Wales is “absolutely not prepared” for the consequences of the extreme heat sweeping the country, a climate scientist has said.
Mary Gagen from Swansea University called the red heat warning issued for Wednesday and Thursday “frightening”.
Temperatures are expected to hit 37C, and more than 500 schools have been closed across mid and south Wales, including all in Blaenau Gwent, and most in Caerphilly and Bridgend.
Gagen said while we’ve always had heatwaves, it is nothing like the intensity and frequency we are seeing.
“Our infrastructure is absolutely not prepared for this,” she said.
Welsh government’s deputy minister for public and preventative health Nerys Evans called it a “heat emergency”.
Gagen said Wales had a heatwave in May and it’s “really unusual to have two in a row”.
“Actually, for me on a personal level, as I’m walking around, it feels like the first time in my life that I can physically feel climate change.
“And it’s quite frightening, actually. It’s an uncomfortable experience.”
Gagen said the country would experience a “tropical nights” caused by a “heat dome” effect.
“Each one of those events, whilst, sure it’s a feature of a heatwave and we do get heatwaves in this country, each of them has a climate change element behind it that’s making it more intense,” she said.
“It’s preparedness, it’s having cool spaces in our cities. It’s having buildings that can cope with the heat.
“And we are really learning in this heat event that we are absolutely not prepared. We’re seeing school closures. If you are trying to manage ill people on a ward that in our hospitals that doesn’t have air conditioning, you’re going to find this very uncomfortable.
“So, we really have a long way to go. Our infrastructure is absolutely not prepared for this.”