I live in the southern part of India and a city by the sea. Summer temps here routinely cross 40°C each year for several days or weeks. There are other parts of India that get 1-1.5°C higher temps. I am surprised by the destruction caused by the high temps and the fires in and around London.
What seems to be the driving factor for this apart from the obvious record-setting high temp?
Usually, when infrastructure is built without extremes in mind, it won't withstand them. Where I live, it's an annual joke that during the heavy rain of the year, a lot of things break, flooding occurs, etc. That's because heavy rain is relatively rare, so most infrastructure isn't really built to handle the peaks very well.
What seems to be the driving factor for this apart from the obvious record-setting high temp?