15 July 2023 , 20:14
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Britain’s washout weekend is the envy of Europe as a heatwave continued to grip holiday hotspots across the Continent.
But families jetting off when schools break up on Friday could find their hopes of a relaxing getaway in ruins.
Red alerts have been issued for 16 cities across Italy – including the tourist meccas of Rome, Florence and Bologna – with people advised to stay indoors between 11am and 6pm.
Families heading for Spain, France and Greece have also been warned that extreme conditions could make it too hot to go to the beach.
Yesterday, the Acropolis in Greece was closed during the hottest hours for the second day in a row to protect visitors to the site, after some tourists collapsed in the brutal conditions.
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Sweltering in Majorca (gavin rodgers/pixel8000)Greek authorities are also urging Brits to ditch their plans for a boozy holiday and instead drink at least two litres of water a day.
Raging wildfires ripping through Croatia led to the evacuation of tourists and locals in the area of Grebastica, on the Dalmatian Coast.
The heatwave has been named Cerberus by Italian meteorologists, after the three-headed hound of Hades from Greek mythology. A second heatwave that could break temperature records next week is named Charon, after the ferryman of Greek mythology who bore souls to the underworld.
The current European record is 48.8C, in Sicily in August 2021.
But in the UK the weather picture has been a different kind of hell – with wind, rain and hail battering much of the country yesterday, and warnings in place for thunderstorms and gusts of wind as high as 55mph.
That led Wimbledon to close its ticket queue to fans hoping to watch the women’s singles final on Henman Hill. And the first day of the Goodwood Festival of Speed was cancelled for the first time in its 30-year history.
Organisers of the motorsports event in West Sussex said the weather posed “a serious risk to temporary structures across the site”.
The three-day Isle of Wight Pride was cancelled due to high winds and the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset, which had expected up to 10,000 people, had to be cut short.
Cooling off at the Colosseum in Rome (Amer Ghazzal/REX/Shutterstock)A Peter Andre pop concert in Maidstone, Kent, was also called off and Longleat safari park in Wiltshire closed due to the high winds. And all eight Royal Parks in London had to shut their playgrounds for safety.
Tom Morgan, of the Met Office, said: “For the middle of July, the weather’s unseasonably unsettled.
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“We urge you to keep an eye on the forecast and leave plenty of time for journeys because of disruption from strong winds or thunder and heavy rain.” The M4 suffered flooding yesterday morning as wind and rain hit South Wales, while a landslide due to the rain blocked a railway between Merthyr Vale and Abercynon.
Mr Morgan said today was set to be drier and less windy – but unsettled weather would continue all week.
He said: “As a general UK perspective, Sunday will be an improved day.
“For the [Wimbledon] men’s singles final, the winds should be quite a bit lighter but it’ll still be breezy.
“There’ll be showers around but we don’t anticipate as many intense downpours as Saturday. But there’s potential for an interruption.”
He said lighter winds will also make it feel “a fraction warmer”.
But he added: “It stays changeable going into the working week, with low pressure never far away, but a lot drier and the winds a lot less strong.”