I came home early from Greek holiday with my sons because it was too hot – our hotel was like a giant oven and it’s lovely to be back in rainy, wet and cold UK

A British mum has given up on her Greek holiday and flown back to the UK with her two sons three days early because it was too hot as the relentless Charon heatwave continues to fry the Mediterranean.

Sally Urwin, 49, and her two sons, aged 16 and 13, decided to cut short their holiday to Rhodes after temperatures soared above 40C.

Sally complained that the sweltering heat had turned their hotel on the Greek island into a ‘giant oven’ – saying it is ‘lovely to be back in a rainy, wet and cold UK’.

The author had landed in Rhodes on Wednesday for what should have been a week-long relaxing holiday, but the ‘suffocating’ heat wave forced them to spend all day in their hotel.

Sally from Matfen, Northumberland, said: ‘It was suffocating. I’ve worked in Texas and around the world, but it was stifling. It made you weak and dizzy.

Sally complained that the sweltering heat had turned their hotel on the Greek island into a ‘giant oven’ – saying it is ‘lovely to be back in a rainy, wet and cold UK’. Pictured: Sally with her husband Steve Urwin, who stayed in the UK on the family farm

Sally described being on the beach in Rhodes as ‘unbearable’ due to the heat

“It made you feel unwell and we lost our appetite – we couldn’t eat much.”

The heat became so unbearable at 43C that Sally booked an early flight home and landed back in a rainy UK on Sunday – three days before they were due to return.

“It’s been lovely to be back in the UK – it’s rainy, wet and cold, it’s refreshing to be back,” said Sally.

The mother-of-two, whose husband Steve – a farmer – had stayed home rather than go to Rhodes, said the temperature was around 43°C when they left Rhodes.

She said the only bearable time of day when the temperature was low enough to leave the hotel was between 6:30am and 8:00am and after 7:00pm.

Sally said, ‘It was at least 43C by the time we left. The way the hotel was designed was all faux marble and resembled a giant oven.”

After posting about her experience online, she said internet trolls suggested she’d “never been abroad before” or that it was “just a normal summer” — but Sally disagrees.

Sally said, “It was hot when we got there. I’ve had many hot holidays, but it just kept getting hotter and hotter.

“We were all covered in sunblock and the only way to stay cool was to sit in the water.

“The kids were so bored because we couldn’t do anything. I was a little worried about some of the older Brits who were there, some of them were a little weak and didn’t go out at all.’

Tourists across the Mediterranean have been told to stay indoors and avoid the beach during the hottest hours of the day, with experts warning temperatures could break the record high of 48.8°C and pose a health risk for vacationers.

British tourists and locals in southern Europe, including Italy, Greece and Spain, are being warned by the United Nations about the life-threatening dangers of the scorching sun after dozens of people collapsed and passed out from the heat.

Sally said the sweltering heat she experienced in Rhodes has led her to now book her future Mediterranean holidays for May when it won’t be as hot.

This is more like it! It’s pouring down from the rain in England (photo – Skegness Pier)

Sally said the only bearable time of day when the temperature was low enough to leave the hotel was between 6:30am and 8:00am and after 7:00pm.

She said: ‘If I were to go anywhere in southern Europe in the future I would go in May and avoid July and August.

“Especially with children, I will definitely change my plans in the future and avoid such places at this time of year.”

It comes as the UN weather office warned temperatures in southern Europe could even break Sicily’s 2021 record of 48.8C, while desperate scientists urged the public to understand the ‘danger’ the world is in as a result of understand climate change.

NASA climate scientist Peter Kalmus warned, “Most people still don’t know the danger they’re in. This is going to be the coolest summer for the rest of your life, and that shouldn’t just be a meme – it should actually be terrifying. The only way out of this heat nightmare is to end fossil fuels as soon as possible.”

Concerns are growing that the heat, which has already claimed lives in Italy, will cause a spike in deaths. “Heat waves really are an invisible killer,” Panu Saaristo, team leader of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ emergency health unit, said today. “We experience increasingly hotter temperatures here in Europe every summer for longer periods of time.”

In response to the potentially record-breaking heat in Italy, Red Cross teams are checking elderly people by phone, while in Italy they are taking to social media to tell people not to leave pets or children in parked cars.

In Greece, volunteers handed out drinking water, while in Spain they reminded people to protect themselves from inhaling smoke from wildfires sweeping through the country.