deep freeze

and just kind of enjoy the cool

of these snowballs
that he had frozen in a snowy patch.

Hilarious.

I know we're never happy
with the weather,

but those extremes
are very difficult.

If you're wondering why
we're in Cambridge

with our weather presenter
Clare Nasir...

I was doing a live for Channel 5
with Dan Walker,

and we were in Cambridge at a lido.
Lot of people swimming in the water.

At one point,
myself and the producer put

a bag of ice on our heads
just to cool down, because it was...

you just couldn't get away from it.

It felt like there was a hairdryer
just blowing on my face.

KIDS SCREAM

It wasn't just adults who found it
difficult to cope in the heat -

so did children.

In the classroom,
schools needed to protect pupils

from the heat of the day.

Schools weren't ordered
to close, although, some did.

Instead, the Government asked
head teachers to make sure

pupils were safe and comfortable.

It's important that schools
do continue to be open,

but at the same time,

head teachers are empowered to make
local decisions

as fits the needs
of their local schools.

Some schools decided to close
at points during the heatwave,

which I know made a lot of parents
quite angry,

particularly because
only two years before,

schools had had a lot of closures
throughout COVID.

Decisions whether to open or close

have gotta be taken on
the ground level,

they can't be taken from an office
in London

where one size doesn't fit all.

So if a school leader says,
"We've gotta close,"

they're not doing it
because they want an extra day off,

they're doing it for the
health, safety of all their pupils.

I think that closing a school

because of hot weather
is a little bit extreme.

Let the children come to school,
let the children learn,

keep them nice and cool,

relax the strict
school uniform regulations.

Schools weren't the only
infrastructure to feel the impact...

caused by temperatures soaring
to heights of 38.2C on the 18th.

The first forecast arrived
of extreme heat,

so I thought, "Well, things will
carry on pretty much as normal."

I was, of course,
comprehensively wrong.

On the railways,
services were cancelled

and some trains were running
at half the speed

because the tracks couldn't take
the heat.

Though, there was at least one
corner of cool air.

The travel disruption was crazy,
because, of course,

just in the way that leaves
on the line or snow affects

our rail services,
the heat did as well.

The transport providers are
messaging people

that they should only travel

if they really need to
on Monday and Tuesday,

and if they don't have to travel,

then this may be a moment
to work from home.

Effectively, whatever your
normal journey time was,

you had to assume
that it would be doubled.

The railways were cancelling
many, many trains.

People were getting stranded in
places they weren't meant to be in

because they couldn't get home.

At one stage, from London St Pancras
International,

the best-connected station
in Britain,

the only places you could go
were Kent or France.

There's been a few cancellations
this morning, but it's gone OK.

But tomorrow, all the trains
are cancelled from where I live.

The way I look at it,

people pay good money to go abroad
to get this sort of weather.

We get two days of it over here,

and the whole country comes to
a standstill.

What does that say about us
as a nation?

The problem for the rails is

that they can get 20 degrees warmer
than the outside air temperature.

However, the lines that we have
are built to cope with

maximum temperatures -
maybe about 35 or so.

Once you've got very hot steel,

and you apply a fast-moving train,

well, that spells
possible buckled rails,

a risk which the rail industry
simply will not tolerate.

Network Rail are painting
certain parts of the tracks white

so they absorb less heat
and expand less.

The 19th of July was
an absolute crunch day,

and increasingly severe warnings
had been issued saying, effectively,

"Don't try and go anywhere."

No services
out of London King's Cross today.

The main line
from Edinburgh to London - shutdown.

Yesterday, track in East Anglia
heated to 62C.

They issued a travel ban to all.

"Do not go anywhere. It is too hot.
The railways are melting."

And all of this was happening
at a time when demand for travel,

the yearning to be
with friends, with family

on work trips, on days out,
on holiday -

that was stronger than it had been
for a couple of years.

For those willing to endure
the travel nightmares,

it was worth it for the reward
of keeping cool during the day.

At home, I work in my bedroom
on the top floor,

which is an absolute oven,

so it's worth a trip in
to go into a fridge.

Kind of have to be in the office,

and it's kind of that
sort of, like, office-based working,

and, also, it's so much cooler.
I'd rather be in the aircon.

I was actually cold yesterday,
I put a jumper on in the office.

The oppressive heat didn't
solely affect the railway.

Getting around by car
had its own sticky dangers.

The motoring organisations were
coming up with

the best advice they could manage,
which really began,

"Don't drive
unless you absolutely have to."

So, I get ferried
around London a lot

on the back of a limo bike.

I had not had ANY idea
how unbelievably hot it would be.

When the sort of engine
or something,

I don't know what was going on,
seemed to be just giving out

enormous billows of burning heat,

and the weather was already
an inferno.

I was hot on the inside,
I was hot on the outside,

I was hot underneath,
I was hot from above.

It was absolutely extraordinary.

The UK has a wonderfully mild,
temperate climate

almost all the time -

except when we have
record temperatures,

at which point,
the roads suddenly can't cope.

They do start breaking up.

They become
very, very soft and dangerous.

This road gritter
is usually put to work in winter,

but, today, it was spreading sand
on melting tarmac

in an attempt to keep motorists
on the move.

The heat was so intense
in some areas of the country

that the tarmac DID melt,
making the roads treacherous.

"No,"
said Cambridgeshire Police,

"the A14 hasn't become a skate park,

"it's buckled in the heat
and partially shut."

The 18th of July wouldn't just see
disruption on the roads and rail,

but travellers trying to go abroad
would find themselves

unable to take off.

Luton Airport suspended
all flights

for a few hours this afternoon

after high temperatures caused
a defect on the runway.

You had planes diverted to
Stansted, in Essex,

to Gatwick Airport, south of London.

You had planes, pilots, passengers
all out of position.

More to the point,

if you were stuck in
the departure lounge at Luton

with your flight not going anywhere

and quite possibly being cancelled
as you waited there,

it was utter misery.

Our flight literally got
taken off the boards.

We only found out from the app
that our flight was cancelled.

As the chaos of the 18th turned into
the 19th,

for those in the hottest areas,

simply trying to sleep became
a nightmare.

That night, between the 18th
and the 19th, was the hottest,

steamiest, most sultry night
on record,

and, in fact, the next morning,
no-one could talk of anything else.

It was unbelievable.

It set an all-new record for the UK.

In Greater London, the temperature
did not dip below 25.8C...

..which is defined as a very,
very hot day, generally, in the UK.

Trying to sleep was a hideous,
so we had two fans on -

one, your traditional fan...

..on full speed, number three,

blowing in our faces
at the end of the bed.

We also had one of those kind of
really fancy,

stupidly-expensive hot-and-cool fans
blowing at us at the same time.

Add into the mix the fact that I get
hot flushes anyway, right,

it was not a good mix,

so we woke up grouchy, unhappy,

not looking forward to
the rest of the day.

Everyone was trying
absolutely everything.

Do you have just one sheet over you?

One linen sheet without a shred
of synthetic fibre about it.

No-one could sleep,
no-one was having sex of any kind,

no-one, because it's much too hot,
nobody could be bothered.

Everyone was overtired, everyone had
dark shadows under their eyes.

This was only
the beginning of the day.

Before noon, temperatures had
surpassed the previous record,

set in 2019 at
Cambridge Botanic Garden, of 38.7C.

The temperature would
keep on climbing.

We didn't know how hot it would get.

We were in unchartered territory,
and the dangers were unknown.

When you're reporting on conditions
like we saw

through the summer of 2022 -
in June, but more so in July...

..this was a grave report.

This wasn't a time to celebrate
the summer.

And it was scary,
it really was scary.

If forecasts were to be believed,

it'd be like
nothing we've experienced before.

Exhausted, stifled and sticky,

we woke up on Tuesday, 19 July
to the possibility

that the all-time high of 38.7C,
set in 2019,

might be broken.

It's never been this hot before.

And in one or two spots,
the possibility of 40 or 41C.

So truly remarkable.

32.4C was recorded as early as 9am
at Kew Gardens, London.

So, relative to the day before,
on the 18th,

temperatures were two, three,
four degrees higher,

hour on hour, comparatively.

At 10am, Kew Gardens hit 35.1C.

Compared to the day before
at the same time,

the hottest place was 30C.

So, I remember
walking into work at the BBC

with a large iced coffee.

By the time
I got into the building -

and it's honestly
about ten yards away, or something -

it had melted.
That's how hot it was.

An hour later, 11am,

Charlwood, Surrey, hit 37.3C.

Just 1.4 degrees off the record.

I was writing a research paper.

I lasted about half an hour. Just...

birds tweeting, the sun shining.

I'd opened the back door.
That lovely warm heat was coming in.

By 12 o'clock, the existing record
of 38.7C was broken...

..as Charlwood, Surrey,
recorded 39.1 degrees.

It was being smashed
across the country.

And we knew we were rocketing
towards 40 degrees.

By about midday,
I decided I couldn't work any more.

Shut the laptop, closed the books,
put the notes back in the bag.

Opened the sun lounger
in the garden...

and stretched out in the sun.

The first time ever.

40.2C was confirmed at 1pm
in Heathrow, London.

I couldn't believe
that we'd hit 40C.

I stepped out of the BBC
and into the forecourt,

and the heat hit me
full in the face -

almost like an assault.

By four o'clock in the afternoon,
Coningsby, in Lincolnshire,

grabbed the record for
the highest temperature ever reached

after it peaked at 40.3C,

18 degrees above
the average July temperature.

46 stations
had broken the previous record

of the highest temperature
ever recorded in the UK.

I never imagined that we would
get to, in the UK, 40 degrees.

And working in that was horrible.

And for the animals, the livestock,
you know, they were suffering.

So, the whole thing
felt a bit alien, a bit extreme.

Maybe a little sort of
wearing on the nerves.

It was like, "OK, we've had
some nice weather, that was nice."

This was like a fiery furnace.

To battle the withering heat,

Brits turned to buying anything
that could offer some relief.

As soon as we think
it's getting hot, we start spending.

First of all, we buy summer clothes.

Flip-flops, T-shirts,
shorts, bikinis.

Big time.
Then we start thinking about

what are we gonna eat and drink.

Obviously ice cream is a big one.
The we remember the ice itself.

Next thing we know,
we're buying electric fans,

air-conditioning units,
completely forgetting

that you literally only use them
for about one day.

Everyone goes mad
as soon as the sun comes out.

So, you know, fans were getting
sold out across the country.

Ice was hard to come by.

All the paddling pools
were sold out. So...

We're just not ready for it.
And we do sort of go a bit crazy.

Our spending led to a surge
in sales.

Paddling pool purchases
were up 1,000%,

while some retailers
saw over 2,000% growth

in air conditioners.

One high street supermarket
reported record ice cream sales,

up by 36% from 2021.

For others,
the demand became too much.

We were picking up
little bits of ice cream,

little bits to put together
for a picnic.

Bottles of water sold out.

I mean, ice cream, ice lollies.

Have you ever
walked into the supermarket

and seen the ice cream shelf,

all the ice lolls, empty?

I mean, never in your life.

We just went a little bit bonkers.

As the day rocketed to 40 degrees,

the demand for bottled water,
ice cream and ice

left some supermarket shelves bare.

But empty shelves
were just one small consequence

of the unparalleled extreme heat.

For some, the heatwave
led to unimaginable events.

One of the impacts of heatwaves
is wildfires.

So, once the Met Office
had forecasted those temperatures,

one of the things that I knew

was that we were gonna be
having grass fires.

On what became
the hottest ever day in UK history,

devastating fires
ignited across the country.

At 11:30am, Wild Ken Hill
in Norfolk was alight,

losing around 33 hectares
of the coastal park.

In South Yorkshire, near Dinnington,

a large area of farmland
caught fire,

while homes were engulfed

in the neighbourhoods
of Maltby and Barnsley.

When you started seeing fires
on the news, you know, in farmland,

we were in the middle of harvest.

You know,
that really struck home with me

cos I've seen it before.

And when the wind gets behind it
and the ground is so dry,

you've got all that dry straw
and crop standing in the field,

it's almost impossible to stop.

Looked like something
from an alien environment,

something you might see
in the south of France,

or Australia, or South Africa.

Throughout the day,
major incidents were declared

in North, East and South Yorkshire,

Lincolnshire, Leicestershire,

Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

And at 3:15, London also declared.

Well, we've just declared,
in the last half an hour,

a major incident, pan-London,

with our colleagues
in the other emergency services,

because of the unprecedented heat
that we're currently facing.

Two fires broke out
just after noon in Croydon.

Eight fire engines
and 60 firefighters

were tackling
a hectare woodland fire,

while another four engines
extinguished another hectare.

In Dagenham, 15 engines
and around 100 firefighters

were controlling a blaze
on grassland

which destroyed homes,
eight hectares of parkland

and 25 vehicles.

These were just a handful
of the fires that took hold.

Well, the London Fire Brigade,
this week,

has had the busiest day
since the Second World War.

On Tuesday,
they received more than 2,600 calls.

So, receiving that many calls
was actually five times more

than what we would normally receive
at that time of year.

One of the callouts
was to the village of Wennington,

in East London.

It's a small village
just inside the M25,

approximately 100 residences
and businesses,

surrounded by open countryside.

Now, seven stations
peaked in excess of 40 degrees,

a temperature which we never thought
we would ever arrive at.

It was like a thick, thick heat,

a suffocating heat
which just sat over the UK.

One lunchtime, 19th of July,

temperatures hitting a record level.

And there was this
block of houses in Wennington.

There was a compost heap
near the houses.

That caught fire,

shot up a fence.

I saw a very small flame.
By the time, two minutes later,

I sort of ran round
and the house had just caught light.

It just went up, and about
five minutes later, both houses up,

and it just looked like
nothing could stop it.

London Fire Brigade, we received
our first call to Wennington

just after one o'clock
in the afternoon.

I ran as fast as I could,
with the flames behind me.

I've got to the end of Church Lane.
You have to go left or right.

I realised then the fields
either side were on fire.

It was coming round towards us,

and it was out at the back
of the old schoolhouse.

And their tree all went up,

and their shed went up
and everything.

And when number 20's fence
started going,

we just grabbed our things
and just came straight out.

A lot of residents
were already engaged

in trying to tackle fires
with garden hoses.

Once those people
had been safely evacuated,

we then started with door-to-door

and just making sure
the properties were empty.

Banging on the door.
"Out, get out right now."

When we've come out
of the front door, there's...

Black smoke was down the road,

completely thick black smoke.

We had 15 fire engines
at the Wennington fire.

Approximately 100 firefighters.

On the main terrace of houses,

where there was a number of houses
well alight,

you saw the fire
kind of arcing across the road

and igniting the trees
on the other side of the road.

And you had, you know,
essentially a tunnel

along Wennington High Street
that was in flame.

The speed and the development
of the fire

and the travel of the fire,
that was extremely bad.

We declared the fire brought under
control before 10:00 that evening.

I remember
covering the Wennington fire.

It was absolutely terrible.

Nineteen homes were destroyed,

and, you know,
the people who lived there

were absolutely in shock.

Once the fire had been extinguished,

it was clear to see
what had been destroyed.

As well as 19 homes,
12 stables, six garages,

five cars
and around 40 hectares of grassland

were ravaged by the blaze.

It's the morning after,

and this is as close
as you can get to Wennington.

You've got the police cordon
in place here.

People are still,
understandably, in shock.

Many of them don't even know
if they've got a home to go back to.

For us, it was unbelievable
to see Wennington,

this village that
I've been a part of, worked within,

looking like a war zone.

How are you feeling now?

All right now. I mean,
in the cold light of day, it's...

Yesterday was all full up
with adrenaline and that,

but today, looking at the houses,
looking across here, it's all gone.

I say it's pretty daunting now,
must admit.

You realise you've got nothing,
like, you know?

You're remarkably chipper, my love.
Well, the thing is, like...

No-one died,
and that's the main thing.

There's no loss of life.
It's only property.

Obviously,
you can't get the memories back,

the photo albums
and all the stuff like that.

You just, you keep thinking,

"Oh, I won't see that any more.
I haven't got that."

And... And that's when it hits hard.

I've spent 20 years
in the fire service now,

and that was without doubt

the most challenging day
that I've had in those 20 years.

If we're gonna see more
of these extreme temperatures

and dry, arid countryside,

you know, we're gonna have to
start getting used to it.

When I worked in Australia,

we used to create fire breaks
around the edges of all the fields,

cos it was something
that they had as an annual event.

What has been positive about this

is the way that
the community in Wennington

have supported each other,
have been a part of the community

and have really helped each other
get through

what was
an absolutely horrendous time.

The courage, the bravery,

the teamwork that was displayed
by London Fire Brigade on that day

absolutely exemplified
the very best of London Fire Brigade

and the fire service.

The extreme heat left us vulnerable

and exposed
to its devastating consequences.

Fires continued to start
throughout the summer.

Across England
from June to August of 2022,

fire services recorded
at least 24,316 wildfires.

Four times
that of the previous year.

The London Fire Brigade called for
disposable barbecues to be banned,

as they are one of the most common
causes of grass fires.

The reason why we asked for
disposable barbecues to not be used

was because the slightest spark
can cause the biggest fire.

By 12 August, all big supermarkets

had stopped selling
disposable barbecues

due to the risk of wildfires.

When the supermarkets decided
to take those off the shelves,

I was delighted. I think
that was a very sensible, good move.

Thunderstorms and lightning broke
the stale air the following day,

Wednesday the 20th,
to offer some relief.

It always ends with a bit of a bang,
doesn't it,

when it comes to heatwaves?

The air - yet again,
all the ingredients are there

to actually just produce these
amazing, huge cumulonimbus clouds.

The air primed with so much energy.

And yes, a yellow warning
was issued for thunderstorms.

THUNDER CRACKS

2022 would see another heatwave.
This wasn't the end.

NARRATOR: Having already faced
two heatwaves,

we couldn't quite believe
that another was on the way.

But, in fact,
forecasters cited August 8

as the start of
the third heatwave of 2022.

So, come August, we're in the thick
of another heatwave,

and it's sort of
lost its charm yet again.

The Met Office
has issued an amber warning

for extreme weather
in parts of England and Wales,

starting later this week.

We'd been through the wars.

We were battered, we were bruised.

Not one heatwave, not two, three.

We get to August. Quite incredible.

Now, it was different
from the July heatwave.

Temperatures were not as high.
But even so, it was more prolonged.

Highs of 30 degrees
or more are expected

in some parts of the country.

The Met Office says
the next 7-10 days

looks like they will be
very dry indeed.

With that drying temperature,

actually, the animals change -
the way they smell, even their dung.

And I had the pleasure of
working in Australia as a student,

and those smells reminded me of
those arid conditions in Australia.

August was a real humdinger.

It was boiling hot
for a full eight days.

Eight days of 30 plus temperatures.

With consistent high temperatures
during the third heatwave,

warning signs raised in July

that a drought
might be round the corner

became more significant.

At Rutland Water,
England's biggest reservoir,

water levels are currently at 80%.
If it gets worse,

companies could decide
to impose hosepipe bans.

It isn't just
the recent high temperatures,

it's the exceptionally dry summer,
after the dry spring,

after the dry winter,

that's causing
a looming water crisis.

On the 12th of August,
four days into the heatwave,

eight areas of England
declared a drought,

from Devon and Cornwall
to East Anglia.

There were so many records
running around about...

how dry it had been,

but the key one
really was south-east England.

It had the driest July
since records began.

An average of around 5mm.

This is what it looks like
in many parts of the country.

This natural pond
should be right up to the fence,

and it's nothing but a muddy puddle.

Across England,
it was the driest July since 1935.

Rivers and lakes started to dry up,

and a popular beauty spot
in the Yorkshire Dales

was transformed.

Aysgarth Falls, on the River Ure,

is normally a free-flowing
three-stepped waterfall.

But during
the extreme July heatwave,

it was reduced to just a trickle.

The riverbed was exposed,
and only shallow pools remained.

Down in Gloucestershire,

the source of another river
was being redefined.

Second only to the Severn in length,

the Thames
is now a river in retreat.

We were told we'd find
the new source of the Thames here,

five miles downstream,
but as you can see,

there's no river,
and there's no fish.

With every day,
the Thames is shrinking.

Trees that were flourishing

suddenly started
to shed their leaves

in this kind of dehydrated,
horrible,

slightly kind of dystopian way.

Honestly, when you see
what August looked like...

It did pretty much
look like a desert.

the scorched earth, yellow...

really like hay, like straw.

The grass was desperate for a drink.

The heatwaves had taken their toll
on our once green and pleasant land.

Looking at satellite images
of the UK back in July 2021

and then during
the August heatwave of 2022

reveals how the extreme heat
had transformed the land.

One area that suffered from
the heatwave and drought

was farming.

I've been farming
just over 30 years now,

and I've never seen it so dry.

We started harvest two weeks early

because the crops
had ripened so quickly.

It was towards
the end of all this heat

that we started
to really feel the effect of it.

This year,
drought and extreme temperature

have cut the wheat harvest
by a third,

a loss of at least 120,000.

A dairy cow drinks a lot of water
and eats a lot of grass

to produce plenty of milk.

If the grass isn't there

and the protein and energy
isn't in the food she's eating,

then she just won't yield as much.

And with your crops, you know,

if you haven't got that moisture
that will go into the carrot

or, you know,
the apples, or the salads,

then those shrivel up too.
And yields were seriously depleted.

You know, some of them
lower than 50% of the usual yield.

With the lack of rain
and the arid conditions,

it wasn't just the harvest and yield
that was affected.

Simply feeding their livestock
became problematic and costly.

There's a lack of grass
because of the limited rain,

and we're having to feed them
additional hay

that would be used
to feed them through the winter.

It was very concerning
when the harvests started to fail

because of the heat.
It was very concerning

when the cattle
couldn't be fed their summer menu

and had instead to start eating
their winter food in the summer.

The heat seemed to be
like a kind of dark destroyer.

On her farm,
Catherine grows corn

to feed her cows in the winter.

But this summer's sun

has killed much of the crop
before it's ready for harvest.

COWS LOWING

We're really worried,

especially for eight months' time.
When the sheep are in for lambing,

they're housed, and the only thing
they can eat is hay.

If we're feeding our winter rations
now, we run the risk of running out.

And across the country,
people will be doing the same.

So in the spring,
it's gonna push the demand up,

and it'll push the price up.

Now, you can be
the best farmer in the world,

but you can't beat the weather.

It's one of those challenges
that we just have to face

and put up with and deal with.

It wasn't long
after the drought was declared

that the inevitable hosepipe bans
were implemented

by the water authorities.

Southern Water
had already enacted one

at the very beginning of August.

So, in some areas, there are
water companies bringing in,

for instance, temporary use bans,
so-called hosepipe bans.

That's the right thing
for those companies to do,

and it's a small sacrifice
for people to make

in order to ensure that we've got
adequate water resources next year.

A hosepipe
uses as much water in an hour

as an average person does
in a whole week.

It made perfect sense.

We'd had a very, very, very dry
summer.

And actually, those of us
who remember it from 1976

remember the drought,
remember how people had to

go and get water
from the village pump

and all that kind of thing.

By the 26th of August,
six water boards

had hosepipe bans in place,

affecting nearly 30 million
customers.

Lots of water companies
were talking about rationing water,

trying to get us to do more.

Having shorter showers,

making sure that you weren't
using too much water generally.

Stop using the dishwasher. Stop
using the washing machine so much.

Now into our third heatwave,

we were longing for
the mere prospect of rain.

Anything to break
the prolonged misery.

Our pleas were answered
on the fourth day of the heatwave.

The forecasts suggested
that by August 15,

the rain would arrive.

And it did.

THUNDER ROLLS

The August heatwave broke,
just like the previous heatwaves,

with thunderstorms.

Monday 15 saw a yellow warning

in areas of Northern Ireland
and Scotland,

where they would possibly experience
50mm of rain.

While England and Wales

could see up to 30mm of rain
in under an hour.

The warning
would last for three days,

with perhaps 60mm
falling on Wednesday.

It wasn't drizzle.
When the rain finally came,

it was a thunderstorm.

NARRATOR: On the 15th of August,
the heavens opened,

offering relief from the heatwave.

As predicted, intense rainfall
and thunderstorms

dominated the weather
for the next three days.

If you're gonna have
that unrelenting, sustained heat,

then it's all gonna break.

And so we had storms,
we had downpours,

and we had flash flooding.

The whole thing
was absolutely crazy.

The Met Office registered
over 26,500 lightning strikes

across the UK
between Sunday and Wednesday.

More than half in four days

than recorded
in the previous 12 months.

So we went from one extreme
to another.

You know, it was -
there were torrents of water

just running down pavements
and down roads.

The land was just so dry,
the water was just bouncing off it.

The 17th of August
saw intense downpours

sweep across
large parts of southern England,

and an additional amber warning
was in place for the south-east.

But the highest rainfall
was in Holbeach, Lincolnshire.

146.2mm,

almost 15cm of rain,
fell in 24 hours.

When the rain came,
and it came in torrents,

there was flash flooding.

What you want is gentle rain
that soaks into the soil.

But the soil was baked hard,
like concrete.

The risk was
that as heavy downpours continued,

any rain would simply run off
and overwhelm drains,

leading to flash flooding.

So, I've lived in my house
for 22 years.

So far, thank God,

it's been a lovely, watertight
house, as it's supposed to be.

Suddenly, in my living room,

an enormous wave of water

comes crashing under the back door
from the garden

and just comes kind of hurtling
towards all the furniture.

The whole of the floor's
completely soaked,

the furniture's absolutely doused.

I mean, I don't live on a river
or a fault line or anything,

I just live
in an ordinary suburban road

in north-west London.
I've never seen anything like it.

When I saw the flash flooding,
after everything we've been through,

I just thought,
"Well, this is Armageddon, frankly."

This time,
it wasn't the unprecedented heat

that sent transport into a tailspin.

The sheer volume of water
was too much to cope with.

I remember seeing pictures
of people running for cover

into London Victoria Station

just as they closed the gates,
the huge gates,

to close the station

because water was inches,
inches high.

This really important rail terminus,

well, not quite
completely submerged,

but it was bad enough
that services had to stop.

At least six
London Underground stations

were underwater this afternoon.

After days
of unbroken sunshine here in Truro,

suddenly,
rainwater filled the roads.

Several cars
tried to wade through

the waterlogged streets
before becoming stuck

as homeowners tried to protect
their properties with sandbags.

So, you saw people
on the North Circular Road

having to abandon their vehicles.

Parts of the M25,

the nation's
most important motorway,

were simply inaccessible.

Weird times.

And to add insult to injury,
on the 17th of August,

the thunderstorms were so violent,
so intense,

the sheer volume of water
overwhelmed the drainage system

and poured raw sewage into the seas.

According to the charity
Surfers Against Sewage,

around 50 of the most popular
beaches in England and Wales

had sewage pollution
as a result of the downpours.

This is a beach used
by many swimmers, many residents.

It's a public space,
and people come here all the time.

So we are worried
about the health impacts

of having sewage in the sea water.

So, early June, in the heatwave,

people had been having fun
on our beautiful beaches,

and then, suddenly, the whole system
was just overwhelmed

by the sheer deluge of rain,
and up came the sewage.

So this was not a fragrant
denouement to the weather story.

It was absolutely revolting.

This wasn't the fairy tale ending
we'd hoped for

to the British summer.

Of the top ten hottest days
in UK history,

seven have occurred
since the year 2000.

With warmer weather predicted,

what might lie in store
for British summers?

I really hope
that the weather calms itself down,

because I think
more 40-degree temperatures

is asking too much of all of us.

Climate change,
which we've been talking about

for many, many years now,
and it's here.

It's clear and present danger.

We are here,
living and breathing it.

And if it can happen once,
it can happen again.

I'm terrified that we're just
gonna have these baking hot summers,

and... people and wildlife and
our environment is going to suffer.

The big question is...

how we are going to
do better at dealing with it.

We have to accept
that this is how, potentially,

our extreme weather events
are gonna be.

Up to this point,
the events of July 2022 remain rare.

It's the only time
we've seen temperatures

spike into the 40s.

And, in fact, so rare,

it's been deemed
a one-in-1,000-year event.

Because of man-made climate change,

this type of event
is ten times more likely,

due to the warming world.

You strip away some of the heat
and some of the emissions,

you can't get up to
that type of temperature level.

I think everyone's got to sit up
and realise, you know,

this is happening. It's real.

We discovered
that there is no way

we can rely on our infrastructure.

But, effectively, we are looking at

a bill of countless billions
of pounds to get us weather-ready.

In an extraordinary three months,
records were redefined.

We had experienced
the joys of fine weather in June,

the scorching highs of parched July

and the crazed August drought,
followed by floods.

But how will the summer
be remembered?

I have honestly, in decades
of covering travel and transport,

never seen anything like
the summer of 2022.

It started off great.

It was like, "Yay, let's go out
and play in the sun!"

But it ended up pretty scary
and pretty chaotic.

I will remember 2022
as a hysterical year of weather.

The opposite of calm.
You were too hot,

you couldn't sleep, you were
falling out with your partner,

you couldn't have any sex.

The year of exhausting, demanding,

perpetually attention-seeking
weather.

It just changed the landscape

of the countryside
that we're in every day,

and it turned it brown.

I don't like it
when we get those extreme heats.

It's really distressing for
everything and everyone concerned.

It was the first time,
really, I think in a long time,

that we haven't celebrated
a really nice, hot, sunny spell.

Because it was too hot.

And it also brought home to me
the impacts of climate change.

The halcyon days
of taking a day trip to the beach,

cooling down with an ice cream
and pulling out the deckchair

to bathe in the sunshine
are sure to return.

But only time will tell

if we experience another summer
like the extremes of 2022.