A WEATHER emergency has been declared as the country braces for temperatures above 40°Cin the coming days.

Today, the Met Office issued upgrade its extreme heat weather warning for Monday and Tuesday from “amber” to “red”.

This is their highest level of warning and it is the first time it has ever been issued in England.

The warning covers parts of Essex inlcuding Basildon, Halstead, Braintree, Witham and Chelmsford. 

Experts are now warning the exceptional hot spell will lead will pose a “population-wide danger to life”.

The Met Office says “substantial changes in working practices and daily routines will be required,” to protect people from the heat.

The office has also warned the extreme heat may lead to loss of power and other essential services, such as water or mobile phone services.

A Met Office spokesman said: “Exceptional, perhaps record-breaking, temperatures are likely on Monday, then again on Tuesday."

Forecasters say there is an 80 per cent chance of the mercury topping the UK’s record temperature of 38.7C (101.7F) set in Cambridge in 2019, with the current heatwave set to peak on Tuesday.

Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said there is a 50 per cent chance of temperatures reaching 40C somewhere in the UK, likely along the A1 corridor.

The UK Health Security Agency has increased its heat health warning from level three to level four – a “national emergency”.

Level four is reached “when a heatwave is so severe and/or prolonged that its effects extend outside the health and social care system…. At this level, illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy, and not just in high-risk groups”, it said.

Mr Madge added: “We’ve just issued a red warning for extreme heat for Monday and Tuesday which is the first such warning ever issued.

“This is potentially a very serious situation.”

He said temperatures reaching 40C would be “historic”.

“If we get to 40C, that’s a very iconic threshold and shows that climate change is with us now,” he said.

“This is made much more likely because of climate change.”

Mr Madge said if people have vulnerable relatives or neighbours, “now is the time to make sure they’re putting suitable measures in place to be able to cope with the heat”.

“Because if the forecast is as we think it will be in the red warning area, then people’s lives are at risk,” he said.

“This is a very serious situation.”