Summer 1976

[SteviesNicks]

So we keep hearing on the news that we are set to break the records for the highest June temperature in set in 1976

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_British_Isles_heatwave

Were you around during that summer?
What are your memories of it?
I was 2 so don't remember a thing!

Yes, we moved house to be closer to family. The garden was full of huge, juicy raspberries so to me 1976 is year of the raspberries. My brother is same age as you OP and can’t remember anything.

Moving day was in July and very very hot!

I turned 13 that summer. I remember getting detention at school because we were all on the playing field throwing cups of cold water at each other.

I was 3 and although I have a few memories from then, I don't remember the heatwave.
My mum remembers it as she was pregnant with my sister and said she just spent a lot of time on the beach.

I was in secondary school in 1976 and remember the summer weather going on and on throughout the summer term and the holidays. In school we were allowed to leave our blazers off which made it more bearable and if it was practical, some of our lessons were outside in the shade of trees.
Last summer felt comparable to 1976 for the length of time it lasted.

I was born September that year. My mother has mentioned that it was a bit of hot summer to be pregnant!

I was 8 that year - it was amazing! A long hot summer. I remember the news kept showing dry reservoirs with the mud all cracked into patterns at the bottom of them.

I was 8. It was a long hot summer. We went to Brittany and there were hundreds of ladybirds iirc.

I was 5.
I remember a very happy and idyllic seaside family holiday on the South coast with a huge swarm of ladybirds - they were absolutely everywhere.

It was hot and dry. I was 14, lived in London and I remember getting horrendous Chickenpox that summer, so that dealt with a fortnight off school (although Mum got my work sent home) and spending a considerable amount of time sitting in a cool bath, to deal with the heat and spots, forget the medical wisdom of that, you do what works! The sun helped with the healing, plus we had so many swimming pools, lidos to use, that's where we spent free time and no sessions for groups, you wanted a swim, then off you went, for as long as you wanted. Doors and windows open, never worried about being burgled, knew our neighbours really well, people sat outside chatting at night, kids ran around half naked with makeshift paddling pools set up... Victorian school building, marble floors, so dealt well with the heat, offices, well Dad worked outside, so changed his hours, Mum in old style low offices, again, windows, construction that seemed to be less sweaty box than some I encountered in my working life (I used to visit Mum at work). We didn't carry water bottles, but had drinking water taps at school and even the parks had drinking fountains, which we happily used!! We just got on with it, no choice, but there were definitely less people in London, parks were our regular picnic spots and everybody used them happily. Attitudes were very different too imo, a very different approach than today, more pragmatic. It was hot, we made the most of it.

I was 3, and it was my first memory of what a summer was.

Needless to say the summer of 1977 was a huge disappointment

I was taking my CSE and O levels that year , so had a lovely long summer
I’ve never been so brown , as we didn’t have much to do with sunscreen back then

I was 6. I remember going with my mum to a water pipe at the end of the road with buckets to get water.

I was a young mother in 1976. It was really hard keeping my baby cool. The hot weather went on for weeks and weeks.

We had an invasion of ladybirds due to the heat. Everywhere was really dry and we had a drought.

I was 17 attending college. We came back from Easter holidays and weather was warm. I never wore a coat until end of September. I didn't find it over hot, just day after day of dry sunny weather.
We lived in Surrey and there wasn't any water shortages, although all grass was dried out. Nobody had fans or air conditioning. The fashion was knee length skirts, vest tops, cheesecloth shirts and flip flops from Woolworth (25p). Sundays were spent at the outdoor pool. I was vegetarian just eating fruit and salads. Fruit was bought from greengrocer, in brown bags, loads of plums that year, followed by bumper crop of apples on my grandparents' trees.
I worked part time in a supermarket. I just wore my underwear under the awful nylon uniform.

From what I remember, we never drank an awful lot, maybe an extra 3 glasses of water or squash a day.
1975 was also a good summer.
September came and the temperature dropped and that was that!

Sunburn, being smothered in Calamine lotion and picking off the peeling skin later. Yum!

I was a tween. I remember going for a picnic with my parents, wearing a new summer dress with long sleeves and feeling ill from overheating. But that's the only time I remember it being too hot. We lived near the sea, so we used to get coastal breezes. And our house was quite shady so we'd just loll around in dark rooms, reading Jackie magazine. Happy days.

I was 13. Id been to Florida on holiday in the May half term & came back up the heatwave, then went to France in August (it all sounds very posh, it wasn't!). I was as brown as a berry (no sunblock in those days) & I'm sure some of the sun damage I have now was caused that summer.
I remember the grass being brown & lakes drying up. Funnily enough I don't particularly remember being hot at night, we didn't have any fans or anything in the house.

I was early secondary age. That was when I first realised I hate really hot weather.

I was at junior school and mainly remember all the signs by taps telling you not to waste water! Apparently over 700 people died because of the heat, but I obviously didn't know anything about that then.

Same here! Our poor mums!

I was 10. Was very brown for school photo in autumn term.
Mostly though I wasn't well and a locum GP finally diagnosed asthma and prescribed inhalers. Apparently I wouldn't really eat but watermelon was acceptable.
Half a brick in all the loo cisterns, very shallow baths and water piped out from used bath to garden.
I don't remember, but it started raining about 2 days after minister for drought was appointed (according to DM, don't know if true).

I remember our summer holiday.
3-weeks caravanning in Devon, we were all so tanned. Went swimming every day.

I also remember the first rain.
I was in town and everyone came out of the shops to stand in the open air and get wet. Very short shower which was over in a few minutes.

i was 17/18, living in a rural dairy farming area. The sun just went on and on, initially it was great but we ended up with standpipes in the local towns - if you used a bucket full of water down the loo you had to go into the street to refill the bucket.

In my village there were several farms so our water stayed on but we were very very careful about using it. I remember hearing the cows hungry in the fields because the grass was all gone, and farmers worrying about feeding them and some having to be slaughtered. The local heathland caught fire and had to be put out with beaters, all the locals joined in.

It was a lovely carefree time, all spent outdoors on adventures with my pals after school and during the holidays. Don't remember feeling overwhelmed by it, but that's because we were young and carefree!

Does this mean that global warming and climate change is 50 years on the go now? 😊

I was 13. We were lucky and lived in Gower so every weekend and many evenings were spent on the beach, swimming in the sea.

I got heat exhaustion and fainted in school and the doctor suggested that I ate boiled eggs with lots of salt.