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#UK weather: travel disruptions and health fears as temperatures soar to highest in a decade this week - Home News - UK - The Independent

Commuters will face travel delays and Britons have been warned to take health precautions as temperatures top 35C this week - the hottest in nearly a decade.

Vulnerable groups have been advised to try and stay cool amid fears that lives could be at risk, while trains will run slower to guard against tracks buckling in the broiling temperatures.

With Wednesday forecast to be the hottest day of the year so far - and possibly since 2006 - the elderly, young children and people with breathing difficulties have been told to keep out of the sun and stay hydrated by Public Health England.

Temperatures will break the 30C barrier on Tuesday, with even hotter weather forecast for Wednesday. The Met Office forecasts up to 35C in the south-east on Wednesday, meaning it would be the hottest day since 2006, when 36.5C was recorded in Surrey in 19 July.

Dr Angie Bone, from PHE, said there could be more deaths than usual.

She said it seemed likely that the Met Office would issue a level 3 heatwave alert - which requires community support for at-risk groups, media alerts about keeping cool and a review of safety at public events.

Phew. what a scorcher. Wednesday gets even hotter! #Heatwave MattT pic.twitter.com/eVycUC2u5Z

— BBC Weather (@bbcweather) June 29, 2015

The heat isn't just in the U.S. - a long-lasting heat wave is expected in Europe. http://t.co/XbmyPngdLU pic.twitter.com/qMQ5wPQSv4

— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) June 30, 2015

She added: It is possible that we will see an excess mortality but it is too early to tell.

We know that high temperatures do have an impact on health, particularly on older people and young children and people with chronic diseases.

The heatwave is being caused by a warm front and tropical continental air mass from Europe pushing across the country, bringing high temperatures and humidity.

Commuters are advised to check their journeys before travelling and have been warned that there may be disruption caused by the hot weather. The heat is predicted to be so intense that Network Rail has imposed a speed restriction on some services today to stop the rails from buckling.

As rails are made out of steel, they expand as they heat up and are subject to strong compression, Network Rail said on its website. This expansion has to be managed to reduce the risk of track buckling.

If the track does buckle, the line must be closed and the track repaired before services can resume, causing considerable disruption. Usually, these repairs can't be done until the temperature of the rails has dropped.

If a section of track is judged to be at risk, we introduce local speed restrictions - slower trains exert lower forces on the track and reduce the chance of buckling.

The searing temperatures would make Britain hotter than Beirut, Lebanon on Wednesday.

If temperatures surpass 34.1C this week, it will be the hottest day since 1 August 2013, when that temperature was recorded at Heathrow Airport.

The hottest day in British history was on 10 August 2003, when 38.5C was recorded in Faversham in Kent.

First Great Western services in the Thames Valley area will be disrupted from midday to 8pm on Tuesday.

A First Great Western spokesman said: Network Rail has advised that, due to the anticipated exceptionally hot weather, there will be speed restrictions to protect track points in the Thames Valley region on Tuesday 30 June 2015.

As a result there will be no fast trains between London Paddington and Bourne End or Henley-on-Thames from 12-8pm.

Trains from London Paddington will terminate at Twyford for a connection with a branch line train to Henley-on-Thames, which will remain on the branch line.

Electronic temperature sign in Piccadilly shows 38 degrees Centigrade and 101 degrees Fahrenheit on 10 Aug 2003

As the mercury rises, the government has been criticised for not doing enough to protect people from extreme weather by a committee of climate change experts.

The Committee on Climate Change is warning that despite efforts to prepare the UK for the impacts of a warming world, more needs to be done to conserve scarce water supplies and fertile soils and protect against floods and high temperatures.