Brits today shared their heatwave misery on social media ahead of expected temperatures of 106F (40C) in some parts of the country.
The UK is set to be hotter than the Sahara today and tomorrow and chaos is expected on the transport network.
By 9am, temperatures had already risen to 25C.
Health chiefs have advised patients to stay away from hospitals amid fears of being overwhelmed.
Amid the warnings, social media users took to Twitter to complain about the weather.
One captioned an image from the legendary game Super Mario Brothers: “Remember that level in Super Mario 3 where the sun is trying to kill you? That is today.’
Above a picture of the Wicked Witch of the West from the cult film The Wizard of Oz, another wrote: “Happy melting Monday.”
And over a picture from singer Beyonce’s new album of her riding a horse in scantily clad, a third Twitter user joked: “Remember to dress appropriately for the extreme temperature conditions. I sorted my outfit.’
Britons saw the funny side of the extreme weather today by taking to social media ahead of expected temperatures of 106F (40C) in some parts of the country. One captioned an image from the legendary game Super Mario Brothers: “Remember that level in Super Mario 3 where the sun is trying to kill you? That is today
Above a picture of the Wicked Witch of the West from the cult film The Wizard of Oz, another wrote: “Happy melting Monday.”
Captioning a picture from singer Beyonce’s new album of her riding a horse in scantily clad, a third Twitter user joked: “Remember to dress appropriately for the extreme temperature conditions. I sorted my outfit’
The social media memes came as commuters experienced chaos this morning and schools in Nottinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire were closed due to the extreme heat.
On the Tube, the District, Central, Bakerloo and Jubilee lines experienced severe delays, while the Hammersmith & City line was canceled entirely due to “heat-related restrictions” and there was no metropolitan line between Baker Street and Aldgate . Transport for London urged all passengers in the capital to avoid unnecessary travel.
The scorching heat means the UK will be warmer than Nassau in the Bahamas (32C), Kingston in Jamaica (33C), Malaga in Spain (28C), Athens in Greece (35C), Albufeira in Portugal (28C) and Dakhla in western Sahara (24C).
The Met Office’s chief meteorologist Paul Davies warned it will be very hot tonight and it will be difficult to sleep in the heat. He told Sky News: “Tonight is going to be very depressing, I mean it’s difficult sleeping conditions actually.
“And tomorrow is the day where we are really worried about a good chance of reaching 40C or 41C now and with it any health issues that come with those higher temperatures.”
He also claimed that the rise in temperature was “completely consistent” with climate change, and said the “brutality” of the heat could become commonplace by the end of the century.
Dozens of Brits saw the funny side of the hot weather. One depicted the Sun from the children’s television show Teletubbies yelling at the characters, “I’m going to take you down!!!!”. Another showed a portrait of diarist Samuel Pepys – who wrote about the Great Fire of London – and said: “I spent the fiery heat of 1666 in London and it never killed me and I still wrote and am the one Pest dodged, you snowflakes. Makes you think
Mr Davies said the weather maps he saw today were “amazing” and unlike any he had observed over his 30-year career.
“This is entirely consistent with climate change. To get to 40 degrees in the UK we need that extra boost from man-made climate,” he said. “Well, I’ve been a meteorologist for about 30 years and I’ve never seen the charts I’ve seen today.
“And the speed at which we are seeing these exceptionally high temperatures is broadly consistent with what we have been saying, but to be honest as a meteorologist it is quite amazing to see the brutality of the heat we are expecting tomorrow.
“And it worries me and my colleagues here at the Met Office very much that this type of unprecedented heat could become a regular occurrence by the end of the century.”
Other Twitter users saw the funny side of the extreme heat. One posted a clip of the nuclear apocalypse from Terminator 2: Judgment Day
And Mr Davies said even colleagues in hot countries like Spain and Portugal had described the UK scenes as “extraordinary”.
The top forecaster said a ‘fire’ of heat sweeping through Europe is affecting the UK differently.
A combination of that cloud and human activity generating its own heat is contributing to the high temperatures, he said.
“I spoke to my colleagues in Spain, Portugal and France over the weekend and they have also described this heat as exceptional and they have seen and observed amazing temperatures and as I said the brutality of this impact.
“In terms of the UK, the heat that has hit Spain, Portugal and France is different than ours. So it is the activity of this cloud and also our own heat generation that is causing the particular problems for tomorrow.’
