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 think the randomness of it causes problems.
To me, last summer was beautiful because it was scorching for weeks, with no rain. So we had time to get used to it, no pressure to 'enjoy it while it lasts'. We could plan for it because we knew it was here to stay.

This summer is ridiculously unpredictable. A couple of weeks ago we had a scout camp rained off because the ground was waterlogged, it had basically rained for two weeks straight. It was cold and wet and miserable. Less than a week later, we took some school children on a residential and it was boiling, we were stressing about suncream and extra water.

When planning for camps we often genuinely have to wait until less than a week before to decide whether the kit list needs to include a fleece or a sunhat.

This week has been boiling, but I've still had about 3 loads of washing ruined by rain, and last night we had to abandon a BBQ because it hammered down.

I wonder which other countries have this level of unpredictability?

In fact, the standard national temperature recommended for all airconditioners, summer or winter, is 24.c. (meaning it is the recommended default setting for comfort all year round)

omg I'd be cooking! I don't even understand why people turn the heating up to 20 something in the winter (in the uk) - that's like a summers day! I'm quite happy with 16 in my house to be comfortable in the winter. Although I did once live in a house with no heating and registered minus 5 in the kitchen so 16 is baking.
I'm not knocking it, it's all about aclimatising (?) I guess. If I left my zero house where it was all jumpers etc to go to my Mums and she was cooking I had to open all doors and windows or sit outside.
Still open windows now in winter.

"OP there was a BBC News article a day or two ago about unions lobbying for it to be compulsory to stop work at 30 degrees or something utterly ludicrous."

I think this is to bring it in line with the regulation about it not being compulsory to continue to work in buildings below a certain temperature, isn't it? I can remember being surprised back in the seventies (well, in 1976 to be exact: hot summer that year) that there was a regulation in one direction and not the other. I can't remember what the lower temperature is.

Haven’t RTFT, but I have a relative that does this. I love him to bits but he is very competitive and insistent that Australia is better than the UK in every way. Any opportunity to top the UK in terms of weather / scenery / food etc etc and he can’t keep it in. I just ignore him now as it bugs me and I annoy myself for getting irritated.

I kind of laughed at 18 - I only set my heating to 18 or 19 indoors and find its plenty!

It is true most of the Uk is better at being colder so this is extreme for us to manage

"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!"
Oh believe me, we understand that, I've had all of that. Especially the underboob. But in summer. Certainly not in anything less than say, 25.c.

Germany-resident friend says (that she is currently melting) that most summers are 40 degrees as normal & AirCon is very unusual. Very not true that people who live in hot places all have amenities & building designs to make it easier. Especially if it's a poor country.

Friend currently in Pennsylvania says similar.

16-20 degrees is perfect temp for me. 18 👌🏻, can wear a T-shirt, maybe a thin cardigan and it’s lovely. I’m from the west of Scotland though so we get excited when it gets to 14

Can I just say (as an Australian who has lived in the UK for a very long time), that there's been many really good observations on this thread. It is hot. However we never get many days when things get uncomfortable. We get far more 'English summer days' when the sun is shining, everything's green, there's a cool breeze to temper the heat, and we can sleep at night. A good English summer day is perfect.

Just wish we had more of them.

I've lived somewhere hot, humid and at times without electricity though at least the houses are built for heat.
And I've been somewhere with 38° heat with small DS who needed regular running around/parks and no real indoor options even though everything had AC we still had to go out.
And yes, the British are prone to moaning. But I personally prefer humid heat to dry heat as I seem to find it hard to breathe when it's hot and dusty.

And yes pookie my heating sits between 18-20, anything more is too hot

I don't really understand why you'd post about the weather on Facebook if you don't want to discuss it with anyone.

Your relatives in Australia are right. I saw another thread on this site recently where people were whinging about it being soooo hot when it was only 27 degrees. That’s not hot, it’s nice and mild although still a bit too cold to swim in the ocean.

As for 18 degrees, it IS freaking cold. It was that here a few days ago and I had to wear long boots, leggings, a long sleeved dress and a light weight jacket to work.

Only in Britain will you hear people moaning about intolerable cold if the temperature dips below 5C for 3 days, then a few month later the same numpties moan about intolerable heat when the temperature rises above 25C for 3 days. It’s pathetic.

There is a reason why British people don’t have air on in their homes or fit winter tyres to their cars, ie we have a temperate climate with very few and infrequent instances of extreme weather. 3 hot days this month doesn’t change that.

40 plus where I live atm, no a/c but shutters and tiles, not carpet an curtains. I find the heat unbearable here when it gets going as the houses are not set up for it.

Yes it’s been hovering around 39/40 this week in western Germany and i wouldn’t say it’s better adapted for heat than the UK. Lots of Germans are very suspicious of air conditioning because draughts are considered the source of all illness. Also, I think being so far inland means that it doesn’t cool down significantly at night time. It’s still 31 degrees here at nearly midnight.

Finn where in the country are you? I’ve not worn a jacket in weeks. We always joke around here that it’s “taps aff” weather the second the sun comes out but it really is for some. I’ve seen people in shorts, T-shirt and sandals in spring when it’s sunny but bloody Baltic

40 degrees is the highest ever temperature recorded in Germany and it has never reached that in most of the country . It’s only recent that the high 30s have become frequently seen in summer, which is why the country has yet to adapt with air con. Window shutters are much more common than in the UK already.

I live in Australia but I’ve been to Europe in summer. 25 degrees in London and Paris felt very different to 25 degrees to where I live. I can well believe that 35 degrees in London would be absolutely hideous.

Tomorrow the train companies in London are advising against all but essential travel - it's a joke. It's hot, the trains aren't air conditioned

I don't understand. How can you not have airconditioning in trains in London in 2019? Isn't that a most basic thing for any vehicle to have? What about winter, when you would need the heating airconditioning?

The problem is never the temperature, we travel in the Soouth West USA and have no problems because the heat is very dry. Similarly in Winter, we don't get very low temperatures but because of the dampness it feels much colder. A really cold, crisp day where you can wrap up against it is lovely.

As previous posters have said, UK houses are built for the cold, not the heat. Sudden rises in temperatures don't let people acclimatise over long periods. Plus we all still belt around (or are expected to) here as if it's the usual grey 15c when it's 30c.

I've travelled a lot around Australia and NZ. I've showered in my pyjamas and got back into bed with them soaking wet because it was the only way I could get any sleep in summer in Melbourne. I've slept in a swag travelling through South Australia in winter (the other extreme).

I could pour scorn on the people I saw running around in jumpers in Brisbane when it was 20c. Or people trying to give me a waterproof jacket (far too hot to work in one) while picking grapes in Adelaide in 15c and giving us a longer teabreak inside till the (light) rain went off but I won't because people are used to the temperatures they're used to and coping mechanisms/facilities are different wherever you are.

Not everyone in Australia has AC, has a pool or lives close to a beach (with a comfortable ocean temperature) but more people do than in the UK. They even keep the glasses in the fridge in the pubs in Australia (genius).

@SaraNade can confirm there are plenty of trains without air con and the tube doesn’t have air con either (unless a couple of lines do now and I’m out of the loop?)
We travelled to London on the last 30+ day a few weekends back and the train had no air con and tiny windows that barely opened it was grim.

There’s an irony in a few posters on here saying our summer UK temps aren’t that bad while complaining about 18 Celsius as being cold!!

Are we ‘suffering’? Really?

Excluding any health/learning issue.

It has been hot today, quite uncomfortable in parts, with air con that barely works might not work tomorrow.

We have a heatwave every year as well as winter weatHer we can’t quite cope with. Perhaps we should invest in both.