It’s over tomorrow, the heat is over for another year

[LaurieFairyCake]

Firstly I appreciate this is not the same for the rest of the country

but we’ve had it horrific here (London). I’ve never felt so shit in my life as I have for the last 10 weeks. I’ve spent between £250-350 a month on electricity (portable air conditioners). I’ve felt anxious, headachy, it’s FUCKED with my peri menopause (brain fog, no words, cognitive decline). I’ve felt tearful and as if it would go on forever. There are moments where I’ve thought I can’t take another moment of this. My sleep is proper fucked.

this has to change. I’ve done everything on a personsl
level I can. Air conditioners only when necessary, above 26 inside (DH has long Covid so literally throws up in heat). His asthma is exacerbated. The dogs have had the shittest summer. I’ve had a couple of rescues that can’t go out about 22 degrees. I reckon they’ve been walked briefly 3 times a week. We deliberately went away on a cheap caravan holiday twice just so they could smile. There were endless days I couldn’t work as too hot in my home office and clients cancelled.

I cannot wait til Saturday.

I hope for solidarity from others. I want to wear a fucking hoodie again. I’ve spent every day sat around in my underwear inside for vast stretches of the day. This is not sexy.

Mumsnet obsession 🤣 It's on just about every menu,hardly a MN specific drink!

I totally get what you mean. It's so frustrating (and depressing) to continuously fight for change and adapt our own lifestyles, only to be met with people who simply don't want to accept reality and continue to live in denial at the expense of the rest of us.
What's so anger-inducing is that people are prioritising short-term comfort over the survival of out children and grandchildren. And yet they continue to complain...

I'm glad i'm fat so I can live off it when the famine strikes. Nothing is growing properly here or overseas where we import most of our food from. I am craving the rain and love the cold when you can layer up, breathe and function normally

I agree. I just don’t function well in the heat - I slow down and I don’t like it. I have enough of all the flowing summer dresses and linnen trousers - I just want to put a pair of jeans on and crack on with everything. It’s incredible how some people aren’t bothered by it at all though, my husband is absolutely fine, loves the heat. But I can’t wait for it to be over!

True and all those thousands of air conditioning units people bought will add to the CO2 emissions....

It's going to be over 30 here again today and Thursday next week before it gets down below 25. I am exhausted, permanently nauseous and fed up of the constant sweating.

It's currently 27 in our north facing sitting room. If I run the fan all day , experience tells me I can get it down to 24.

It's no life.

There simply isn’t the public will to make changes and, in any event, it is probably too late to make meaningful change. I know there are people who cling to this notion that there is still time, but we have to be realistic. I had the chance to chat with a senior scientist advising the IPCC about 20 years ago and he was candid in saying that he thought it was probably too late even at that stage.

Again, short-term "solutions" that create long-term devastation.
The blame is always thrusted onto the big companies, but we are the people who are creating demand for those companies!
It's the same argument as "why should I vote? I'm only one person, so it doesn't matter whether I do or not". Little changes add up to big rewards!

Glad to see there are plenty of commenters here like you, though, with a bit of sense and who want to create meaningful change :)

When I was at university over 40 years ago, we were told once the change was measurable it was irreversible as it drove itself.

My grandson is 13, and very into plane spotting so he spends a lot of time on flight radar. When you see the amount of aircraft in the sky globally, no wonder we're fucked. Airline travel may be cheap for the consumer but we're all paying the price in terms of global warming. It makes me irrationally angry because I choose not to fly.

I've got a poorly old dog too, he's got heat induced colitis and is pooing out blood. I am so fucking sick of this heat and trying to keep him cool, it's just not fair on him.

You're right there isn't, but we are all guilty of doing things that are not helping the planet aren't we? I freaked myself out the other evening, I was sitting outside in the cool gazing up at the stars when I thought planet earth is actually alone, no other planets to call on for help for when the shit eventually hits the fan..

That’s chilly these days isn’t it? 😜Though love the summer evenings outside, just hate the hot house when going to bed, looking forward to a cooler night’s sleep

I was in Paris last month and it was worse than here. They put in new metros a few years ago with no air conditioning. None of the restaurants have got even a fan. Health workers were threatening to go on strike because of unbearable heat. The air cooling doesn't work particularly well.

I can’t breath when the air is warm, I open the freezer and breathe in the cold air just to feel
like there’s air in my lungs. I’m an everything in moderation person and that definitely includes the weather.

It’s interesting that recently there has been quite strong public push back against green policies. People seemingly don’t want EV cars, green energy or to reduce their meat consumption. They also don’t want to curb their flights.

Cool and cloudy here, thankfully, North West.

The Ddog woke me in the night, panting heavily, despite lying in front of the fan and having water. She’s muc( more lively this morning.

Feeling so sorry for those poor people who’ve lost their homes, I cannot believe how awful that must be. Nature is so cruel at times.

Hopefully we can all have some decent rain to kill the fire threat and settle everything back down.

Now the weather is probably going to repeat last winter where we have non stop rain for 6 months. We need relief from this weather though.

I agree with this. We spend some of our summers in Florida which really is much hotter than here, so technically I shouldn’t have an issue with the temperatures here. it really isn’t the same though. On holidays I sleep in air conditioned rooms, spend my days by the pool, drink mocktails, eat in air conditioned restaurants, even the buses there are nice and cool.
It’s not the same when you have to work all day, have no swimming pools, you’re far from the beach or the water isn’t safe to swim in because of pollution. Walking in the fields isn’t really going to cool me down, everything is completely dried out, there are no trees where I live so you walk in full, direct sun, tarmac everywhere, dust being blown from the fields and dirt roads. When you’re on holiday in hot countries you tend to spend most of your time enjoying the outside , here it’s just hiding inside and hoping it will pass.

Christ this summer really has been the pits. So draining!

Very scared for the future. We don’t fly, don’t eat beef, don’t buy anything first-hand if we can help it. Drive minimally, commute by public transport. Green energy supplier. Looking at solar panels to power aircon for next summer, and more water butts for the veg garden (monster El Niño anyone??) Letter to MP coming up!

Ahh the “isn’t it glorious” trolls in this thread 😂 What do people think we’re all going to eat at this rate, with wildfires, failing harvests and no grazing?

I have the same problem, I keep saying to my husband that I can’t breathe. Maybe it’s the perimenopause. DH has no issues with the heat though.

I'm not looking forward to monsoon like rain and dangerous gales.

Temperatures in the south east next week will be better but still high at about 27C

I agree.

I very much hope that this is a wake up call for the relentless consumers of tat, 4x4 diesel drivers, frequent flyers, those who crank their heating up rather than put a sweater on etc.

And I hope it's not too late...

My LG had her 2nd lot of vaccines (12 week ones) on Tuesday, she was fine on the day and the day after.. but since yesterday (Thursday) & this morning she has barely wanted to take any milk?

she’s formula fed, she had a similar reaction to the 8 week ones, a week later she ended up in a&e as I was worried about the reduced feeding but they passed it off as her picking up a gastro bug?

Has anyone else’s little ones been off their feeds for a while after having the vaccines? She’s alert when awake, has her usual naps, she was abit sleepier for a day after her jabs but other than that she’s back to normal minus the feeding? I’ve managed to get her to take 125ml since 5am this morning, it’s now 10am!

But on holiday, youre not going to work, cooking dinner, doing the washing, ironing, putting the clothes away, looking after pets. No paddling pools in the garden because its hasn't rained in months.

What makes you think it’s over? September can be hot, sometimes the hottest day of the year falls in September.

I think you’re being a bit premature, we aren’t even halfway through August yet.