First Ever Severe Heatwave Warning for the UK, help!

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That would be nice, as long as the greenery does not damage the buildings.

They do that in Spain. Tower blocks of flats with plants growing in them and on them. They look gorgeous.

This sort of thing makes me angry. These poor guards! No one should be wearing bearskins in 40C. Ridiculous. These pictures sum up Britain today- clinging to old traditions despite the fact they're hurting people

https://www.mylondon.news/weather/royal ... d-24519888

Saw this in MyLondon,

UK heatwave: People given very tight time limit for showers to help stop us running out of water
Thames Water has said formal restrictions aren't necessary at the moment but they are not ruled out at a later date
By Rory Bennett
16:20, 11 JUL 2022 Updated16:22, 11 JUL 2022
https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world ... y-24458412
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Many Brits are being urged to ration water with temperatures set to rise to 35C later this week. What is predicted to be the longest heatwave in years kicked off before the weekend, and will last another eight days or so according to forecasts. ...
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Our heat wave is going to continue for weeks.
Many prisons and small jails don’t have AC in the South.My state is one of the few where the units have cooling.
https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas ... 841/?amp=1

They need a jug of ice under that hat.

'Climate change affects everyone': Europe battles wildfires in intense heat

Britain could see hottest temperature on record this week

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 18 Jul 2022, 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Oh, that is a concern.

Brings to mind a time in 1990s when Dad's brother in law was a Deputy Sheriff on the KC side of Missouri.
They had a fellow they had a warrant for call them to come bring him back to MO from a rural jail in the deep south.
The guy actually said, "Get me out of here."

The heatwave is still forecast to break on Wednesday, the 20th, in the UK. Maximum of 26C (79F) in London on that date. And 20's for the rest of the week.

We have a old saying in New York. “It ain’t the heat it’s the humidity”. At 7PM in London the temperature was 35 C with a dew point of 7.2 C. The dew point measures the amount of moisture in the air. A 7.2 dew point is considered bone dry in New York during the summertime. We are expecting a heat wave here this week the temperatures will be about 33 to 35 celsius but the dew point around 20 C. This is very uncomfortable, one could be pouring sweat after being outside for 5 minutes. This is also not unusual here in the summertime. The humidity is even worse and more constant in the Gulf States then in New York.

This is not to downgrade what you are experiencing across the pond. You are just not used to it. That the air is both so hot and so dry is the reason for all of the fires breaking out.

Also keep in mind that people vary in the amount of heat they can tolerate. As noted the elderly, very young, people with illnesses and so on can tolerate a lot less.

This is a good thing. The negative effects of heat both on people and infrastructure build up over time. The weather service here defines a heatwave as 3 consecutive days over 90 F in any one location.

Phoenix Park, in Dublin, Ireland, broke the all-time Irish hottest temperature for the 20th and 21st centuries: 33 Celsius, or 92 Fahrenheit.

Apparently, unless something changes, 33.3 Celsius, in Kilkenny Castle in 1887, will remain the all-time Irish record.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 18 Jul 2022, 2:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That's what I heard too. And we have rain on Wednesday and Friday. It is not going to stay in the late 30s for 8 days in the UK.



Is this scaremongering? We've had heatwaves like this before, a few years ago it stayed around 30 for weeks but the land did not dry up and nobody was short of water. Hosepipe ban, understandable. We've had that too. But nobody was short of water to drink.

the humidity here is ridiculous right now

still 30C out there

I've encountered 32 Celsius at midnight in NYC.

It does get more humid at night, so the dewpoint will be higher, so you will feel more uncomfortable.

Over 1,000 dead according to this headline: (but that’s heatwave wide across Europe not just the UK)

https://www.salon.com/2022/07/18/histor ... e_partner/

They will have to answer that for themselves.
As for me ...
I'm not going to doubt it - I've lived in 2 different US states where in several different decades there have been droughts and water restrictions; one of them being not most people's primary suspect for water restrictions of Virginia in the 1980s & one time to the point where the city utility asked people to not flush their toilets every time it was used.

Have some documentation of that,

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1980/10/02 ... 339307200/
"
UPI Archives
Oct. 2, 1980
Drought and water restrictions in Virginia

NORFOLK, Va. -- A five-minute timer ticks away in the bathroom of the Boyce family to make sure no one takes excessively long showers.

At the Simpkins household, there are strict orders not to run the washing machine unless it has a full load of clothes.

And at the local Coca-Cola plant, about 25 percent of production _ which uses tons of water _ has been shifted to the Richmond operation.

The above measures are the result of drought and unprecedented water rationing that began Wednesday in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, a section of Chesapeake and area Navy installations.

Officials say the program, requiring 690,000 residents and businesses to reduce consumption by 25 percent, will remain in effect until the area receives sufficient rain to make up for a four-month drought.

Dorothy Oppert of Norfolk says she began conserving in August when restrictions on non-essential use were imposed.

'I don't know what else I can do to cut back,' she said. 'I'm not washing my car or watering my lawn. I take a bath twice a week, flush the toilet about three times a day and I don't keep the water running when I brush my teeth.'

'It's taking some getting use to,' said Lorretta Boyce, mother of five. 'If you're use to unwinding in the shower, you say 'Gosh, is it already over?''

Ironically, the rationing took effect as the area received a second consecutive day of showers that dropped nearly an inch of rain _ the heaviest rainfall in more than a month.

But it wasn't enough to avert the rationing, announced last week.

'Every little bit helps, but we didn't have enough to make any real difference in our situation,' said John Kemper, Norfolk's public utilities director. 'We need a whole lot of rain and this isn't a whole lot of rain.'

The affected area has received just 10 inches of precipitation, less than half its normal amount, since June 1. It draws water from Norfolk's reservoirs, now at 51.2 percent of their 15 billion gallon capacity.

The area's first rationing follows a similar water allocation program six days ago in northern New Jersey.

Consumers who don't do their part to reduce consumption to 50 million gallons each day face stiff water surcharges.

Earlier this week, Norfolk began a radio, television and newspaper campaign, entitled, 'Water: Not A Drop To Spare,' offering conservation tips.

Car and window washing firms are required to close until conditions improve, and Kemper said some businesses may be forced to curtail operations and lay off workers.

The Norfolk Shipbuilding Co. said it began conservation efforts last week but doesn't know yet whether it will have to reduce operations and release any employees.

'We hope we wouldn't have to, but right now we don't know,' said a spokesman for the 4,000-worker shipyard, the area's biggest private employer.
"

and

SPIRITS SINK IN VIRGINIA BEACH AS WATER DEAL SUCCUMBS TO STATE POLITICS
By Peter Baker
July 5, 1995
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/ ... 342b2a6a7/
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Just outside her knickknack store, where seashell bracelets go for $6 apiece, there is water stretching off into the horizon. Water is what drew the thousands of visitors who flocked here this weekend. It is the lifeblood of this resort city, the blanket that provides its economic security.

So, with all this water, why can't Joan Scholefield flush her toilet?

Or water her lawn? Or fill her tea kettle?

Virginia's largest city has been so short of safe drinking water for so long that many activities, from home building to car washing to gardening, are tightly restricted. Restaurants don't serve it unless asked. Swimming pool owners truck in water or wait for rain.

"Everybody understands the water restrictions . . . but it gets frustrating," said Scholefield, owner of Sko's Jewelry and Gifts. "It has actually gotten to the point where people save their bathtub water and take it outside to water their plants. You don't flush your toilets all day unless you have to. You don't wash your clothes at night. You leave the water in your tea kettle and just use whatever's there rather than fill it again."

A bitter irony lost on so many summer frolickers here is that water is both Virginia Beach's greatest asset and its worst enemy.

That's why a proposed accord with North Carolina to pipe in water was so critical and has occupied the attention of officials ranging from the mayor to the governor. And that's why the collapse of the deal last week in a partisan feud devastated a city that has been pursuing the agreement for 13 years.

"We've had to live with restrictions greater than any other city in Virginia," Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said. "I don't think unless you are living through it that you can truly appreciate it."

Since 1982, after a drought that required the city to ration water, Virginia Beach has been trying to solve its chronic shortage by building a 76-mile pipeline across the southern part of the state to Lake Gaston, a man-made body of water straddling the line with North Carolina. And since 1982, North Carolina has stood in the way.

Finally, after all the lawsuits and bureaucratic battles, the two sides hammered out an interstate compact that would allow Virginia Beach to withdraw 60 million gallons a day. The Virginia General Assembly had until last Friday to seal the deal.

But in the end, the legislature never convened because of a political spat between Gov. George Allen (R) and Democratic lawmakers over when the special session would adjourn.

Left in the middle are 417,000 residents, who face the prospect of stifling restrictions for years to come.

"I just wish the politicians would quit fighting and get something done," said Ted Pletcher, who owns Auntie Anne's pretzel shop across Atlantic Avenue from the ocean. "It's in the paper every day: Deal's done. Deal's off. To the average person, it's just a frustration."

The city has considered the obvious solution but concluded that tapping into the ocean would be prohibitively expensive and environmentally unsound. Desalting seawater, officials estimate, would double Virginia Beach's water and sewer rates -- already among the nation's highest at an average of $50 a month.

To get by, the city has been buying millions of gallons a day from neighboring Norfolk and in 1992 imposed tough conservation measures that have cut average usage to among the nation's lowest.

Outdoor use of city water is all but banned, including washing cars and watering lawns. Residents can use three-gallon buckets for those purposes but no hoses or sprinklers. Ornamental fountains are prohibited. Commercial carwashes must use recycled water.

Many residents resort to digging wells in their back yards. Others install water-saving toilets. Those with less money stand outside the bathroom door with a watch while their children shower.

Development, too, is limited. The city has granted no new extensions of public water lines since 1992, allowing hookups only for properties that were entitled at the time of that moratorium. Businesses considering a move to Virginia Beach often are discouraged because of the water shortage.

"We're on the edge here," said John E. Schwartz, executive director of the local Chamber of Commerce. "We want to be sure to eliminate that asterisk . . . {so} there's no reason to eliminate Virginia Beach as an economic development site because of water."

But economics are at least partially responsible for the unraveling of the Lake Gaston deal. Although one region benefited, another cried foul.

In the rural countryside of Southside and Southwest Virginia, local leaders saw the plan as outright poaching of their resources. Tapping Lake Gaston for drinking water, they feared, might force new environmental regulations on the region's own use of Lake Gaston water and that of local industries. The costs of complying could strangle their economic development.

The opposition of a region where Allen is popular made the issue all the stickier for the governor, who publicly supported the Lake Gaston project. Critics cited the precedent as a danger to every other region of the state, including Northern Virginia.

"They're going to put a straw in our drink up here and take our water," said Del. Stephen D. Newman, a Lynchburg Republican who considers himself a loyal "Allenista" but broke with his governor over the issue. "One day someone may come from Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and start putting a straw down in your glass of water and start pulling water out of there."

Back at the beach, officials are frantically trying to accommodate those and other concerns to resurrect the compact. Allen has vowed to help craft an alternative deal that will not require legislative approval.

But after 13 years of struggling and waiting, after coming so close to a solution only to watch it slip away, there is a sense of profound disappointment that politics in Richmond pulled the plug on the deal last week. "Water is not a luxury. Water is a necessity," Mayor Oberndorf said. "If there were ever a time when the elected officials needed to respond as statesmen and not as politicians, this was the time."
"