the most haunting image from that hot summer is of spanish farmer angel, hailed as a hero when he dug a trench with his bulldozer to stop the fire from spreading he suffered severe burns and tragically died from his injuries in october. figures show the excess deaths reported across europe from the excessive heat waves numbered more than 20,000. raf coningsby is home to front line combat ready squadrons protecting uk airspace whatever the weather, so it s crucial we get accurate forecasts. here we are in the met office forecast office, 20 years since i ve been here. it has changed a little bit. in the chair where i used to sit is alice. you were on that day back injuly when we saw temperatures of 40.3 degrees celsius recorded, so what was it like? it was something we never
days of intense rain. in october on crete, cars were swept into the sea by a powerful flood that locals say caught them by surprise, also at night, after a day of rain. brazil endured severe storms that caused deadly flash flooding. this is the aftermath of a landslide that swept onto a motorway in early december and in patroclus in february, over 200 people died in a catastrophic mudslide that followed several hours of torrential rain. welcome back to raf coningsby. this base has a special place in my heart, it is where i started forecasting and it is the place with the highest temperature in the uk ever recorded was the summer, 40.3 celsius. behind me are some typhoon aircraft
and tents are for people in pakistan still homeless after a devastating flood. i will report on the bigger storms of the year and look at what happened after weather disasters strike. i am at raf coningsby, not only a place close to my heart in that it is where i began my broadcasting career but to british meteorology, this july at this stevenson screen, we recorded the uk highest temperature of 40.3 celsius. it has been a day of record breaking temperatures across the uk. more than a0 celsius for the first time. july the 19th, the uk s hottest day and as temperatures soared after the driest start to the year
the most haunting image from that hot summer is of spanish farmer angel, hailed as a hero when he dug a trench with his bulldozer to stop the fire from spreading and he suffered severe burns and tragically died from his injuries in october. figures show the excess deaths reported across europe from the excessive heat waves numbered more than 20,000. raf coningsby is home to front line combat ready squadrons protecting uk airspace whatever the weather so it s crucial we get accurate forecasts. here we are in the met office forecast office, 20 years since i ve been here. it has changed a little. in the chair where i used to sit is alice. you were on that day back injuly when we saw temperatures of 40.3 degrees celsius recorded so what was it like? something we never
expected in the uk. here it was even more incredible and remarkable because our previous maximum was nowhere near, so it was extreme for the uk as a whole. even more extreme for the local area. at what point did you realise coningsby was going to be the hottest place ever recorded in the uk? it has to go through quite vigorous quality control before we officially get the record so by the evening, we were pretty sure no one beat that 40.3 record but we were not officially holding the uk record until some days later when they came under the control on the observation equipment. i did not think i would see 40 celsius in the uk but do you think we will see that again anytime soon? we know it is possible so we know it can happen again and it will be increasingly likely with climate change.