Every winter, freezing rainwater opens up tiny cracks in road surfaces and leaves Britain pockmarked by potholes. But, as the UK recovers from an endless succession of heatwaves, this bane of motorists’ lives is becoming a summer phenomenon as well.

The AA attended 39,000 “pothole-related incidents” in the July heatwaves alone as the scorching temperatures heaped misery on our roads.

The pothole crisis already costs motorists £3.3bn a year in vehicle repairs, with nearly one in four drivers suffering damage to their tyres, wheels or suspension – at an average cost of £341, according to Close Brothers Motor Finance.

And the blistering summer conditions are accelerating the pothole problem, creating them in a different way to the winter weather.

Once the surface temperature of a road reaches around 50°C to 60°C, bitumen – the sticky, black mixture of carbon and hydrogen that glues together the stone, sand and gravel that make up the asphalt surface of the road – starts to melt. This increases the risk that heavy vehicles will make the road crumble and disintegrate to form potholes.

While 50-plus degrees Celsius might sound high, to get to those kinds of temperatures the air only needs to be about 30°C; the dark surface of the roads absorbs heat not just from the sun but from the cars, vans and lorries that use them.

The heat has also taken a toll on our roads in another, less expected, way this summer as wildfires in France, Spain and elsewhere in Europe meant more people opted for driving holidays in the UK.

Nearly a fifth of UK residents intended to swap an international trip for a domestic one this summer, according to a YouGov poll – meaning millions more luggage-heavy vehicles on Britain’s melting roads, further increasing wear and tear.

As well as making for a tense and bumpy ride, hitting potholes can puncture your tyres, damage your wheels and muck up your steering and suspension. And if you’re on a bike or motorbike, hitting a pothole is even more dangerous.

So, with potholes likely to become worse rather than better, what can you do to minimise the risks?

One easy win, according to the MotorEasy website, is to keep your tyres pumped up properly. If they’re not, they will absorb less of the impact of any pothole collision, risking damage to the tyre.

But be careful not to get too carried away and pump them up too hard, as overinflated tyres can be too stiff, making them liable to blow out. So it’s a good idea to check your tyre pressure regularly and keep it within the manufacturer’s recommended range.

Meanwhile, if you see a pothole ahead when you’re driving but dodging it isn’t an option, you can at least reduce the force of the impact by slowing down. But avoid braking altogether when you hit the pothole, as keeping your tyres rolling helps distribute the shock more evenly and minimises damage.

Not that it’s always very easy to see potholes, especially if they’re hiding under puddles or in the shadows. To minimise the risk of being caught unaware, keep your eyes on the road and look out for dips, cracks or darker patches that suggest the presence of a pothole.

Dipped headlights are better than full beams, even in bad weather, because it helps create contrast that makes potholes easier to spot.

Even if you are super-vigilant, the chances are you’ll hit a pothole at some point or other. And when you do, rather than pretending nothing has happened, experts advise that you stop and check for signs of damage. Look out for a sudden drop in tyre pressure, damage to the tyres, the car pulling to one side or unusual vibrations or knocking sounds. And if you notice any of these, get them checked out before things get worse.

If you do suffer damage you can claim compensation. While there’s no explicit sentence in law that covers claiming for potholes, there are laws that force authorities to keep the roads safe – and that’s what you’ll be claiming the authorities have failed to do.

If it’s a local road you make your claim with the council, while National Highways looks after most A roads and motorways. According to the Government website, you’ll need to let them know what the damage was and why you think they are responsible.

They’ll also need to know the specific location where the damage took place – the road name and the nearest marker post number or feature that identifies the part of the road you were on – as well as the date and time the damage was caused.

It’s a good idea to take photos of the pothole with a ruler or coin for scale (although this isn’t allowed on motorways, where trespassing is a criminal offence as well as being extremely dangerous) and photographs of the damage done to your vehicle. To qualify as a pothole, it usually needs to be at least 4cm deep – about the height of two 20p coins.

Just as hotter summers are taking a significant toll on human health, so are they on the health of our roads. And with the Met Office warning this week that next summer could be even hotter than this one, the UK’s emerging summer pothole phenomenon isn’t likely to go away.