Melting pot London will have a new meaning

EVEN as this week’s burst of high temperatures fades, Londoners need to prepare for more extreme heatwaves that could end lives across the capital, and cost the economy a fortune.

- Bob Ward

So today, the emergency, health and transport services, together with local government, are carrying out a wargame exercise to test how they would respond to a five-day period of temperatures in excess of 40C.

Operation Helios, named after the Greek god of the sun, should help London’s authorities to identify challenges and weaknesses that could prove critical when the city inevitably suffers several successive days of unprecedentedly high temperatures.