Skip to main content
The Morning Star Shop
The new normal?
Heatwaves show the difficulty of assessing extreme weather events in a changing climate, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL
The sun sets in Chesterton, Warwickshire, amid the heatwave in 2020

AT THE end of March the Met Office announced that it was increasing the heatwave threshold for eight English counties by one degree Celsius. It attributed this change to increasing global temperatures due to climate change.

A heatwave is defined as at least three consecutive days with maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding a threshold. 

Within Britain, the exact threshold varies across the counties due to their different average temperatures. Counties with higher average temperatures will have a higher threshold required for a heatwave to be declared. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
UNRECOGNISED POTENTIA:L: Girl students conduct an experiment by throwing cotton balls to demonstrate the instinctive reaction of flinching at The Big Bang Fair 2025, for young scientists and engineers, at the NEC in Birmingham on June 18 2025
Science and Society / 16 July 2025
16 July 2025

What’s behind the stubborn gender gap in Stem disciplines ask ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT in their column Science and Society

The ruins of Guernica after it was bombed by the Nazis on April 26, 1937
Science and Society / 2 July 2025
2 July 2025

While politicians condemned fascist bombing of Spanish civilians in 1937, they ignored identical RAF tactics across the colonies. Today’s aerial warfare continues this pattern of applying different moral standards based on geography and race, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

LETHAL PLANS: Keir Starmer visits a defence contractor in Bedfordshire
Science and Society / 4 June 2025
4 June 2025

The distinction between domestic and military drones is more theoretical than practical, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

UNEASY COHABITATION: Southern Ridges, Singapore, 2015 Pic: Zairon/CC
Science and Society / 21 May 2025
21 May 2025

Nature's self-reconstruction is both intriguing and beneficial and as such merits human protection, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

 

Similar stories
Firefighter Geo Mulongo (centre) finishes his water while ta
World / 10 January 2025
10 January 2025
Studying a moss bank on bare rock, Norsel Point, in the Anta
Science and Society / 9 October 2024
9 October 2024
Vegetation is growing at an alarming rate on Antarctica’s northernmost region, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
PARADISE LOST: Workers in Tuvalu struggle to build raised la
Features / 5 October 2024
5 October 2024
MAIA CLARK details the science behind intensifying floods, explaining how global warming alters jet streams and intensifies rainfall, and warns of more extreme events to come — unless we seriously pursue net zero