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?

Have you ever been on the London underground in summer. It's a horrendous hot, humid, sweat pit. It's incredible impacted by outside weather, not sure why, but when it's hot, the Tube is utterly grim!!!

It's an estimation that they were 'heat related' deaths but no attempt to explain exactly what that means accompanies the statement. I'm a bit sceptical of the numbers frankly, but if it was 4.5k people, 3k of them were apparently over 65, so they probably had age related health conditions anyway.

What is clear is that 2/3rds of the people who had allegedly 'heat related' deaths didn't die on the tube on the way to work because they were retired.

And I'm going to hazard a guess that the other 1/3 who were under 65 didn't die on the way to work on the bus or tube either.

My sons school never shuts and it just has - closed Wednesday and Thursday

I was thinking this as well. It’s unbearable during rush hour when it’s regular weather. Bank - Central Line at 5.30pm on a heatwave does not bear thinking about!

Oh phew!!

Just seen some kids at school on the news. Their feet in cold water in trays Get some air con FFS

Edited due to update.

To those saying people in hot countries manage - I am from a hot country. All homes have fans, plenty of ventilation and are made with materials that disperse heat. Wealthier homes have air-conditioning. School holidays are longer in the summer when heat is at it's peak and the government does not hesitate to start holidays sooner if it gets hot earlier than expected. No one who can help it leaves the house between 12 and 5 and those who can't help it - the homeless for example - well thousands of them die every year.

Another one who thinks they know better. We have had just one event in this country where the temperatures reached 40 degrees. It was in 2022. It was unprecedented. Scientists were in tears that it had happened so early in the century because clearly we are much further into the climate emergency than was hoped. We are about to experience it again on Wednesday and Thursday.

HOT DAYS 20 YEARS AGO WOULD BARELY HAVE MADE 30 DEGREES.

I remember 23c being classed as a heatwave when i was a kid in the 80s

Agreed!

Also simultaneously calling posters sexist, whilst being sexist!

Her company don’t allow it, she therefore can’t work from
home.

It's infuriating
im nhs and expected to wear a heavy tunic
Scrub tops aren't allowed because according to management "it doesn't look professional "
Meanwhile manager are lala ing about the office in their floaty dresses and sandals.
Makes me SO CROSS

A number of colleagues who grew up in hot countries say that they find the heat in the UK much worse. This is because of the lack of air-conditioning in residential buildings and public transport. Us British people advised them how to handle the heat over here.

Surely it's OK if the workplace is air conditioned. A quick commute shouldn't be any worse than what we experience on holiday - day on the beach etc. I'm waiting for the air con to be fixed in my concrete truck at work. It's always at least 5 degrees hotter than outside and I'm in full ppe - long sleeves, heavy safety trousers etc. It was 30°C in there today and Thursday will be a whole ten degrees.

Not that it's a competition. I defo won't be spending ten hours in it at 40C if they don't fix it, but I wouldn't be worried about commuting to an air conditioned office. What do you think builders etc do when it's hot?

Also, a lot of countries set up for hot weather AREN'T coping either. In places like India which are used to Hot weather, people are really struggling to cope with the absolutely Boiling weather that's not become the norm. Even the South of France, which is set up for heat a lot more than the UK is having issues, alcohol being banned from street festivals etc. We are used to English weather, so what would be the norm for the South of France 15 years ago is difficult. The south of France is struggling with their new normal too.

Cool Cant wait to see the reports from GWR about ppl boarding the tube in their bikinis 🙄

The trouble is heat stress is made worse by prolonged heat - one of the big factors in determining what the impact will be in these events is whether it cools down at night, are people's bodies going to get any break? If you are just going from really hot place to hot place and then not cooling down at night, that is going to have a bigger impact on your body. Some people have air con at work or at home, lots don't.

Here are a couple of articles, if you are interested?

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-heat-and-health

https://climate.copernicus.eu/heat-stress-what-it-and-how-it-measured

Do they….really!?

But OP isn’t at risk in her air conditioned office, it’s travelling to and from work that she thinks her life is at risk. It’s not that she thinks it’s uncomfortable, she thinks it’s at risk. So why should a train driver risk his life?

Apparently now she can…

Excess deaths due to heat 1,500 last year according to government figures, without any red weather warnings. Heat can kill.

I don't think it's reasonable for office staff with air con to have a day off on the off chance a train breaks down.

It's the teachers dealing with 30 kids in a non air conditioned classroom, the builders and roofers and the roadworkers in full PPE I feel sorry for!

I'll be at work as usual, probably wearing my bloody winter clothes as the air con will be set to sodding 16 and it'll be baltic in there.

An idiot from Forest School Training Essex has posted a video on facebook of how to make 'earth candles' on a woodland floor this week. Hot wax poured into a hollow in the ground and set alight - to celebrate midsummer. When people have posted to say it's irresponsible they have literally doubled down and said 'it's not' and they are going to go ahead and make fires on the woodland floor.

Honestly - the stupidity of some people is astonishing.

Because doing the commute to work is just like spending a whole day on the beach or 10-12 hours in a 30C truck in heavy safety clothes. 🙄

It's only ever people in air conditioned offices that seem to moan. All the blokes I saw onsite today were just cracking on with it. Some looked like they needed a bit of suncream but none of them were catastrophising. And they were doing manual labour.

I've just seen an article (not read it yet) about the impact on women in India, where schools are closed for weeks or even months now because of the heat and kids have to switch back to remote learning (and mums are having to do most of the supervising to the detriment of their jobs)