Firefighters at scene of grass fire near Arthur’s Seat 24 hours on
Blaze in Edinburgh continues as British record set for hottest day in May
Firefighters remained at the scene tackling a grass fire on Tuesday that broke out near Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh on Monday.
The alarm was raised at about 6.50pm on Monday when the fire started in an area of vegetation near the ruins of St Anthony’s Chapel.
Clouds of smoke could be seen rising from the area as firefighters tackled the blaze and local residents were advised to keep their windows and doors shut as a precaution. There were no reports of any injuries.
The blaze came as the city felt the heat during the current sunny spell, with a maximum temperature of 25C recorded by the Met Office on Monday.
Meanwhile the record for the hottest May day was broken again on Tuesday, with with provisional temperatures surpassing 35C in London according to the Met Office.
Temperatures exceeded Monday’s provisional all-time hottest meteorological spring temperature of 34.8C recorded in Kew Gardens in south-west London.
In a post on X, the Met Office said: “Today is now the hottest day in May on record for both England and Wales with Kew Gardens provisionally reaching 35.1°C and Cardiff Bute Park reaching 32.9°C.”
The weather service said Heathrow had also provisionally recorded 35C, adding: “Until yesterday the highest temperature in May was 32.8C, but we’ve now exceeded that record on consecutive days by a full two degrees Celsius.”
Train services across Britain were disrupted as temperatures soared, with Network Rail imposing a series of speed restrictions on tracks to keep trains safe.
South Western Railway (SWR) said all lines on its network were disrupted “due to multiple signalling faults, track defects and heat-related speed restrictions”.
The train operator runs commuter services from Waterloo to south- west London, suburban services in Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire and Dorset, as well as regional services in Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire.
In an update on its website, SWR, which also operates services on the Isle of Wight, said: “Train services running across the whole South Western Railway network may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised.
“Disruption is expected until the end of the day.”
It comes amid health and thunderstorm warnings across the country, as well as a series of open-water fatalities in the past few days.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said amber heat-health alerts for the South West, South East, London, East and West Midlands and the East of England will remain in place until 5pm on Thursday, with yellow heat-health alerts for the North West and North East.
The Met Office has issued a yellow thunderstorm warning for parts of the South West, West Midlands, East Midlands and East of England between 3pm and 10pm on Tuesday.
Isolated thunderstorms with lightning, hail and gusty winds are expected, while there is potential for 30mm of rain in less than an hour.
Police forces in South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Lincolnshire and Devon and Cornwall were all called out to separate fatal incidents, involving four teenagers and one man in his 60s.
On Tuesday afternoon, Lancashire Police said searches were under way after a boy got into difficulty while swimming in a river in the Ribble Valley.
It has led the RNLI to warn of the “very real risk” of swimming in open water during the heatwave.
The UK experienced a “tropical night” on Monday as the record for the warmest minimum temperature for May was broken for the second consecutive day.
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