After the damp and miserable summers of the past few years, it’s certainly welcome to have a bit of warm and sunny weather.

But the extended glorious conditions mean that we have to take extra care for fear of putting ourselves and others at risk.

We all enjoy the sunshine, but by now everyone knows that you can have too much of a good thing and health experts are quite rightly warning us to slap on the sun cream and take regular breaks from the sun to avoid increased risk of skin damage and even cancer.

Another major danger is that of fires breaking out - after such a long dry spell the ground is tinder-dry, and there is the very real risk of fires, especially on the moors and hills.

Firefighters often find long summers mean their time is taken up battling countryside grass fires, diverting their attention away from more serious incidents such as house blazes or road traffic incidents. The conditions also make an incredibly difficult job even more arduous, as the fact that two Bradford firefighters had to be treated for heat related problems after tackling the huge Pakeezah fire on Thursday.

We are naturally drawn to the countryside in fine weather, but we must be vigilant and ensure that we follow the country code and do all we can to avoid making their job even harder by inadvertently starting fires.

Discarded smoking materials, glass bottles which can magnify and intensify the sunlight... these are the biggest dangers which can cause fires to break out. With the ground as dry as it is, moorland fires can quickly spread, putting buildings in danger and causing driving hazards as thick smoke billows across roadways.

So why no-one wants to put a dampener on the nice weather, we do need to remind ourselves to take extra care.