Is climate change to blame?

Luck plays a role in determining the weather and the current heatwave is no exception.

“We have always had heatwaves and we always will. With the UK being in the mid latitudes we get a variety of different weather types, and the natural variability of our weather is the stuff of legend,” said Grahame Madge, a spokesman from the Met Office.

“What we can say is that with a background of climate change, we know that the planet has warmed by around 1C since pre-industrial times, and we know that if you add that heat to the system it is very likely heatwaves will be more extreme.”

Mr Madge said it was too soon to say for sure how big an impact man-made climate change has had, but Met Office scientists would soon be able to work it out exactly once they have collected the necessary data.

Professor Len Shaffrey, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, added that one way to think about this link is in terms of probability.