To get really annoyed by people who live in hot countries claiming that the UK is not hot

[CheckingOutTheQuantocks]

I have some relatives who are in Australia and I'm friends with some of them on Facebook. Apart from their finding the whole Boris Johnson/Brexit thing awfully amusing, they're generally nice people, but there's one of them in particular who can't bloody leave it alone if I post anything about the weather. The other day, I posted about how it was supposed to be the hottest day on record, and she was straight onto it with comments about "That's not hot, that's like a winter temperature for us, you Poms are so soft". She thinks 18°C is "freezing", btw

I'm only mildly irritated by this, but I just don't get why people do it. I know it's ridiculously hot over there and all the wildlife is venomous and all that, but what is the actual point of telling people that all the time when they're just trying to have a whinge about being too warm?

I do think it gets very boring very fast when people in hotter countries laugh at us in the UK for complaining about the heat - although personally I don't complain as I quite like it. Some people seem to get a lot of pleasure out of making little digs at the U.K. and they're always looking for new material. Best just to ignore them. We do moan an awful lot in the U.K. though. I guess everyone is used to such a moderate climate that any extremes trigger complaints. Your Aussie relatives are probably still bitter about the cricket.

I used to live in Hong Kong and had the reverse problem in winter there when the government issue "cold weather warnings" when the temperature falls to 15 degrees Celsius or below. You're advised to only make essential journeys and to check on elderly relatives if they live alone. Yes, seriously! My first winter in Hong Kong (having arrived from Europe) was quite a shock. The locals were all wrapped up in hats and scarves and puffa jackets once it got to 17 degrees. . But HK apartments aren't built to retain warmth (so opposite to the U.K.) and 15 degrees outside can actually feel quite chilly indoors. Once I'd acclimatised, I admit to using an oil heater in my bedroom during winter (when at no point did it ever get colder than 12 degrees C) and wearing a cardigan outside in spring when it was 25 degrees because it felt "a bit chilly". It's just what you get used to.

Some people like to one up, all the time, over anything and everything.

The thing with this heat though is the humidity, and people outside of the UK don't understand that part till they're here.

mbosnz I know, but it sounds so feeble to go "But we have no aircon and it's so huuumid". It's true, but until you've suffered the indignity of not being able to get dry after your shower, and having to put talc on your underboob, you just can't understand!

LOL, you're not wrong. Wait until they complain about how cooooooold it is. . .

(Good tip about the talc on the underboob by the way. . . make sure you chill your glass for 10-15 minutes before pouring is mine. . .)

My friend is originally from a country in Africa, right near the desert. Even she says she can't deal with the heat in the UK. She said it's unbearable compared with the higher temperatures back home.

I used to get annoyed when living in the UK (originally from a desert climate which can easily see 52C for two months of summer) complained about the heat at 30C.

But only because the complaining was relentless and it was always the same people who had been complaining a week before about the lack of summer! It got tiring listening to a winter/spring/early summer onslaught of complaints about the grey damp or wet weather, to a one day reprieve, and onto complaints about it being too hot

FWIW I didn't have AC in the desert either. Some people just handle the heat better. I can't do cold, whatsoever.

I went to Portugal a couple of weeks ago and it was hitting 42 deg! Even that felt more bearable than it does here today. My outside thermostat said 34 today at it hottest. It’s the humidity which causes sweating. I didn’t sweat so badly in Algarve. Here, I was dripping within 1 min of getting out the shower! My underboob sweat is mental and don’t even get me started on my thigh chafe 😫

Actually DH was living and working in Singapore up until 2017, when we went to visit him that summer it had been hotter here where we were for about ten days (South East) at round about 34/35 degrees than it was where he was in Singapore. And the humidity there is bad but nowhere near as bad as Hong Kong eg. The difference is I suppose that every where has icy aircon and also when it’s like it every day you actually acclimatise pretty quickly, random bursts of heat like we have are difficult to deal with.

It's the humidity. Where I live it gets HOT in the summer (supposed to be 107 this weekend) but it's a dry heat so it's very tolerable. Life goes on as normal for us, but people who aren't used to it just want to stay inside until dark.

When we were in Florida it was around 89 but high humidity. It was HORRIBLE! Sticky and suffocating, yet all the locals didn't really 'feel' it like we did.

It's just what you're used to, isn't it?

rtmhwales fwiw, I wouldn't dream of complaining about cold, grey days. Those are my very favourite kind.

Well, it's not THAT hot. But its plenty hot and humid enough to make uk living uncomfortable right now.
Above 30, my AC went on. I had tiled floors, no big south facing windows, infact, tinted windows to reduce the heat coming through. The ATM had AC. Things opened early, shut mid afternoon, and reopened evening til late. The whole place, and rhythm of life was set up to avoid scorching midday sun. Give me 40 in a place set up for heat than 30-something in the uk

Just remembered, having lived in various Asian countries, I’d have to remind incredulous visitors from back home to not forget their jumpers/cardigans because they’d definitely need them in some over zealously airconned buildings

It's going to be 37•c tomorrow. I don't care where you're from, that's hot.

When we were in Florida it was around 89 but high humidity. It was HORRIBLE! Sticky and suffocating, yet all the locals didn't really 'feel' it like we did.

We do feel it outside, but we stay inside where it's air conditioned.

The last time I was in the UK, there was a heat wave. I was miserable in spite of having lived in warm humid climates most of my life.

I don't get why your aussie friend posts this as much as I don't get why you feel the need to make a post about the fact that it's hot. YA both BU

I’m an Australian - been living in the UK for 16 years but every year the complaint from Brits about it being ‘so hot’ as soon as it goes over 21 infuriates me absolutely irrationally. You genuinely have no idea what actual heat is like and I cannot comprehend how your race managed to stay anywhere long enough to conquer most of the Western Hemisphere before complaining you were ‘perishing’ and decamped back to Blighty.

Yes, Australian houses are built better for the heat, no British buildings don’t release heat, but COME ON. A court case deliberation was cut short the other day because people ‘couldn’t concentrate’. IT WAS 31. My first day of high school was 4-fucking-5 and NO we didn’t have aircon (in my school or at home), and NO there was no question of being sent home - not ever in my 12 years of un-airconditioned schooling. No building can release heat like that. Opening a window does sweet fuck all other than let in more hot air. I also had to walk 5km home because my mum told me the wrong bus to catch (which wouldn’t have been air conditioned either) and guess what? I didn’t get heatstroke, despite waking home along a tarmaced road with no bottle of water. I know you can’t help heat stroke, but fuck me, your people get it just by thinking about a bit of warmth (THAT WAS LIGHTHEARTED, JOYCE)

Brits get slightly sticky and start absolutely catastrophising and demanding union involvement. THAT’S our issue.

And there’s nothing wrong with our garden fences. They keep the fucking snakes out.

My niece is a teacher in Queensland, no air conditioning in school even in 40 degree heat.
It’s really not that hot here at all, it’s summer a bit of sun is lovely for a change.

Just came on to say what @ElphabaTheGreen just said!

I'm an Australian been here 13 years.

Unless they've experienced it UK people, really really don't understand what hot weather is...

I'm really not happy Jan with this weather...one of the reasons why I moved here! Bring on the grey drizzle.

English people start to moan about the "heat" as soon as the temperature reaches 25, that's why many people are making fun of them.

There has been so much ridiculous complaints that no one take them seriously now that the weather is marginally hotter. It doesn't stop the brits to run to Spain, Italy, Portugal, Florida on holiday either.

We have a couple of nice days a year, let's enjoy them shall we? Moan if you are stuck at work and are missing out, moan because the kids miss half the summer breaking up far too late, but the temperature?

It's call summer. For once we don't have a drizzly grey damp depressing cold weather, it's a nice change.

Not that long ago there were a million and one threads on here complaining about the perfectly normal and pleasant British summer we were having (cloudy and cooler with mixed sunshine and rain).

Now it's hotter than Satan's arsehole and everyones moaning about that.

The UK is NOT a hot country on the global scale. There is a reason tourists do not flock here for sunshine and beaches. We have a temperate climate. It should not be this hot, and the fact it is is worrying.

I grew up in Sydney and every time we get weather like this in the UK I comment that this sort of weather is why I prefer the UK. I don't tolerate high humidity and heat well, never have done. Parts of Australia get hotter and dryer - I figure that the presence of humidity is equivalent to at least + 10 degrees (C) in tolerability of high temperatures. 28/29 is about my comfort limits when it is humid.

perfectly normal and pleasant British summer we were having (cloudy and cooler with mixed sunshine and rain).

what's pleasant about a horrible rainy summer?
Nothing dries, nowhere to go, kids and adults alike are bored, it's miserable. Everywhere outdoors is empty because people do not actually like the rain!

Just as an aside, if you ever look up temperatures on the BBC website it’s quite rare that it ever states 40+ degrees, in spite of all these places allegedly being 45 degrees all summer long. I reckon people look at those temperature signs at pharmacists which always seem to add about 10 degrees. It says 38 for tomorrow in London, 41 in Paris, most other places are about 30-34.

My Jamaican neighbour complained to me about the heat today...to my surprise! However, she said she is just not used to it anymore and we're just not equipped for it...and there is the issue. Many people from much hotter climes forget this. I do, however, think there is no excuse whatsoever for how this country grinds to halt at the mere mention of a snowflake.

@thedayofthethreeMagnums if you look at metoffice data then you will see that temperatures have actually been above average for the last 5 months and rainfall has been below average in April and May (I have not seen the June data) so frankly there's nothing to complain about. It hasn't been horrible and rainy at all, it's been drier and warmer than usual.

It's called a British summer. That's what we get. It's a mix of sunshine and rain. If you want continuous sunshine might I suggest relocating?

What your relative doesn't understand is that we don't have aircon. I bet it she spent the night in this ridiculous heat without aircon she'd also struggle