When did the narrative around warm weather change?

We are weak about everything now. See also schools closing because of a military of snow.

That's more because Fahrenheit was the version most people used and understood before there had been a few batches of kids learning EU measurements - they may very well have used Centigrade alongside Fahrenheit since the 60s in weather forecasts, but they were still doing both well into the 1980s, as that's how I learned 16 and 61 were acceptable temperatures and above 20 was when I was likely to pass out and/or get burned to the point of blistering.

My 1976 was spent being kept indoors, occasionally being allowed into the back garden before anybody got up for work/school or in the evening when my mother would run the hosepipe up to her beans so that nobody would see her. On the rare occasions I was allowed out, once I was bitten by a ladybird, once I tripped over because the pavements had cracked all the way down the street and the other ended with me being banned from going out in summer at all for the next nine years because I became really ill after walking with her about a mile to a shop and collapsed after crying that my head and legs hurt. And then years later, on the first day she decided as I was 15, it was probably OK to leave the house in hot weather, I fainted twice before midday and woke up in hospital at about 1pm with a doctor taking a rather painful core temperature reading.

Has it occurred to you that it’s not the same people?

I will complain it’s too hot. It has not uplifted my spirits. You will not hear me complaining that it’s too cold when the temperature drops to zero. You won’t hear me complaining about it being too wet either.

Basically children.experience things differently to adults. And are less likely to be aware of the downsides to a heat wave or be reading negative newspaper articles.

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1976-07-01/1976-07-31?basicsearch=heatwave&exactsearch=false&retrievecountrycounts=false

Lots of negative stories here

Funny, my mother has a completely different view of the summer of 76. As a baby, I spent the entire summer with prickly heat. She recalls it being horrendous as she was unable to be outside with us for very long. There was a hosepipe ban so all her greenhouse and garden plants died (despite her carting bathwater down there to water them) so that means we had less fresh veg as we were skint. Trying to keep three young kids occupied and cool was not at all a fun time for her. The local pool was shut down and the beach, which was close by, was mobbed, not that she could have us there a lot as it was too hot. She spent a fortune she couldn’t afford on suncreams.

‘76 was not just a few days of hot weather, it was one of the most prolonged heat events in our history, lasting ten weeks with no let up, leading to one of the most serious droughts we had. This impacted on farming and led to a terrible harvest that autumn (and for a few years after). Summer deaths were 20% higher than in previous years. We need to stop romanticising that “lovely” 76 summer and suggesting people are stupid for being careful now during heatwaves.

Was is this hot though?

I remember the long hot Summers in the 80s and 90s. But it was like 25 degrees. Not over 30.

I don’t ever rem bed temperatures reaching 30 degrees.

I had my first child in 1976, at 24. It was hard to keep a 4 month old cool. I remember setting off to walk into town 40 minutes away with my big pram and a canopy to shade the baby. I stopped at a phone box on the way to phone my mum (no home phone or mobile) I can still smell the reek and feel the temperature in that phone box! I had to hold the door open with my foot. My mum told me I should go home, it was too hot to be out. I can even remember what I was wearing a wrapover cheesecloth skirt in orange and yellow stripes, and a yellow teeshirt. A little glimpse of my would-be-hippy 70s life 🤣

I was a child in 76 and remember being sent home from school with heatstroke. I passed out and vomited.

If you love the heat, good for you. The heat, humidity and very high pollen has played havoc with my asthma and sleep - neither of which are my usual triggers. So, yes, I feel miserable in the heat.

Older and more overweight population who are at risk?
More urban areas which increases retained heat?

😄😪 where are you and how can I teleport there!

I want to know this too. Thank you for being brave enough to point it out - I’ve had posts deleted as “disinformation”. Remember the scary dark red weather maps of 2022, shown side by side with green maps of yesteryear for similar temperatures?

I remember noticing some years ago that temperatures are suddenly quoted in Fahrenheit for hot summers; and now I think this makes them sound scarier. “Temperatures in the high eighties.”

Yeah the heat is always a bit brutal in That London, I'll give you that.

!

Wasn't a long hot Spring and Summer though.

It's already been annoucned as the warmest driest Spring on record. Summer is following the trend. It hasn't been like this for 7 years.

It was pretty hot in June/July 2022

Is this for real?

We've had temperatures hitting 30c in Scotland this week, that never happened when I was a child in the 70s or 80s. Certainly not temperatures so high for several days.

We have more elderly people, we are more aware of the risk of getting sunburned, climate change is a thing.

Has it occurred to you that you enjoyed 76 because you were a healthy child with no responsibilities or worries? Just reading the Wikipedia, it doesn't sound very fun for adults - water turned off, food price rises, fires and 20% more people died than would have done in a 'normal' summer! My Dad (in his 80s now) has talked to me a few times over the years about 76, and each time describes it as awful. I'm not sure the narrative has changed. I think your memory may be a little off though.

Its been insanely hot for at least a couple of weeks already this year in london 😪😪

Sorry @Zov

It hasn't been that hot very much though. It's been mostly in the 20s all Spring and Summer for much of the UK.

Given that the median age of the UK is around 40, the majority of us weren't even alive in this 1976 summer that keeps getting banged on about on here. The narrative in my lifetime has always been that the sun is dangerous, and when I was little the ozone layer was an enormous concern.

I detest hot weather in the UK. Summer where I live is low 20s average and hefty amounts of rain.

Yeah, but it's the fact that people were pissing and moaning about how HOT 25C was a few weeks ago, and now they class it as cool.

As I say, some people just need a reason to gripe and moan.

I remember 23° being considered scorching hot when I was young in the 90s, and it being around 19 or 20 degrees at the height of summer

33 is hell - we are in hell

Yeah but there’s a big difference between 20-25 degrees which would have been a “lovely summer day” in the UK 20 years ago, and 32+ which it has been in some areas this week. We aren’t designed to cope with it as a country. Our homes are too hot, hardly anywhere has air conditioning and it is miserable.

I do agree to some extent though, getting sick of being told to stay out of the midday sun etc!

YANBU.

Some people just love to whinge.

Some posters on a thread right now are saying they can't wait for it to drop from 29-30 C to 24-25C this coming week. Yet, several weeks back, when it went from 18 to 24C, people were whining that it's 'too hot.' 🙄

It's a beautiful, long hot Spring and Summer, and it's uplifted everyone's mood that I know, and have met in the past 3 months. It's lovely, seeing and hearing lots of children spashing about in garden paddling pools, and smelling BBQs, and seeing people sunbathing, and chatting happily over the garden fences and hedges, with shorts and a T-shirt on, and the sun blazing down. Yet all some people can do is gripe and whinge.

Only on here though. No-one is moaning in real life. Sure, they have said (a few times when it's been 30C or over,) 'phew it's a bit hot eh?' But everyone I know is delighted with the gorgeous summer this year. (And the lovely Spring we've had.) We were definitelt due. Last long hot Spring and summer was 2018!

Parallel world of Mumsnet again, where (some) people love to moan for ANY reason.

They'll be the first to start whingeing and saying 'it's so COLD, have you got your heating on yet?!' in late September, when it drops to 15-16C!

I love a warm summer. I just wish it would happen in the summer holidays when I am off work and not trapped in a stuffy classroom. August is always a washout now.