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?

The surface temperature has a direct effect on the temperature in the London underground tunnels. Huge amounts of air are drawn in from station surface level and pushed out of ventilation tunnels by the piston effect of movement of trains and mechanical fans.

I wouldn't go. My employer have said to work from home if travelling by public transport.

Leave early before it's busy and hot / get a taxi or bus if your anxious about trains, even better walk if you can or e-scooter / bike. Air conditioning all day you will be cooler in the hottest hours if the day.

My partner has a job interview in London tomorrow which they’ve offered to reschedule to next week which he gladly accepted.

i work in an operating theatre and 4 of us (including me) had to tap out of our surgeries today due to feeling sick/hot/faint including myself which has never happened in 10 years. Our coolers can’t cope with keeping us cool. When you have 4 bodies in close proximity around a patient who has warming blankets and hot operating lights and wearing PPE. It’s not ideal.

You can call in sick. If you choose not to that’s your decision,

How old are you?

Do you realise that you are risking heart failure?

The short time spent traveling to and from would make little difference. How do you think the rest of the world handles warm weather? (which us much hotter than the temps you're getting) They don't shut everything down just because it gets hot.

Of course I do, yes, What on earth is the world coming to when one hot day means the end of the world.

@Founderflower I agree with you.

The amount of people saying, "How do people in hot countries survive?" shows they don't really understand why heat affects different places differently.

The weather warning isn't just because it's hot. A "feels like" temperature of over 40°C means the heat is severe enough to affect people's health, public services and even transport and infrastructure.

The biggest factor people overlook is humidity.

Right now, much of the UK is sitting at around 70% humidity. That's relatively high, and it makes it much harder for your body to cool itself down because sweat can't evaporate as efficiently.

Compare that to many hot and dry parts of the world, where humidity can be closer to 20%. In those conditions, sweat evaporates much more quickly, helping your body regulate its temperature. The air temperature might be the same, but the experience can be completely different.

That's why a 35°C day in the UK can feel far more uncomfortable than people expect. It isn't just the temperature that matters, it's how much moisture is in the air.

Many hotter countries are also built for heat. Homes often have better ventilation, tiled floors, shutters, ceiling fans and air conditioning. People are used to living and working in those conditions.

The UK is built for the opposite. Our homes are designed to keep heat in during winter. Once the heat gets into the house, it can stay there well into the night, making it difficult to cool down or sleep. It's not uncommon for indoor temperatures to remain close to 30°C long after the sun has gone down.

People also forget how long our summer days are. We're getting 16 hours or more of daylight, meaning buildings, roads and trains are absorbing heat for much longer.

And this isn't just about being uncomfortable. Extreme heat puts extra strain on the body. Your heart has to work harder, dehydration becomes a bigger risk, and heat exhaustion or heatstroke can happen surprisingly quickly. Sit on a packed Underground train with temperatures pushing 40°C and you'll soon realise this isn't just people moaning about the weather.

Heatwaves in the UK have been linked to thousands of excess deaths in previous years. That's why these warnings exist.

That's my two pence.

Tell that to my work.

Work from home?

This thread really is Exhibit A for Mumsnet’s precipitous decline.

As to why is extreme heat seen so differently to say flooding,or heavy snow,it's an ingrained attitude that a lot of people in countries that are frequently cold and wet that extreme heat must be a good thing. The media doesn't help with their banging on about everyone enjoying, basking and sizzling. Every photo you see in newspapers during a heatwave is always of people lying prostrate in parks or on beaches,women in bikinis and people generally have a good time. They never show someone being taken to hospital with heatstroke,or someone's cat/dog not knowing what to do with themselves because of the intense heat. Thankfully, meteorologists and health experts are now challenging this attitude. Although saying that,some of these weather reporters on TV report heatwaves and very high temperatures with a massive grin on their face as if it's something everyone is looking forward to.

It's amazing how quickly heat exhaustion can set in when you aren't used to higher temperatures. I arrived in Paris last Thursday, went to see my sister on Friday afternoon when it ranged from 32-34C. We spent 30 mins in the shade in a park, walked 10 minutes up the road to a shopping centre with reasonable aircon, walked around looking for a handheld fan and walked 10 mins back to where she is staying. So only 20 mins really with any exertion in the heat, and then a 25 minute metro ride back across town, which has much better cooling than the tube and yet I still felt awful that evening, with a headache and throwing up. 5 days later and I've acclimatised at bit, but that first day of really high temperatures is hard to calibrate to.

You could just grow a pair!!

underground is hot all year round so will be unbearable now.

My team build is still on too for tomorrow. Despite communications to say while the office is open we should wfh unless we need to work in the office. Not sure team bonding is a ‘need’. Let alone one with physical tasks and challenges as part of their bonding excercise. I’m sure I’ll be able to get to the office but pretty sure trains will be cancelled so I won’t get home. In SE & just been out in car and temp hasn’t dropped below 32C yet.

Goodness. It’s boiling hot on the tube even on a relatively mild day. I can only guess that you’ve never travelled on it through central London in the middle of summer. It truly is like the third circle of hell. Or Armageddon. Or Mordor. Think many, many degrees hotter, sweatier and more generally unpleasant than anywhere you might ever have been, then add a bit more and you’re getting close. I absolutely definitely would rather be on the pavement in 42 degrees and no shade.

Of sunglasses?

Now that would be a useful evolutionary response to climate change.

Your manager is a twerp.

Daft employer. If someone were to die of heat in a physical team building session during a red weather warning, they’d likely be successfully sued, with all the bad PR.

School's out for us. I would have kept my DD off anyway as due to her extra chromosome, she has trouble regulating her body temp. Glad your company saw sense!

i think your worrying over nothing, Yes it’s going to be warm but you will be in an air conditioned building and unfortunately your work place can’t do anything about your commute you just have to take precautions like everyone else has suggested and take a different form of transport if your worried about the trains, but we took our kids to London on one of the hottest days during the May half term and we used the trains and underground and we were fine. And the warnings are there to warn people so that they can take protective measures, it’s the people that don’t take precautions that end up in hospital and die. So stop being a drama queen and just get on with it like the rest of us!

Why aren’t people reading the bloody thread?