Rail passengers warned only travel 'if essential' after drought-hit Britain hit with another amber heat alert over 38C temperatures - as this year's wildfires surpass whole of 2025

Rail passengers could face travel chaos tomorrow, with three operators urging them to avoid non-essential travel ahead of one of Britain's hottest days on record.Chiltern Railways, East Midlands Railway and Northern all issued alerts to 'only travel if essential' with the UK's sixth heatwave of the year expected to cause delays.Reduced services were also confirmed by c2c, CrossCountry, Great Western Railway, Transport for Wales and West Midlands Railway as temperatures soar to 38C.Heat-related issues affecting the railway can include buckled rails, sagging overhead electric wires and lineside fires. Steel rails can hit 50C in an air temperature of 30C.It comes as fire chiefs said 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales so far in 2026, the same as the record-breaking total for the whole of last year.The National Fire Chiefs Council said this included 185 in the first ten days of August alone, while July was the busiest month on record for wildfires with 458 incidents.Andy Burnham is now considering imposing a ban on disposable barbecues because of the risk of further wildfires and will chair an emergency Cobra committee today.The Prime Minister will meet ministers, officials and agencies after revealing during a trip to Stevenage that single-use grills could be banned to help prevent fires. It comes just eight days after the Government said it was not planning to introduce such a ban. Dried fields across Weymouth in Dorset today as the drought conditions continue A tourist in Westminster fans herself this afternoon during the latest heatwave of 2026 Stoke Park in Bristol is pictured today after being left with parched grass by the dry weather People walk across the parched grass at Primrose Hill in north London this morning People collect bottled water at a distribution centre in Loughton, Essex, today after burst water mains left more than 10,000 homes and businesses with no water or low water pressure Firefighters try to deal with a big blaze in Eton near Windsor in Berkshire this morning Allotments in Basingstoke, Hampshire, today as parts of the UK are set to bake in 38C heat Parliament Square in London today during the drought which has hit 71 per cent of England Crosland Heath Golf Club in Huddersfield has dry grass on the fairway and a lush putting green Cows feed in a parched field near the village of East Meon in Hampshire this morning The Met Office has issued a rare 15-hour amber 'extreme heat' warning for southern and central England from 9am tomorrow – only its second such alert in four years.The whole of England has also been put under an amber heat health alert by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) until Friday night, which warns of a 'rise in deaths'.On the trains, ticket restrictions were eased by some operators who told passengers to check for travel updates before setting off and carry water to stay hydrated.Chiltern Railways said temperatures are expected to reach highs of 38C on parts of its network tomorrow. It will operate a reduced timetable between 11am and 8pm. TOP TEN HOTTEST DAYS IN BRITAIN - INCLUDING TWO THIS YEAR1 40.3C July 19, 2022 Coningsby, Lincolnshire 2 38.7C July 25, 2019 Cambridge 3 38.5C August 10, 2003 Faversham, Kent 4 38.2C July 18, 2022 Pitsford, Northamptonshire 5 38.0C June 26, 2026 Lingwood, Norfolk 6 37.8C July 31, 2020 London Heathrow 7 37.1C August 3, 1990 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire 8= 36.7C August 9, 1911 Raunds, Northamptonshire 8= 36.7C July 1, 2015 London Heathrow 8= 36.7C June 25, 2026 Merryfield, Somerset Among the changes are:Off-peak services between London Marylebone and Birmingham Moor Street will operate hourly instead of half-hourly.Some services between London Marylebone and Oxford will be cancelled.No Chiltern Railways services will operate from Birmingham Snow Hill from 10.15am until the end of the day.Michael Stewart, commercial and customer strategy director at Chiltern Railways, said: 'We are asking customers to travel only if essential on Thursday because of the exceptionally high temperatures forecast across our network.'By operating a reduced timetable during the hottest part of the day, we can provide a more reliable and comfortable service for customers.'East Midlands Railway said services between Liverpool Lime Street and Norwich will run between Sheffield and Norwich only, both today and tomorrow.It added that regional services between Nottingham and Worksop and Nottingham and Leicester will be suspended from noon tomorrow.Philippa Cresswell from East Midlands Railway said: 'The hot weather means we'll need to make some temporary changes to our services to keep the railway operating safely.'If you do need to travel and the journey is essential, we'd recommend travelling before midday and checking your journey before setting off. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in Stevenage today that single-use grills could be bannedDry grass at Blackheath in south-east London yesterday with Canary Wharf in the distance The cracked and parched earth of Stew Pond at Epsom Common in Surrey yesterday'We appreciate these changes may inconvenience some customers and we'd like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding while we work to keep people moving safely.'Another operator, Northern, said it will run fewer trains than normal on some routes in the North West and Yorkshire tomorrow because of extreme heat.It told passengers: 'High temperatures increase the risk of issues on the railway and with the reliability of our trains, which means we have to make adjustments to our usual timetable to keep trains running.'These Northern routes are expected to have a reduced service all day: Water firms imposing hosepipe bans in 2026 Affinity WaterAnglian WaterCambridge WaterDŵr Cymru Welsh WaterEssex and Suffolk WaterSouthern WaterSouth East WaterSouth West WaterThames Water Rochdale to BlackburnManchester Oxford Road / Wigan Wallgate to SouthportAlderley Edge to Manchester PiccadillyBuxton / Hazel Grove to Manchester PiccadillyRose Hill / Hadfield to Manchester PiccadillySheffield / Doncaster to Hull, although a full timetable is still expected to operate from Hull to Scarborough c2c, which operates trains between London and Essex, said it had cancelled at least 19 services today and nine tomorrow.CrossCountry warned a 'heavily reduced service' would be operating between Birmingham New Street and Cardiff Central.Great Western Railway said that some services will be revised to run non-stop between London Paddington and Reading.Transport for Wales warned some trains would be cancelled between Manchester Piccadilly and Cardiff Central; Shrewsbury and Aberystwyth; Cheltenham Spa and Cardiff Central.No Transport for Wales trains will run between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog or Shrewsbury and Birmingham International.West Midlands Railway warned of a reduced service on routes through Birmingham Snow Hill. Met Office satellite views show the transformed landscape from May (left) to Monday (right) Buses will replace trains between Rugeley Trent Valley and Hednesford between 11.30am and 9.30pm tomorrow; and between Stourbridge Junction and Stourbridge Town from 12pm to 7pm.According to National Fire Chiefs Council data, this year's wildfire figures have surpassed the number of wildfires in 2025.Between January 1 and August 12 last year, 869 wildfires had been recorded, in what was then the worst year on record.Over the same period in 2022, also one of the worst years for wildfires, the figure was 843.National Fire Chiefs Council chairman Phil Garrigan said: 'Most wildfires in the UK are caused because of human behaviours, careless, accidental or unfortunately intentional acts.'But as climate change brings more frequent periods of hot, dry weather, the conditions for wildfires are becoming more dangerous, increasing their scale and intensity.'Hot, dry weather and drought are turning parts of the UK into tinderbox landscapes, allowing fires to spread faster, burn longer and place greater pressure on fire and rescue services.'Wildfires are becoming part of our new reality and we need to be honest about both the causes and the conditions that are driving them.'While over 1,000 wildfires have been recorded so far this year, the incident numbers alone do not tell the full story.'They do not capture the scale, duration and complexity of these incidents, or the impact they have on communities, the environment and fire and rescue services.'As their impact grows, we must work with all stakeholders to ensure we have the right capabilities needed to protect our communities and to respond effectively when wildfires occur.'Major wildfires have hit areas such as the Pennines, the Cairngorms in Scotland, Llanwonno in the Rhondda Valleys, South Wales, and Dunwich Heath in Suffolk.The latest major blaze affected heathland in the New Forest, Hampshire, on Sunday after spreading from a van fire that saw motorists on the A31 abandon their vehicles. Speaking about the possible barbecue ban, Mr Burnham said: 'There is obviously a significant problem of wildfires in the south. The New Forest fire is a great concern; we have seen them in northern areas as well as Suffolk recently.'He added: 'This is a message for the public as well, because the wildfires I mentioned, many of them have been created by disposable barbecues.'Mr Burnham continued: 'I do believe we need to get the message out loud and clear. People should not be using those barbecues outside at this moment in time.'I don't know yet what the remedy is, but I do want to leave the meeting today with a loud and clear message that we do want people to take the greatest possible care when they are out in the countryside, both in terms of cigarettes, but also those temporary barbecues that we know are causing risk of fires.'It comes after a Government spokesperson had insisted on August 4: 'There are no plans to introduce a blanket ban on disposable barbecues.'Most major UK supermarkets have suspended sales of disposable barbecues in recent weeks.Steve Wright, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, warned the UK faces a national emergency 'right now' with fires across the country.A 38C high tomorrow would make it Britain's joint fifth hottest day on record - tying with that same temperature in Norfolk on June 26, which is the current 2026 high.Some 45million people across England are now in drought-stricken areas, and 27million customers are under hosepipe bans as rivers and reservoirs run low.Parts of southern England including Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and West Sussex have now gone more than 60 days without rainfall, and there are no downpours in the immediate forecast.Nearly three quarters of England and the whole of Wales are in drought, after a record dry July and very dry start to August has combined with high temperatures to put pressure on water resources.Southern Water has applied for a rare non-essential use ban drought order, which, if imposed, would mean businesses must stop using water for activities such as cleaning cars and filling non-domestic swimming pools.Record-breaking heatwaves in May and June led to the deaths of more than 2,800 people, while parts of the country were hit with further heatwaves last month as England and Wales endured their driest July since records began in 1836.A fifth heatwave of the year was declared early last week – and the Met Office has said summer 2026 is on course to be the hottest on record.The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued amber heat health alerts across England A UK heatwave is official when a location records at least three consecutive days of daily maximum temperatures which meet or exceed a specified threshold - which varies by region Summer temperatures so far this year: Met Office dataArea Mean temperature (June 1 to August 10, 2026) Difference from summer average Current warmest summer on record UK 16.48C +1.88C 16.12C (2025) England 18.19C +2.46C 17.44C (2025) Wales 16.80C +2.17C 16.09C (2025) In east London and Essex, more than 10,000 residents have now endured five days without running water after multiple pipes burst.Thames Water initially said that taps would be up and running again this morning but apologised this afternoon, adding that it was taking 'longer than expected' to resolve.Temporary water distribution points have been set up across the area where cars are having to join long queues and wait over two hours to collect packs of bottled water.For families such as that of Wilson Choudhry, whose home in Chigwell has been without running water for the duration of the outage, they have been forced to endure 'medieval' conditions.In order to take a shower, the family have to boil water in pans before pouring it into the bath.He told the Daily Mail: 'The showers aren't the only problem. When you're brushing your teeth, you're using bottles of water or washing your face. Either way, there's wastage and it's not particularly hygienic.'To flush the toilet, which you still have to do, we've been having to get buckets of water from our water harvesting barrel outside in the garden… we found loads of slugs in there… it's very unsightly. It's quite medieval.'We've even joked about installing a water pump. It might have a more constant supply than Thames Water.'The outage could not come at a worse time for the family after Mr Choudhry's daughter turned 16 this week and his brother-in-law, who also lives with them, broke his wrist.'Imagine trying to hold water to wash yourself with a broken wrist. It is impossible for [my brother-in-law] at the moment,' the 51-year-old said.Mr Choudhry has lived in the area since 2018 and claims that burst pipes which are repaired 'very slowly' have caused 'ongoing resentment' towards Thames Water from fellow residents.'We've had outages at least 12 times in the last four months and it will be around 20 times a year usually,' he said.In a statement, Thames Water said: 'We're sorry it's taking longer than expected to get water flowing from your taps again.'Our teams have been working around the clock since the problems started late on Saturday night. We found four burst pipes across the area and have now repaired three of them, which has helped us get water back to more customers.'We're still working on the fourth and final repair, which we're aiming to complete tonight. This one has been more difficult because we need to replace a three-metre section of damaged pipe. To reach it, we've had to dig a trench around five metres long and three metres deep. There are also other utility cables and pipes in the ground, including electricity, so our teams have had to dig very carefully to avoid causing any further problems.'We know how frustrating and difficult it is to be without water for this long, and we're sorry that we haven't been able to get everyone's supply back to normal sooner.'