Extreme heat conference in London cancelled because of extreme heat

A conference on extreme heat has been cancelled… because of extreme heat.

The talk was due to take place at LSE’s Shaw Library in central London on Wednesday as part of London Climate Action Week.

But as temperatures reached record-breaking highs today and the Met Office issued a rare red heat warning – for only the second time in history – university bosses were forced to pull the talk.

‘We regret that this event has been cancelled due to the red extreme heat warning issued by the UK Met Office,’ a notice said on the LSE website.

The event, titled ‘Extreme Heat: Improving governance and strengthening action around the world’, was due to take place in two parts, starting with the announcement of the first-ever winner of the Adeline Stuart-Watt Award for outstanding research contributions to climate adaptation.

The award was set up to honour the legacy of the late Adeline Stuart-Watt, a highly respected policy fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and member of the Environment and the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance.

This was scheduled to be followed by a session on ‘improving extreme heat governance and action around the world’, followed by a ‘fireside chat session where speakers will reflect on key challenges and opportunities for advancing extreme heat governance globally.’

It comes as the UK faces its second record-breaking heatwave of the year.

Temperatures reached 35.7C in Charlwood, Surrey, today, smashing the previous record of 35.6C set in 1976.

The red weather warning came into force across parts of southern England and Wales at 9am this morning and will remain in place until 9pm on Thursday.

The Met Office says: ‘An exceptional spell of hot and humid weather is expected across this region, with impacts to the general population highly likely.’

An amber warning is also in place across a wider area, reaching as far north as Merseyside. 

Other amber temperature warnings are in place in the southeast and east of England and the East Midlands until 9pm on Saturday.

More than 1,000 schools have closed completely or sent pupils home early as a result of the heat and Network Rail has urged people to avoid travel where possible.

Even Greggs branches have closed up shop ‘to protect our customers and colleagues during the severe hot weather.’

The shops are expected to reopen on Friday, when temperatures dip slightly – but will still surpass 30C in parts of the country.

The late May Bank Holiday saw the record for the hottest May day smashed twice consecutively.

Experts have warned that this pattern of regular heatwaves could be here to stay thanks to climate change.

Jim Dale said that the UK is in danger of ‘boiling over’ as extreme heat becomes commonplace due to climate change. 

‘Yes, from time to time, in the past 50 or 100 years, we have had heatwaves,’ he told Metro. ‘However, the top 10 global and UK temperatures have nearly all come in the last 20 years.

‘The dots are very clear, and they make a picture; one of records falling left, right and center.’