//…and it is almost certainly due to climate change.//
No it’s not. It’s due to something called “weather.” An area of low pressure is forming over the Azores in the Atlantic, to the south-west of the British Isles. Air flows anti-clockwise round low-pressure systems so the wind will flow around the low-pressure system from north Africa and the Iberian peninsula (where it is very hot at this time of year) towards France and the British Isles. Coupled with this, the jet stream (a stream of high velocity wind that flows from west to east across the Atlantic is quite far to the north. The jet stream varies in latitude and is usually to the north of the UK in the summer. Explained here:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/types-of-weather/wind/what-is-the-jet-stream
The jet stream plays a big part in the weather in northern Europe and when it is to the north that influence is smaller (that’s why the weather is usually more settled in the Summer.
This hot spell (caused by the above) is due to last two days. By Wednesday it will be cooler (though still pleasantly warm). The “State of Emergency” can then be lifted and we will no longer need the government to advise us to stay in the shade, keep the curtains drawn and drink plenty of water. Glad they did that as I would never have thought of doing any of those things. I'd actually planned to spend Monday and Tuesday stripped to the waist, digging my garden, with only an espresso coffee now and then for liquid intake.
Governments seem to have a habit in recent times of instilling fear and terror into the population. They see it as “caring”. Instead it largely consists of advising them of the Bleedin’ Obvious and it clear from this thread that many people lap it up. In fact I’m surprised there isn’t a Minister for it. What they hope to achieve in their “Cobra” meeting is anybody’s guess. But one thing’s for sure – by the time they decide what to do and devise an “action plan” to do it, it will be raining.