First Ever Severe Heatwave Warning for the UK, help!

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Fortunately, they installed air-con at my work recently. I am glad that people have been quick to sort the fires out - especially since I live out in the countryside with a lot of surrounding dry fields and forests / woodland area. Definitely looking forward to the rain. Bit of a nightmare trying to sleep in this weather.

I hope more homes get air-conditioning in the future.

I really don't get on with air conditioning as I find it hard to breathe.

I

I find it hard to sit near the air conditioner it's not the same as sitting near the heater.

That brings to mind 3 references discovered earlier today, at least one of the MyLondon articles may have been posted earlier by KitLily, I remember she posted an article from there but now I don't remember what it was about.
Maybe water supply issues?

June 2018,
How to get a decent night's sleep in the heat
Can't keep cool under the covers? Consider this a guide for warmer nights
https://www.standard.co.uk/escapist/hea ... 73486.html

August 2020
Tips for sleeping in hot weather: Londoners share their best advice for a good night's sleep during a heatwave
https://www.mylondon.news/news/health/t ... s-18759375

July 2022
London weather: Expert explains the secret to getting to sleep in a heatwave
https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world ... t-24470471

Rare to find houses with air conditioning here though we do have special devices to see through walls and some of them also allow air to pass through them. We call them windows.

Don’t cook inside or use any appliance that gives off heat, eat sandwiches , cold fruit or milk and cereal instead.Cucumber or frozen fruit added to water is refreshing.Try lemonade with a sprig of basil or mint in it, or drop in frozen strawberries.Baby powder (or just cornstarch in a pinch )between the sheets absorbs sweat , put in shoes also to keep feet cool.We used to make accordion fold fans out of a sheet of paper in school.
If outside ,you can put fresh green leaves in your hat to cool down.Make sure it’s not poisonous plants.We have poison ivy and oak here, would be bad for allergic people.

maybe they'll start installing air conditioners for you soon.
Windows don't keep out the heat over here once the sun is on the window, we have outside blinds to pull down before it gets hot and fly screens to keep out the flys.

Are window a/c units are available there? That's likely to be the easiest solution. Keep one around for the few uber hot days in summer. Put it in one room, & then live in that room. There are also units that sit inside the house & just have a vent tube that goes out the window.

My only other advice is ice packs on the top of head, back of neck, and maybe soak feet in cold water. Lots of fans for moving air. Dry heat can feel cooler than humid heat, but dehumidifiers add their own heat to a house & so counteract that somewhat.

I melt in heat & have been know to wear shorts in winter (due to stores & buildings being so hot).

Like where I live, by the time you get a window a/c and install it, the heatwave is over with.

Hooray! Even though I SPECIFICALLY told them not to schedule the workmen to come at 8am, they did. So we were cooking breakfast (I have a VERY limited diet so I have to cook most of my food), me and my daughter were in our nighties, the last thing we wanted was men tramping through the house. So I told them to wait, but they had to go off to another job.

So they are coming on Thursday instead when it will be cooler! Thank god! We can lounge around in our nighties all day today.

Last edited by KitLily on 19 Jul 2022, 3:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

Phew! That's a relief about the air con.

What fires were those? Haven't seen any near me but I used to live near a heath and that was always catching fire.

Yes, last night was horrendous wasn't it.

I'm not opening windows if the air outside is hotter than inside. Our house faces south and the kitchen is cooler that the air outside

Some more fun facts from Heatwave Britain:

Flights halted out of UK air base after runway melts due to heat wave

https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... heat-wave/

London Heatwave: Why 40C in London feels hotter than the same temperature in Spain

https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world ... s-24520003

There have been quite a few deaths by drowning as people are jumping into random lakes and rivers to get cool and not coming out again.

My laptop, TV and phone keep overheating so I am not using them much.

One point though. They say 'hottest day on record.' We have only been keeping weather records since 1659, so it's not like it's the hottest day ever in UK history.

Might be good to get heating as AC is not really neccessary as up here rarely needs it. I find hard to breathe when I have tried air conditioning.

Temperature here is around 5 degrees lower than if I drive off this hill down to the coast and our two main downstairs rooms stay cool all year as they have stone walls. Upstairs can get warm as heat goes up and the barn gets warm inside and so do the sheds. The chalet gets hot.

Horray!