First Ever Severe Heatwave Warning for the UK, help!

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I hope the air-conditioning companies start taking notice in the UK. Start selling AC's at reduced prices; the companies will see considerable profits.

I would bet that London's average July maximum temperature will exceed 27 Celsius (80 Fahrenheit) in maybe 20-30 years' time. It was 70 degrees when I was a kid; it's about 75 now. I feel like the average minimum in July will rise to above 15 Celsius. There will probably be more days with a southeast wind than a west wind. It's the west wind that keeps the UK relatively cool in the summer.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 20 Jul 2022, 12:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hot weather can make people cranky.
Violent crimes go up during a heat wave and ordinarily good natured people can get snappy.
Just saying…

More perspective:

The last time it hit 40 Celsius in NYC was in 1977, 45 years ago. New York is a much hotter place in summer than London.

aircon in homes is just not a thing here at all. Never even heard of anyone having it. Its not worth it for the temperatures we normally have

we get aircon in offices and some shops. that's about it though

big old country houses with high ceilings are the UK's aircon units

Yes, last night was still boiling even though the day was cooling off. Our house had carefully kept hold of the heat. We have fitted carpets in every room, no wooden floors. Warm, cosy furniture. Warm curtains. I was sitting on the floor yesterday because it was the coolest place, but I was still on a warm, cosy carpet. It was not fun.

Yes, I've never heard of it either, unless the person is really rich with a big, modern house. But usually it's not worth it in Britain.

Thank you Cornflake.

That is the story of my life really. I ask a question and get my head bitten off. I've never understood that.

I was working through this, in a physical job, covering other people's work on top of my own. Only about a quarter of the area has air conditioning, and I had to get there by a mixture of walking and public transport. The temperature inside some of the buildings stayed well above 30 degrees C for around 60 hours. Whenever I passed large open areas outside, I was hit by a strong wind that was actually much hotter than the ambient air temperature. And I'm not good with heat at the best of times - I've had anhydronic heat exhaustion a couple of times. So I had to take this pretty seriously.

Some things that helped- a little late now, but maybe for next time. [shudder]

Keep the curtains closed at home.
Don't open windows on the sunny side of the building, or if the air outside the window is hotter than the air inside.
Find the coolest parts of your home and spend as much time there as possible. I had to abandon my living room altogether.
Jug of water in the fridge, ice-cubes in the freezer. Put both of these in insulated flasks/ bottles when you go out, and carry more than one. Never miss a chance to refill your bottles.
Instant coffee and pepperment tea can both be made with cold water and left in the fridge to brew overnight. Super refreshing.
Lock yourself in the loos, get undressed and splash handfuls of water all over yourself. Wait for it to steam off.
Wearing light colours and thin clothing. I travelled to work in shorts and a button-down short-sleeved shirt, but sadly had to put on my thick, dark blue uniform when I got there. Might have to complain about that.
Carry around a home-made fan, like a folded paper fan but made with a big piece of folded card, with one end wrapped in tape for a handle. (My inner Austen heroine was delighted.)
Broad-brimmed hats are great against direct sunlight. Sadly they don't sell sombreros here.
Ice cream. I've eaten more ice cream in the last 3 weeks than in the previous 3 years.
Eat a lot of juicy fruit, like plums or melon. But also put a lot of salt on your food to replace what you lose through sweating.
Soak your feet in iced water if you've been standing a lot.

This is what I mean. Britain isn't set up for heat, what you and other workers go through is not fair. I had food delivered today and the driver said his van isn't air conditioned, he had to wear a thick uniform and high viz jacket on top all through the heatwave!

There should be a hot weather uniform for people, obviously air conditioning in workplaces and vans and flexible working. Britain needs to get better at this.

I'm glad you managed to survive!

It was bad enough for me working from home, our home was 30C all day even though I had all doors and windows open. My computer kept overheating so I had to keep stopping work.

I hope the government learns from this heatwave! But I doubt it.

I really think some of these health and safety rules should be eased a little during very hot weather. While there's a chance of accidents or harming yourself in some way if some health and safety rules are eased, the chance of getting ill from overheating is much higher during extreme heat than anything else, and is in itself a health and safety risk.

It seems that UK laws fuss more about risks that have less chance of happening than risks that are more likely to happen. For example, at work I used to have to carry 2 heavy buckets of water and a mop around a large premises, with no trolley, and no matter how many times I complained, it wasn't taken seriously, even though it was putting strain on my back and more weight on my feet causing feet problems that was very painful. But there was fuss when I'd left a mop standing up leaning against the fence because it was in a walkway and someone could fall over it. If someone is walking, not running, and is looking where they're going (i.e, have their eyes open), the risk of tripping over the mop is very low, and the risk of tripping over the mop and dying is even lower. Yet I was practically damaging my body by being made to carry 2 heavy objects around and that didn't matter.

UK health and safety laws are so ridiculous it's laughable. I think people just like to make a fuss over nothing. "You left this little towel on the ground, someone might trip over that and die!" I feel like saying "then move it yourself then!"

Imagine if all new construction would have CENTRAL air-conditioning?

spent the last 3 nights sleeping on a thin mattress on the kitchen floor as its the room with no carpets so is cooler than everywhere else

I think our houses being geared up to mainly keep us warm is a very significant issues when we get this kind of extreme heat.

That sounds lovely to sleep there in this weather.

Yes. Even though we had all our windows and doors open for the last few days, the house did not get cool at night. The minute we shut them, the house went hot again. So even though the days have cooled off, the nights have not. I'm not sleeping with the doors and windows open, we get bats coming in. Or humans, who are even more frightening.

Do you take a cool shower before going to sleep?

No, we are trying to save water and energy as it's so expensive now days. Energy prices have gone up 54% lately. We do put our feet in a bowl of cold water though. But the house just gets hotter overnight.

Lovely in winter, but not good for heatwaves.

I’m sorry about that, I’ve had bats come in the house before when we left a screen door open.I’m guessing most of the windows there don’t have screens?We have so many bugs here all windows and doors have screens.You can buy pop in screens that don’t require any tools to install.