Britain basks in scorching summer

The recent soar in temperature has had a dramatic effect on British people up and down the country. With the Wimbledon Championships in full swing and the British strawberry yield at its peak, strawberries and cream sales have skyrocketed across Britain. At the tennis alone, 27,000 kg of strawberries and 7,000 litres of cream are consumed.

Usually during Wimbledon, we are used to frequent rain stops as showers seemingly burst out of nowhere, but this year so far we have had non-stop glorious weather during the matches. Some say the weather is almost as unpredictable as the players themselves! There have only ever been 5 years in the history of Wimbledon with no rain. Wimbledon has already made it into the record books this year with the longest match ever played between Isner and Mahut, but the question is could we do it again with the weather?

Wimbledon has been known to take place during summer heatwaves; in the famously scorching summer of 1976, the tennis balls at Wimbledon burst with the heat causing them to expand! The temperatures peaked around 36C back then, but now in 2010, the hottest Wimbledon temperature so far has been 31C, not far off! Thankfully, complete washouts occur only every 1 in 4 years, so let’s hope the odds are in our favour.

June is known to have rather unpredictable weather. In June, the ground and oceans are not warm enough to move the cold fronts constantly north. When the fronts do go north, the warm weather from the Azores is carried to the UK, which brings hot dry weather. When they aren’t carried north, the weather becomes unsettled and rainy. This is why the weather in June is not always sunny and dry. However, this year we seem to be in luck.

Aside from Wimbledon, many other iconic events are scheduled around June such as the summer solstice, Cowes Week, the Isle of Wight festival and Goodwood Festival of Speed. These are all weather dependent – sailing or racing in stormy conditions can be treacherous.

Even Glastonbury, famed for being a mudbath got its fair share of sun. According to the organizer Michael Eavis, “This is the hottest Glastonbury ever. I hope not too hot. Getting nice weather makes such a big difference.” Unfortunately the heat does come with its down sides. Over 3,000 revelers were treated for sunstroke and dehydration due to the unusually high temperatures.

The hot weather is known to trigger various health problems including asthma, hayfever and sunburn which, if serious enough can lead to skin cancer. It is important to remember to cover up, seek shade and wear plenty of sunscreen to avoid becoming ill. The hot dry summer air can cause problems for asthmatics as the air becomes more difficult to breathe.

The food industry has been making a good profit out of the weather. Ice cream sales have increased dramatically this year. According to Tesco, sales are up by 60% along with other “summer foods” such as fruit salads and barbecue meat. Almost 3.4 million tubs of ice cream were sold last week. The Ice Cream Alliance chief executive Mark Gossage reports that the ice cream industry had a difficult start to the year, but now the supply is finding it difficult to keep up with the demand as manufacturers are working flat out to keep the country cool.

We may well be chilling out for now but, as is usually the case, the good weather is not set to last. Apparently, by the weekend we will have the usual summer showers and sudden downpours we are used to, so we’d best make the most of the heatwave now before we return to normality.