Britain – and its economy – braces for 1976-style heatwave

This article appeared as part of the Daily Sensemaker newsletter – one story a day to make sense of the world. To receive it in your inbox, featuring content exclusive to the newsletter, sign up for free here.

The UK is preparing for what could be the most enduring heatwave since 1976, which has long been the benchmark for extreme weather in Britain. But it also had serious economic impacts. The summer of 1976 saw 15 consecutive days on which the peak temperature exceeded 32, which caused food prices to rise by 12% and destroyed £500m of crops, the equivalent of nearly £4bn in today’s money. Although Britain is better adapted to cope with these temperatures 50 years later, hot spells can still be hugely damaging to the public finances. Oxford Economics recently warned that a four-day heatwave could reduce quarterly labour productivity growth by 1.5 percentage points in the UK. This next heatwave is expected to last for ten days.