Temperatures worldwide hit record levels - and global warming IS to blame

It’s not just Britain: temperatures worldwide are smashing records, and scientists have said the heatwave is down to global warming.

This week saw the highest temperature ever recorded in Scotland (33.2°C in Motherwell) and the highest night-time temperature ever recorded on the planet in Oman.

Eight people have died in America due to the heatwave, and the unusual temperatures look set to continue across the Northern Hemisphere.

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The sheer scale of this summer’s heatwave suggests global warming is to blame, experts have warned.

‘Summers keep getting hotter,’ said Friederike Otto of the University of Oxford, who researched last summer’s heatwave.

‘Heatwaves are far more intense than when my parents were growing up in the 1950s.

‘If we do nothing to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, the kind of extreme heat we saw this past summer will be the norm when my young son is a grown man.’