How Hot Will It Be?

The UK Met Office forecasters began warning of the heat over the weekend. “Heatwave conditions, initially developing over southern and eastern England, are expected to persist well into next week as well as spreading into many other parts of England and Wales,” they wrote. “The Met Office Amber extreme heat warning currently runs through the whole of Monday and Tuesday and will be updated as necessary as confidence in the duration of the heat through next week increases,” continued a press release from United Kingdom’s weather service.

A color-coded warning system is used by the Met Office through the National Severe Weather Warning Service. An Amber Warning means, “There is an increased likelihood of impacts from severe weather, which could potentially disrupt your plans…. The possibility of travel delays, road and rail closures, power cuts and the potential risk to life and property,” according to the Met Office website.

It is anticipated that the region could break a record for the highest temperatures ever recorded in June, which is 96 degrees Fahrenheit (35.6 degrees Celsius). “The warmth will expand and intensify at the start of next week, which, coupled with high temperatures overnight and high humidity, leads to potential impacts,” said Met Office Deputy Chief Forecaster Steven Keates according to MSN.com. He noted that such extreme temperatures will persist through the week and also emphasized the danger of elevated temperatures at night, particularly in urban areas. Remember, many buildings do not have air conditioning and are not accustomed to such heat at any time, especially this early.

How Does This Affect Wimbledon?

Yellow and Amber Heat Heat Health alerts have been issued by the UK Health Security Agency. Qualifying rounds for Wimbledon begin this week. Wimbledon has a Heat Rule in place. “The heat rule allows for a 10-minute break (15 minutes for wheelchair events) to be taken between the second and third set for best-of-three set matches, or between the third and fourth set for best-of-five set matches, when the heat stress index is at or above 30.1 degrees Celsius, according to the Wimbledon website. That’s around 86 degrees Fahrenheit for American readers. The heat rule does not apply to matches played under a roof.

High pressure is dominating much of Europe and driving record temperatures in the UK, France, Spain and other parts of the continent. “Western Europe is enduring a ferocious heatwave forecast to break temperature records, with half of France on red alert, rail services in Belgium disrupted and sports events in Spain and Germany cancelled or postponed," wrote Jon Henley for The Guardian. In some parts of France temperatures could reach 111 degrees Fahrenheit or 44 degrees Celsius.

Though qualifying matches begin this week, the main Wimbledon tournament starts next week, and there are indications that the weather patterns will continue to feature extreme heat.

“Here we go again,” wrote my cousin Felicia Henderson on BlueSky. She resides in Paris. Looking at the weather maps for this week and next week, she is quite accurate with her post.