To think there must be something wrong with me because I absolutely can not tolerate the UK heatwaves - anyone else?

Not that poster but I also struggle with intense sunshine. I use sun hats with a brim which do help a bit. I do also wear sunglasses when it gets really bright and this does help. I should get some prescription ones though. My glasses prescription isn't very strong so I don't need it as such, but it's still probably best if I do wear my glasses. (Don't worry, I don't drive!) But the other thing aside from the brightness of intense sunshine that I find difficult is the radiant type heat, I start to feel like I'm being cooked from the inside out. This is not something I remember being aware of in the UK so it might be different there or maybe the humidity just overwhelmed any other unpleasant feelings. I don't live in an especially sunny country (South Germany) but it is definitely warmer and sunnier here in the spring and summer than the UK. Spring here is how I remember summers being in the UK and in summer it is usually over 25 degrees and sometimes over 30 for a week or so at a time, which I find difficult.

However we came back to the UK a few years ago during summer and it was 25 degrees which here, I would find pleasantly warm as long as I am dressed for it - floaty dress, shorts, etc. In the UK I was finding it oppressively hot and the humidity was absolutely killer. It just made me feel really slow and sluggish and like I was moving through treacle. I was also pregnant which didn't help. But it was very different to how the heat feels here.

One positive of having warmer summer temps is that most buildings here are built to insulate equally well against heat and cold - big thick concrete or stone exterior walls are the norm, solid shutters or "Rolladen" (metal roller blinds) to keep out the sun at its hottest, and every house is designed in such a way that you can open windows on each side of the building in order to get a stiff breeze through the house, which is the way they protect their buildings from damp-induced mould. So this can help a lot, although on the hottest days I have learnt never to open a window when the sun is up - only do the breeze chasing overnight to cool things down.

This is a good tip BTW to keep your house cooler if you have the right arrangement of windows. The other thing to look up if you struggle with heat and your house is not well set up to stay cool is Australian customs of how to use fans effectively to move hot air out and move cooler air around a house, because a generation ago most Australian homes did not have air con, it obviously gets hot there, and apparently fan skills are things that they all learned growing up - I saw a very informative post on Reddit by an Australian who had moved to the UK and despaired at the way British people use fans There are probably other cultures which also know how to use fans in this way because air con is quite a modern/developed country thing.

I'm in NZ and we do get lots of bright, crisp winter days but I still would much rather have a sunny summer day. We have had more than our share of dull days in recent years and I hate them - I also feel low and unmotivated.

I couldn’t stand that! Can you move somewhere cooler? Only 19-20C here in Edinburgh.

I’ve recently been diagnosed with autism and adhd, and the feeling of being overwhelmed by the sun and the heat all my life is apparently a sensory overload thing. I had zero idea all this time. There were loads of other sensory difficulties that were highlighted as well, things I knew I had never liked but hadn’t realised were an actual sensory issue because I’d normalised having to get on with it for 42 years

One thing I am not missing in this hot weather is wearing the supermarket uniform of polyester. They clung to us

I don’t like the heat, I don’t really perspire I also have dry ear wax. It’s a known genetic issue amongst many people of East Asian origin. I’m half Chinese but inherited this. It means I’m prone to getting hot.

I was also raised to see being tanned as a very lower class thing, this is cultural, who wants to look like a field worker? So it’s big sun hat for me, I also have a light coloured umbrella that I have used as a parasol.

My best tip in very hot weather is to get in the shower with a very light summer dress on. I have kept two very old and tired linen summer dresses for this. I get in the shower in the dress and just let it dry out over a couple of hours. Also put a big dish of ice cubes in front of fans so it cools the air. If at work or just not possible to walk about dripping wet get very cold water and put on your pulse points, keep a small wash cloth and put on the back of your neck. I just sleep downstairs if it’s very hot.

The high temps will be here to Tuesday. Then be 22/23c. First week in June - 18c and rain.

I was born in November and hate winter. The kind of winter we get in Yorkshire is flat, grey and damp days with extremely low light levels. This kind of weather makes me feel very low and unmotivated.

If we got bright, crisp days then I wouldn't hate it, but they are as rare as hen's teeth here.

We don't really get the extremes of heat that people in London and other large cities get. Also, my office and my car have aircon so on the rare occasion we get very hot weather I don't have the issues that people using the tube to get to hot offices get.

If you have longish hair, twist it at the nape and hold a few ice cubes close to your head, then pull your hair up and pin securely. Your head will be cold, icy water will drip down your neck and it will be glorious.

I have. It goes both ways on MN.

Some people can’t stand the cold and some can’t stand the heat. A thread usually happens when the weather drops or goes up significantly in a day or predicted to vs happening gradually.

From what I’ve seen on different platforms from people who have visited from hotter countries, many have found the hot weather here more uncomfortable than in their own countries.

Nope. I was born in winter and I hate winter.

I hugely recommend getting AC fitted, even if only in your bedroom so you have somewhere to escape. It cost us £1400 and is worth every penny, I think it’s going to become as necessary as heating.

Are you overweight by any chance OP? I lost 15kg and it has made the hot weather noticeably more bearable.

The Highlands are worse 🤣. If anyone South of the border would kindly send the heat up we’d really appreciate it.

I absolutely hate the heat and am finding myself longing for the end of October already. It’s not so much that I (in my head don’t like it) it’s my body and skin that doesn’t like it.

I had skin cancer (melanoma - so the one you don’t want) from the sun despite being a shade seeker and not a sun follower. This has just made me more paranoid when I am out in the sun. But there are other things too. I don’t sleep, I’m uncomfortable, my hands swell and the list goes on - and that’s without the whole menopause symptoms as well.

Tonight I’m sat in bed basically feeling like I’m slowly being steamed knowing I won’t sleep and tomorrow I’ll be irritable and not nice to be around. Thank god it’s a long weekend and half term next week so the mornings are not so rushed. But I’ve pre-warned my work colleagues that I might be short tempered on Wednesday when I’m in the office. Incidentally, they think I’m completely bonkers for not liking the warmer weather but after quite a few years of us all working together we just all accept we’re different.

I’ve been intolerant of any heat since I was a child.

I missed a week of school once because it was warm and I couldn’t stop vomiting from the heat in the stuffy classrooms. No one else seemed to think it was anything else than a bit hot.

It has only gotten worse now in my 50s.

i spend the summer hiding and have decided to embrace my vampire nature.

I enjoy the sun being out and it not raining but yes struggle with the heat
I do have a diagnosed heat allergy though which gives me hives, although that’s controlled now. Also a redhead and on citalopram which apparently can affect how you are in the heat

if it was hot all day and then cool at night it would be perfect!

What I usually do is keep salt sachets on me and I'll add some to my water if I start to feel a bit dodgy and I find that usually works quite well, or if it's a slow creep of symptoms then I take myself off for a sugary and salty snack with plenty of fluids....this can head off most episodes quite well for me. Sometimes however it can come on very quickly and severely and I can't do what I need to quick enough to stop the episode.

actually it's more the intense sunshine I dislike

Do you not wear sunglasses?

I hate the heat - actually it's more the intense sunshine I dislike. I have no plans to do anything this weekend. I have a big bernese mountain dog and we are hunkered at home in front of a big fan with the curtains drawn!

I am like this too. I can barely function when it's too hot or too cold. I moved abroad and it is no better even though it is less humid here, all that has done is shift my tolerance a bit so I can now cope with it being up to about 28C, maybe 30ish for short periods. I do notice I seem to cope with heat very differently to other people though. Like other people are just walking and moving around normally whereas I feel like I am barely existing. Some people even work outside all day in the hot sun/freezing cold - there's absolutely no way I would be functional enough to work in direct sunlight on a hot day. My only thoughts on days like that are how I can find my way to shade or cooler inside. I plan my walking routes to maximise shade etc.

No antiperspirant seems to work on me so I sweat a lot and I find I get very sweaty in a short period so e.g. just walking to school to pick up DC will have me overheating and sweating loads if I dress too warmly. And when I come inside after having walked somewhere I often get a hot flush and get really sweaty as well. Then after I strip right down to a t-shirt 5 minutes later I'll be cold again. I don't think this is menopause related, because I've been like that since my teen years - I can remember it happening in lessons at school, and in my late teens had a few instances of nearly blacking out when I did something like run to catch a bus, although I put that down to probably low blood sugar as I used to undereat massively. (Not for weight reasons, I just never used to eat breakfast).

I also have ADHD, also slim (close to underweight) rather unfit, and I have wondered if it is related to any of these things. The description of dysautonomia is very long and complicated but does seem to fit in a few areas. I get a bit of POTS-like lightheadedness on standing but when I have measured blood pressure and pulse, the difference isn't quite large enough to warrant testing.

My other theory is it is part of sensory processing differences and perhaps I just perceive temperature differently, like it's more extreme than it is.

I love summer.

Just have the wrong flat for it

I have to plan on spending all my time outside - not as easy as it sounds even outside of the working day.

One place I worked, if it was 25 outside, it would be 32 indoors - actually thinking about it, that might also have been built with thermal bricks?

That 32 doesn't sound too bad, but when you're running around a lot and there's lots of hot computer equipment, etc

It was a bit like living in my flat! Only there were several more people breathing their air. I think the combination of the Tube journey, the boiling office, the boiling flat.... I started having a rehydration sachet every day and it really helped. I think that was 2018. Everyone in that block of flats used to joke about sleeping out on their balconies. But the thermostat used to switch itself off, which it only does after 35.

And the fridge and freezer used to pack up every summer! And they're still building them like that!

we've had a nice pleasant 25 today, but I think other parts of the country have been hotter

Also, I'm no longer in the urban jungle, but I really felt the effect of being surrounded by buildings and pavements

Now I have lots of space and trees - it makes a big difference. Flat is now down to 26° with the balcony door open. That's good.

Move to Glasgow, it’s shite here.

Rehydration Sachets? It’s 25 degrees