Work not taking red alert seriously

[Founderflower]

Why are some people not taking the red weather warning seriously? Where I am it’s 39 degrees on Wed/ Thur but ‘feels like’ 42 according to BBC.

At work they’re expecting everyone in - the office is air conditioned, so fine, but we’re central London so everyone needs to schlep in on public transport.

Red means a danger to life and not just for vulnerable people. Some people who are healthy will die because of the weather. There’s warnings of power outages and transport failures. So what happens if we get stuck on a broken down underground train?

I KNOW other countries see these temps regularly. But they are prepared for dealing with it. England is not and it fucks up. I don’t want a heart attack from sitting in 48 degree heat on a train. I’m really stressed out!

If it were a red warning around severe wind or rain or flooding they wouldn’t be telling everyone to come in! So why is heat seen differently?

Either the level of stupidity and ignorance in here is shocking or the bots are having a good day

That sounds awful! Is it actually safe
dor them to work in that heat ?

In 2022 I was working in a primary school in a class of 30 children, 4 of us adults and no air con when it hit 40°c. We had the hottest classroom in the school due to the amount of windows we had. I, including the other 3 adults and all 30 kids survived. It’s a couple of days 🙄

I agree I take red warnings seriously, don’t know why this is different from a winter or storm red warning.

Because if we accept that red warnings for heat are valid, it’s harder to pretend that climate change is a hoax. Much better to laugh it off as people making a fuss about nothing.

If she means the underground in London, then it's way way way hotter than the surface. Its mental. I lived there 15 yrs and remember the residual summer heat taking ages to leave the underground, was so unbearably hot and the idea of being on a stuck tube in this heat is actually nightmare fuel 😱

Jeez, you have air con and you are still making all this fuss?
Just go to work, you flaky article.

Yep it was just a few days Gaslight much
During the summer of 2022, the UK experienced five distinct heatwave periods ranging from 3 to 16 days in length, which culminated in a historic national temperature record of (40.3^{\circ }\text{C}). 1, 2]
According to the UK Health Security Agency, the five heatwave episodes included:
Episode 1: 4 days (June 16 to June 19)
Episode 2: 16 days (July 10 to July 25), which included the most intense 2-day period of Level 4 extreme heat (July 18 and July 19)
Episode 3: 7 days (July 30 to August 5)
Episode 4: 10 days (August 8 to August 17)
Episode 5: 3 days (August 23 to August 25)
The UK experienced four distinct, relatively short-lived heatwaves during the summer of 2025, each lasting between 5 to 6 days. While these events were brief, they occurred throughout the season and resulted in the warmest overall UK summer on record. 1, 2, 3]
Breakdown of the 2025 heatwave events:
Heatwave 1 (Third week of June): Officially declared in mid-June, lasting about five days in central and eastern England before breaking with thunderstorms.
Heatwave 2 (Late June - Early July): This event lasted about six days for parts of Yorkshire and the Humber and five days in the East. A longer, more intense spell of this heatwave affected London and southern areas, peaking at 34.7°C between June 23 and July 2.
Heatwave 3 & 4 (July and August): Additional, intermittent heatwaves occurred during these months, pushing the overall summer average for the UK to a record-breaking 16.1°C. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Perhaps you need to think of the bigger picture? Decisions are made and warnings issued on the basis of likely impact and everyone should be doing their own risk assessment based on that information. I am glad that you were all OK, but not everyone will be - see the post up thread about the Surrey hospital already declaring a critical incident.

Has your school done anything in the intervening four years to make sure that conditions will be more comfortable this time round?

It’s a difficult one because each individual is different. Some people can plough on & be perfectly ok but I guess others would struggle. And the issue on sites is they’re generally self employed so they don’t want to take days off if they can avoid it.

For the person asking if I can shut the site down - no I can’t. Contrary to popular belief there is no legal maximum temperature for construction workers (or any other workers) in the UK.

Unfortunately,a lot of people in the UK don't see extreme hot weather as dangerous. The media doesn't help,with the ingrained attitude that very hot weather is fantastic. I think it stems from the fact that for a lot of the year we experience cold,damp overcast weather so when we do get a spell of exceptionally hot weather,the media thinks that it is a cause for celebration.

@Founderflower glad your organisation has seen sense

The Tube is terrible in hot weather.

Have you never travelled on the London Underground? The OP’s concern here is valid. It gets much hotter there than above ground.

But that isnt the norm anymore Why are ppl taking so long to catch up?

I agree. I certainly wouldn't entertain going on the underground once the temperature hits 30 degrees as it is usually 6 or 7 degrees hotter on an underground train. My biggest dread would be a train grinding to a halt for any length of time.

And Thursday will be worse. I remember seeing an interview saying the tube is like a stone oven - it retains heat which it can’t lose overnight, so it builds.

The last time we hit 40, did the tube stay open? I wasn’t in the country that week. Given how unionised tube drivers are, I can’t see them working in 45 degree heat

The air-con in the office itself isn't the point. She's talking about everyone having to travel to work in central London by public transport. Have you tried doing that during a Met Office Red Alert for heat?

This. It is pretty unpleasant in your average summer, unbearable and dangerous in the heat.

I fainted on the tube once due to heat . I came around to find one chap holding me up and another carrying my brief case . Personally I would not entertain the tube in these high temperatures.

Official advice is to only travel if absolutely necessary on Weds and Thurs (in certain areas) now. I’ll be wfh those days for sure now.

Good to see proactive advice rather than last minute updates!

https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/rail-passengers-travelling-to-from-or-within-extreme-heat-zones-urged-to-only-travel-if-absolutely-necessary-during-record-heatwave

You can't have ever been on the tube in the summer.

No, it's not a small part of the day, and taking a cold drink isn't enough. Have you travelled on the Tube during extreme heat?

Also, some rail companies are advising people not to travel unless necessary. It's no fun sitting in a train that is stuck because of heat-buckled rails, or a trackside fire caused by the heat - the latter happened to me and we spent two hours in a train standing in blazing sunshine. I was in my 20s and fit at the time, but I didn't feel too well by the time we finally started moving.

Its going to be bloody hot but be sensible.
Look after the aged and vulnerable but people just need to use common sense.
The heat will be a danger to healthy people if they choose to strip off and sit out in it for hours but most adults should have the sense not to do that.
Are you suggesting that all shops should close, public transport should not run, schools and call centres should not be staffed, bins should not be emptied, hospital staff should refuse to work, office workers should stay home, tube drivers should refuse to work, doctors and their reception staff should not work. Get a grip. Be grateful there is air con in the office.

Forget summer, the tube is hot and humid without a heatwave. It’s not an enjoyable experience without highs of 39 degrees. I honestly think some people have never used it during peak commuting times when they’re saying such silly things.

Found the middle manager