It’s been a bit hot this week. I don’t suppose anyone else noticed at all, did they?

For those of you old enough to remember, it still doesn’t seem as hot as the summer of 1976, although Cornwall broke the record for that year on Monday with a temperature of 34.2 recorded in Bude.

But maybe I look back on that with rose tinted glasses. As a small boy the blue skies of that endless summer seemed to stretch on for ever, although it was two months. This year’s summer holidays don’t start until Friday so there is still time.

Many people will be saying that this is nothing compared to what happened in 1976 and the current generation are just ‘snowflakes’ melting in the sun.

But what we have now is much scarier and is a continuation of the warnings we have been getting for years and consistently decided to ignore – and still do.

Climate change is now raging out of control. How long before the gorse fires in West Cornwall become raging firestorms as the county is engulfed with temperatures above 40C?

In the 1970s the heatwave was a rare thing, the average July temperature was 18.7C according to the BBC. In the 2010s it was more than 20 degrees.

In 1976 the peak temperature in the UK was 35.9C, on Tuesday it hit 40.2C.

This heatwave is an entirely different kettle of fish as it looks set to become the norm in future, with temperatures forecast to regularly exceed 40 degrees and perhaps even more

Just look at what is happening in Portugal, Spain and France this week. Nature is issuing its final warning and we need to heed it.