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?

One of my children has been through chemo and it's hellish and gruelling and I wish no child ever had to go through it. But your post is either missing the point of being a bit manipulative. The entire point is for people like the OP to stay home, to clear the roads and parking lots and transport for people like your son's medical staff, to make their lives easier while they do essential work. Why make them fight for resources unnecessarily?

Wishing your son and family all the very best.

We do have red heat alerts in other parts of the world you know. I've yet to hear anyone say we should all stay at home.

I'm glad your employer changed their minds OP! My work has said something similar (ie no non-essential travel, work from home if possible). Travel is expected to be severely disrupted so people might not even make it into work if they try, not everyone can drive to work. And because of our long day lengths in the UK, it's hot until very late.

Amazing that so many people don't understand the difference between essential and non essential. A surgeon travelling into work is essential as they obviously can't do surgery from home. An office worker travelling into work is often not essential. And if all the office workers travel in during a red alert heatwave, just to show solidarity with all the key workers who have no choice, the tube and other public transport will be busier and therefore hotter. Benefitting nobody. The "I'm suffering so you should suffer too" argument doesn't make sense.

Some posters are just being rather idiotically contrary now.

The OP isn't saying everyone should stay at home. She's saying that anyone who can do their job just as efficiently from home should stay at home. Which makes public transport less busy and potentially a little cooler for everyone, if I was a key worker I'd actually prefer the office workers to stay at home.

Making people travel to work for no reason is the thing that's under question.

Will you be paying your builder to not work today because it's too hot for him, or because he'll have to travel in the heat? Of course you won't- despite being his de facto employer that day.

Yeah, I will. I've told people working on my house not to come in today, tomorrow or Thursday and, yes, I am paying them.

You've not looked far then. France has closed a thousand schools and told non-essential workers to stay home.

Nobody is saying we should all stay at home.
Stop with the hyperbole.

It’s astonishing (but sadly characteristic of Mumsnet more widely these days).

Not been watching the news in France or Germany then?

People like you are the ones causing problems for the emergency services by stubbornly going business as usual and ignoring warnings.

Of course people who can work from home should do so in a heatwave.

I don't see any point in having to struggle in public transport (the London tube is hellish in the heat for example) and struggle some more in workplaces that might not have air conditioning just for the sake of it!

Also it looks like some schools and nurseries are closing early or completely for two days so it helps parents to have flexibility.

I never understand the masochism or envy (if they can't work from home themselves) that some people insist on displaying on these threads.

Go forbid that people's welfare could come first...

Why do schools in Vietnam close at 10 degrees C?

People do not, in fact, "just get on with it" in other hot climates. They get sick and die.

Research from Vietnam shows a significant increase in adverse health incidents as temperatures rise: "This is the first study in Vietnam to evaluate the effects of heat on residents' health living in eight ecoregions, representing Vietnam's geographical and climatic patterns. The findings enhance the evidence that high temperatures and heatwaves are associated with increased hospitalization risk, especially infectious diseases. The differences in size effects among regions suggest the importance to identify heat-vulnerable regions and localspecific adaptation strategies to protect residents from extreme temperature conditions".

Hotter countries make their train tracks to a higher stress free temperature than ours and some eg Spain are still having problems with buckling because they’re getting heatwaves more than the rails can cope with too. We can’t make ours to a higher temperature because then you run into issues with fracturing in the winter. There are other things you can do but they are very expensive. Lots of countries with both very hot and cold weather struggle with infrastructure. The roads in Uzbekistan are abysmal for example because they’re in a constant cycle of melting in summer and being damaged by salt and ice in winter.

Interesting, thank you for explaining.

If 40c is a typical summer day to you then you'll be more acclimated to the heat. I lived in the subtropics for a few years, when I came back to the UK I was much more able to deal with the heatwaves than I am now. We've had temperatures in the low 20s for weeks (dropping quite low at night), going from that to 40c during the day and over 20c at night is obviously going to be a shock.

Our infrastructure is also not suited to such high temperatures in the UK, our rail services will be highly disrupted with many trains cancelled. Non essential workers insisting on travelling to work just means more people trying to squeeze on the small number of trains that are able to run. It's just not sensible.

Any country experiencing very rare weather is going to struggle. When I lived in the subtropics, everything shut down when we had freak freezing temperatures for three days, schools were shutting etc. Whereas for the UK that would have been a normal winters day.

The difference with other countries is they are either built for it or acclimatised. We are not. Our country does not yet have the infrastructure to cope with extreme weather conditions including high heat. London is especially serious with the underground transport system which will reach higher than the temp forecast. If trains get stuck, which they do, it could cause casualties. I’ve already mentioned earlier that trains into London are travelling at reduced speed currently. You should only be travelling if you absolutely have to.

stay cool and safe everyone.

There’s gigs of 35,000 people still going ahead in the red warning areas while the warnings are in place which I think is mad. With restrictions about how much water you can bring in (500ml) and some bullshit about you can bring in empty refillable water bottles because they have water stations. Because sure you have enough filling stations for 35,000 people to stand in the heat for hours and fill those up regularly enough. Not to mention likelihood of trains being cancelled because the tracks melt and people then stranded in the heat far from home.

People in other hot countries die en masse from the heat. Thousands of people die a day in India from excess heat: https://www.carbonbrief.org/daily-brief/indias-3400-heat-deaths-uks-100bn-net-zero-economy-wildfires-costliest-ever/

Dubai pretty much everything is indoors and everyone** drives from place to place in massive air-conditioned cars. You can wander down to the beach/pool for some insta pics than go straight back into a cooled down space. Or lie in a shaded area of the pool in cool water. It's not my idea of a good time. But some people like it. Places like Thailand and Indonesia also shot schools when it gets too hot (this article from 2 years ago) to answer the "they just get in with it" posters https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2787209/suspend-classes-on-very-hot-days-education-official

**Obviously not everyone. The manual workers etc usually just have to cope or die.

They're offering half price water apparently. How generous of them!

albeit their temperatures are 47-48 degrees

The bbc had a good article today about why the heat often feels worse here and can be dangerous due to the humidity. Our sweat doesn't evaporate as fast making it harder to keep cool when humidity is high.

I rather doubt a MSc in weather modelling gives them any special insight whatsoever into the physiological effects of heat on the human body.

The fact that you would even think that, let alone post it, makes one realise your opinion is based on partisan thoughts, not facts.

Because 35,000 people in a small space can definitely queue up to buy half price water multiple times. I find that really obnoxious. I don’t believe the emergency services will be able to get people out easily if they faint and this crap of putting the responsibility on the gig goer in 35+ heat is absolutely offensive.
Theres no shade, they won’t be able to bring in sunshades or sufficient water and won’t be able to queue safely in the heat for ages to get water even if they wanted to. Not to mention all the other stuff that people might do at gigs that might cloud their judgements or they might not have enough life experience of hot weather to be sensible until it’s too late. They should cancel mass gatherings of 35,000 people automatically during red warnings