Jeremy Clarkson leads celebs accusing weather reporters of scaremongering

Jeremy Clarkson has attracted criticism for joking about the heatwave as wildfires rage across Europe.

The 62-year-old former Top Gear presenter is on holiday in the South of France where he shrugged off the extreme weather warnings, suggesting the solution was to drink more beer.

Clarkson tweeted: "It’s very hot in the south of France but so far as I know, there’s no DefCon 8 level 3 killer death heatwave warning in place."

Read more: Wildfires and droughts ravage Europe as heatwave heads to UK

He added: "I’ve spent my life working in extreme heat and we survived by having a beer under a tree. Climate change is real. Drink more beer."

"Really hot in France this evening. But I’ve had a beer and all is well."

The Clarkson's Farm star was hit with a flurry of comments sharing links to news reports about the wildfires in France.

Over 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) in the southwestern region of Gironde have been destroyed by flames, and more than 14,000 people have been evacuated, regional authorities said on Sunday afternoon.

Coronation Street star Daniel Brocklebank - who plays vicar Billy Mayhew in the soap - also accused weather reporters of overreacting to the heatwave.

He shared a meme compiled from infographics of UK weather maps past and present. The past showed a 'Happy and sunshiny' forecast, and the present shows a Red weather warning - which appears to gave been doctored as it covers the whole of the UK. It is captioned, "Total fear mongering".

Brocklebank commented: "Anyone remember the good old days?"

Meanwhile, Lord Sugar pointed out the headlines about the extreme weather had overshadowed reports of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

He tweeted: "The news on all TV channels is all about the heatwave. Emergency proccedures and hints that people should not go into work (as if they need no promting) It seems death of children in Ukraine has taken second place. [sic]"

And Good Morning Britain weather presenter Laura Tobin hit back at a troll who sent her an abusive message for claiming that the extreme weather warnings had saved thousands of lives.

Read more: Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat Farm restaurant panned as 'overpriced and pub quality'

Meteorologist Tobin retorted: "People being able to plan-Care homes and pre schools getting air conditioning units, people not travelling on trains/tubes and people staying inside so they don't overheat-yes 1000's of lives have been saved!"

In contrast GB News presenter Bev Turner told a weather reporter to "be happy" about the heatwave.

Meteorologist John Hammond told her in an interview: "I think there’ll be hundreds, if not thousands of excess deaths. The charts I can see in front of me are frightening, so we all like nice weather, but this will not be nice weather – this will be potentially lethal weather, for a couple of days. It will be brief, but it will be brutal.”

Turner replied: "I want us to be happy about the weather. I don’t know whether something’s happened to meteorologists to make you all a little bit fatalistic and harbingers of doom."

Watch: Wildfires have ravaged southwest France