Is it normal to feel anxious about hotter summers?

[Cookserella]

Is it normal to struggle with climate anxiety?

We live in the south east and summers have definitely got hotter over the last 10 years. I’m looking at the forecast for this coming week with dread.

Does anyone else suffer from anxiety around this sort of weather?

I get really anxious about any upcoming spells of heat and find myself checking the weather obsessively.

I’m worried what life will be like for my kids in 20 years time (perhaps they’ll all move to Scotland!).

How can I rationalise this? Am I going totally mad?

And the French are being really sensible about this - some places altering work days from 6am till 1pm, closing schools for the hottest days.

But if anyone in England suggests we should alter our behaviour, a thousand people chorus 'everyone's gone soft . . . it's just a few warm days . . . why would schools close?'.

The English stiff upper lip brigade is so tiresome, and so 1940's.

It’s up to individual heads according to risk assessment.

In 2022 when it reached over 40 degrees my school closed for a day but my friend’s didn’t as although in the same LEA her school has a greater proportion of vulnerable children so her head seemed risk to be greater at home than in school.

We’re lucky we still get cool evenings here. Looking at next week it says 30 during the day but chance of rain on two of those days then down to 15 at night. Some countries dip to about 25 at night if you’re lucky…

If you haven't tried them, can i suggest cool cloths. Can get them on amazon and I thought I'd got nothing to lose trying them. They really did help me keep a bit cooler.

I love the heat. I should have been born in a hot country.

But I'm also a secondary school teacher, so next week will be hell on earth.

Fans do bugger all in a room with 30 kids. If you can even get one. Most of us buy our own.

They'll still run around playing football at lunch, so will be sweaty and flustered and hot. But they won't have bothered to re fill water bottles, so they'll all want to go and do that during the lesson.
Every, single, one will ask me why the windows aren't open (they will be).
None of them will want to do work because 'it's too hot to work today'.

Can't wait!

I can wear a bikini and swim in the sea on a hot European holiday.

Wearing a bikini to work in a school is frowned upon somewhat. As is a lunchtime cocktail.

Because you spend the whole day in a swimsuit relaxing by a pool, then evenings in a room that has AC and European design that is built to handle hot temps. Surely thats obvious! Plus many european cities have a society and rhythm that accounts for the weather.

Cities in England on the other hand are not equipped in any way for the heat, some areas run out of water, the concrete massively heats up the area on top of the effects of El Nino we are already seeing this year, pollution accelerates those effects, overcrowding further increases the temp via body heat. Traffic jams and public transport without air con make the situation unbearable. If you are a small child or old person, or you're just sensitive to the heat, there's a real risk of heatstroke.

Also because we aren't used to this heat we have poor sun awareness, so kids and adults jumping into a local lake or whatever without acclimatising run the risk of heart failure (shock of temp difference), they wont have stuff like rehydration tabs, neck fans, large water bottles as part of their standard stuff they carry about, school continue outdoor PE or whatever...and it can get way more difficult for all those reasons.

A lot of cheap holidays in Europe do not have air conditioning. we always check this when booking.

Over the last couple of years I have started getting the things you’ve listed, I used to love summer and now I dread it. Do you have a condition that causes them? I have had various blood tests, hormones all fine so not menopausal, so I have put it down to hotter summers but other people don’t seem to have these same reactions to the heat

The sun has finally come out here and I can take the winter clothes off. It's reached 21 in my living room and presumably hotter out which I got will discover shortly. Umbrella out sun cream in.

There is stuff we can do about climate change. Pile on the pressure to drive it up the political agenda. And if you don't like migrants now, wait until India becomes uninhabitable in a few years.

Im in south London and Im not in the least bit anxious about the weather. I’ll be working as usual this week, and will be in a couple of schools which aren’t air conditioned but I’m sure we will all survive for a few days. I love British weather and the extremes we have, and whilst it’s going to be very hot for the next few days, at least people won’t moan as they so often do that we haven’t had a summer this year. The extreme heat is only expected to last for a few days and Im really enjoying it. Mind you, Ive got a huge bag of ironing to do this afternoon, so I think I’ll need to get the fan out of the back of the wardrobe. 😆😆

850 schools in France are staying closed on Monday by order of the ministry of education

Heat kills175,000 people a year in Europe

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1152766

No I don’t worry about things I can’t control.

I hope the schools don’t close, as a lone parent who relies on wrap around to work I need them open! My work (frontline NHS) won’t be sending us home, the show must go on regardless of the weather!

It’s normal, but the best thing you can do is to have a plan for how you’ll keep yourself and the house cool, and that should help.

I am dreading the coming week - day of interviews with no air con anyone?After a sweaty train and tube journey.

I’ve ordered a mini hot water bottle which I’m going to freeze and just keep on my lap or something! And I’ve got a mini fan which I will have pointing at just me, it’s surprisingly good (although pointless if the room temp is above 35°C):

It’s small, folds flat and is quite powerful
https://amzn.eu/d/08AkTd61

I have had everything open today and it's 28 outside and 23 inside. I'm planning on washing my mats in the week and think I may get the carpet washer out and do all of them on Tuesday as it will air out well in the hot weather

I am unwell currently and just thankful that I will hopefully feel better by the time the heat hits. Can't imagine having to deal with sickness bug in 39c temps.

It makes me feel anxious in the sense that my brain doesn't work as well in the heat, and then I get slower in work and behind with my workload, and that just adds a whole layer of stress to life.

I'll still be working ( retail) , hopefully all of you wanting school/ workplaces/offices closed will stay away from shops. It will be warm enough without lugging boxes of stock to keep shelves topped up. No air-conditioning where I work. 😉

Just remembered, 1976, primary school, we had lessons outside, under trees in the grounds. 😁

We used to do that in the 80s too. And I'm pretty sure i used to teach 6th form outside 20 years ago.

I did acknowledge that it was not environmentally sound! No bans in West Sussex yet.

And not watering the grass just yet

I have lived in the South East 25yrs and its got a lot worse last decade I agree. I am moving to the north west soon, and will be glad to be cooler, though many parts of UK had some uncomfortable days this spring and summer.

I must be living on another planet, hot weather so far has rubbish for years. I remember full on proper summers of sun from June to end of August, now I get rain and cloud for the majority.