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?

@bluewanda i always think that if they claim to love it so much why don’t they put their central hearing up to 40 degrees in the Winter.

It can help to channel climate anxiety into action to pressure those in power for proper action. Parents for Future and Mothers Rise Up are two groups I'm aware of

I'm in the 'meh it's SUMMER, of course it's hot! '🙄camp. But I have to say, when I was at school/a younger adult (1970s and 1980s,) the heat was never like this. When the heat was around 25-27C, that was classed as proper hot, and if it went up to 30C it was like! 😩

Temperatures of nearly 40C in JUNE were unheard of. People of a certain age keep bleating on about 'Summer of '76' but there have been equally hot and long summers since then, and summers that are MORE hot. Last year broke many records.

I wonder if, in about 40 years, people who are children/teenagers now will keep blathering on about The Summer of '25! 😆 I mean, all the people who remember Summer of '76 will be long gone by then!

Am I anxious about it getting hotter....... and hotter......? No. (Not yet!) But I can understand it if some people are getting anxious...

@Cookserelladefinitely need air conditioning now makes it bearable

I mean, there ARE things we can do. Probably one of the most important things we can do is NOT vote for parties like Reform who will be an absolute disaster for any progress to do with managing climate change.

Farage is a cunt, btw.

This is really interesting. Our summers often are rubbish aren’t they.

I think what worries me is the increasing frequency of these extremely hot spells. I feel the weather used to be more consistent, and ‘hot’ meant 30+, not almost 40. We’re looking at 3 consecutive days of 35+ where I live which feels pretty brutal, but that’s after a whole week of 28+, which means we’re starting this heatwave with the house already very warm (it’s 25 in our coolest room currently).

I cannot recall a time ive ever put my heating on in June. Just a few weeks ago, I had to as my house was dipping below 16c and outside was 6c. We had hail etc.
We had nearly 40c when it was covid and that was about 3 days worth. We haven't seen those temperatures since. We haven't had 30 here yet. North West.

I was raised in Suffolk and even friends and family have said its not been that great there.

But we can’t rely on any government to put in place anything that is going to work

look at the stick Ed Milliband gets

no one wants their lives to be impacted in the slightest yet will moan about the price of coffee whilst in their plastic grass garden with SUV parked out front, throwing steaks on the BBQ.

Things are breaking down it’s just a case of if there is one big fuck off snap that blows everything up at once or if we can watch this car crash in slow motion whilst scrambling to adapt in our tiny spheres, not giving a hoot about anything else.

I don’t regret having children, but I also can’t express the relief that they can get EU passports and move legally if they decide. One of our main pieces of advice is pick a career that is desired by other countries whatever that is. Keep up your languages.

when it gets so hot electricity wires snap not sure how air conditioning will help

it’s impossible to have infrastructure especially as old as the UK’s that works in both extremes, when the Gulf Stream collapses we could easily go to arctic winters as well

if it was just a movement of steady climates, so say the UK became like the south of France, we could adapt, grow different crops, predict and manage, but the fact it can be dry one spring, a wash out the next, mild wet summers or clay baking heat - few societies can adapt to this, but especially one as “I won’t be told what to do” as us

My brother works as a gardener and is middle aged with various health problems....really hoping he looks after himself in the heat.
Thats more my worry TBH, specifics like how the elderly and infirm will cope. That people arent silly in water and getting themselves into trouble and that people arent walking dogs in it (and animals in general are ok).

Then at the back of my mind is the issue of climate change....I think it will destroy modern life TBH but I also think I wont be alive for the worst of it!

Dd volunteers in a gardens. I have said for Tue to do a half day only and finish at 11.30.

I'm worried that the unpredictable weather means less available food, higher price rises and more misery! But I'm a known glass empty kinda person...

I live oop norf so it doesn't usually get that hot up here. Mid 20s is classed as a heatwave. I worry a bit, mainly for the wildlife.

I admit that I am not looking forward to next week, when it will reach a high of 38 here. I have to stay indoors and only emerge at 07.30 or after 20.00. I might have to cancel various events. I have a good fan going now ... I should have installed solar panels... must try to be positive!

It us regularly hitting 50 in India and Pakistan. Large parts are going to be uninhabitable in 10 years and their billion + population will have to move north. If Reform thinks migration is bad now they'd do better to adopt a climate mitigation policy pronto.

Also voting with where you spend your £££. Not supporting climate wrecking companies with where you shop or where you invest or have your pension.

It is forecast to be 35 degrees here this week. We are considering moving further north as it will only get worse

Our emissions are miniscule compared to other countries. Unfortunately, we can't change their energy policies so it'll only get worse. Even net zero won't make any difference. What we need to do is decide whether or not we want to survive as a country.

Our emissions are miniscule in part because we outsource making polluting shit we don't need to poor countries

Do yourself a wee favour and go as early as you can, find a nice 4/5 star hotel nearby with a cool lounge and sit with a coffee. Then change and so your face in the posh air-con’d loos. Also buy a handheld fan and some make up fix spray.

Exactly. Emissions per capita in the UK are far higher than the average person on this planet, and much higher than the 'official' records will show due to outsourcing. Think of all the crap made in China that is consumed here. Yet the emissions from the production of it will be attributed to China..

I am very, very concerned about climate change- was active in Extinction Rebellion for example.

I still try to enjoy the hot weather while it's here, as I believe you should try and make the best of every situation. Mind you, I live in the South West, which is considerably cooler.

A red heat warning has just been issued for parts of the UK. Temperatures could hit 40 degrees, which is totally unprecedented for June.

‘bUt It’S jUSt SuMmER!!’ 🤪

I live in Scotland and have found it can be too hot for me in recent years! Try living in a top floor flat where it is 24 °C inside before 8 am!

I can just about survive over 24 °C outside if on holiday/not working and can hide in an air conditioned cafe. Dreading this Summer as our work air con is buggered and tight management won't replace it (probably as they are never actually in it now).

Don't know how people can exist in London/SE etc where it is always at least10 °C hotter. Our grass has only died 3 times in the last 10 years or so. I am worried about climate change and the increasingly extreme weather not to mention the AMOC breaking down.

Have several large trees nearby which lower urban temperature a bit.

Definitely!

Coming from Queensland resident, if you can afford it, buy the aircon for the bedroom. In nearly 40 degree heat nothing else will come close to touching it. Here we have summers that last almost 6 months and it’s a sweaty, stagnant heat with high humidity. I run my aircon on dry mode at 21 degrees every day in summer otherwise I wouldn’t sleep (we have solar thankfully). The planet is getting hotter and more countries are starting to feel the effects. Here in Australia we cycle between devastating bushfires and drought, to cyclones and whole states flooding. It’s scary to see those temps in the UK every summer now.