To think people don’t seem to understand how hot it is predicted to be next week?

[Toohot22]

On threads expressing concern re the heat, people keep saying ‘what do you think they do in hotter countries’?

According to my BBC weather app, next Monday and Tuesdays predictions are:

35 in Lahore, Pakistan
32/33 degrees in Miami, Florida
33 and 32 degrees in Kingston, Jamaica
29 degrees in Mali (which is the worlds hottest country, apparently!)
30 in the Maldives
38 and 35 in Spain.

The current predictions for me are 36 and 37 degrees.

AIBU to think some posters don’t realise we are talking about temperatures hotter than some of the hottest countries in the world!?

YABU

For anyone who’s lived in a much hotter country, the differences are substantial. In Southern Hemisphere summers, or in some African countries, you’ll live with temperatures in the 30s for a couple of months (anywhere north of Sydney is unbearable). You’ll live with hot winds off the desert. You’ll live with night time temperatures which don’t drop as they do here.

And outside of the USA not many people have air conditioning in private homes.

You learn to cope. A couple of days at or over 30 is really no big deal.

A couple of days at or over 30 is really no big deal.

How come there’s a weather warning in place for most of England and Wales? Just for japes?

Not so anxiety inducing in our corner of Britain (on the left) but not to worry, like hundreds of thousands of Brits we're deliberately leaving the country next week anyway, to somewhere that almost always has a July forecast like this... (on the right).

Funny how so many of us manage to cope on holiday somewhere we've deliberately selected for the weather, and without a second thought for the locals, but two days of similar at home and we lose our collective shit 🤷🏻‍♀️

Moving into the cellar for the duration sounds a great idea!

The coming heatwave that will impact the UK (where we are not used to it) has nothing whatsoever to do with climate change. It is an unusual WEATHER PATTERN. Weather is not climate.

The upcoming hot spell is being caused by a perfect alignment of low pressures, particularly the one west of Portugal and another one over Scandinavia. This is allowing the furnace doors to open from Algeria/Morocco and funnelling the heat directly north up through the interior oven of Spain and the UK just happens to be getting a direct hit this time around.

9 times out of 10 these plumes go north as far as western France and then swing north-eastwards over central and southeastern areas of the UK, leaving places like London the Midlands and Brighton for example sweltering whereas those further North wonder what is going on!

Climate is not a weather event.

I really don't understand the hysteria about it to be honest. It's two days. When we have cold weather we face exactly the same problems.

The coming heatwave that will impact the UK (where we are not used to it) has nothing whatsoever to do with climate change. It is an unusual WEATHER PATTERN. Weather is not climate.

How strange that heatwaves are becoming more common and more severe. What a coincidence. Almost like there’s some kind of bigger trend at play. Can’t be. Because climate and weather patterns have nothing whatsoever to do with each other.

Quite, and an awful lot of people in hot countries still don't have air conditioning.

What kind of weather is the UK set up for? It's panic stations if it is hot, panic stations if it is wet, panic stations if it is windy, panic stations if it is icy, panic stations if it snows. We seemingly can't send our children to school if it is any of those things.

Right - in Baku Azerbaijan we had 36 today and forecast 36 for the weekend. Not expected to be under 30 until next Friday, but that's a long time in forecasting. I'd expect it to get consistently hotter in the next few weeks

Also our night temperatures are a minimum of 27 whereas the UK forecast drops to about 12.

But...houses and apartments here are designed for it. My house has split a/cs and high ceilings in every room, whereas my modern 5-bed house in England has ...none (and low ceilings too). So the indoor temperature is 26/27 which must be pretty unpleasant.

Best approach at night is to have a shower and don't dry off - the water evaporating will cool you down.

Thank you for that explanation fizzywat. Hot weather from Algeria/ Morocco makes it sound quite exotic!

It's the 'x country is this hot for weeks' tagts annoys me. Yes that may be true but they're prepared for it. We aren't used to this, our buildings aren't designed for it etc etc

If it reaches the temperatures they are predicting then I'll be keeping my children home from school. We walk 30 minutes each way (so I do it 4 times) and I'm not risking anyone getting ill

Thanks for the ausie answers. I get the lack or aircon, it was more the building design and day structure that interested me - but it sounds like people do get up earlier, put up shades and wear hats and sensible uniforms.

Its just other hot countries you see white buildings, hard floors, ways of keeping the light off windows, siestas etc as well.

The uk seems well designed for 8-18 degrees with drizzle

Agreed!

No she's not I've been in Spain, Italy, Malta, and Majorca when it's been in the 30's. I've also been in Turkey when it's been in the 30's and 40's. It's a different kind of heat. You can be out in it all day as long as you keep hydrated. We also had air con to retreat to.

Ways to cope if you feel the heat

If you get direct sun through your windows, draw the curtains. Keep rooms dark.

Ditto if you feel the breeze is hotter than your indoor temperature - close your windows.

Open up again at dusk or early evening.

If you have to run errands or be outside, do it as early as possible. Try to stay inside between around 12 noon and 3pm. 2 pm is often the hottest time.

water plants early morning or in the evening.

I used to find a wet flannel carried in a plastic bag in my bag was a quick way to cool down -draped around my neck usually.

If you don’t have air conditioning a damp towel set up in front of a fan can cool the air a little.

Cover up - loose cotton or linen, or very light silk, long sleeves and loose. Make sure you cover up the back of your neck. No polyester or nylon.

All common sense really.

Exactly our homes are built to retain heat. Look what happened in Texas, winter of 2020. They're home's are not built for the cold weather. They had power cuts and icicles in they're home's. There was a child's fish tank that completely froze. They were saying a lot of Texas home's will now be worthless.

When we were in Spain, we had a swimming pool, air-con', automated window shutters, tiled floors. . .

In New Zealand, where we have to build for both extremes, we at least had air-con (heat pumps).

Here, our house is built to suck in heat, and hold it, not spit it out. We have radiators, not heat pumps. One thing that really worries me, is seeing people getting such terrible sun burn. Little ones without hats, hopefully not without sun screen as well.

1976 was so deeply unpleasant and difficult to live through that people are still banging on about it now. Apart from 1976 and 2005, the other 8 hottest years on record have been in the last.

I don’t remember it being that difficult to live through, not because of the warm weather anyway. The real problem with 1976 was the drought, not the heat.

....And they stay in the midday sun while the locals shield from the high temps.

It's a couple of weeks of the year, in the same way Med countries have sub zero temps and snow on occasion - that they aren't really equipped for.

Adapt, take measures and enjoy the change because for sure as hell it won't last long.

Heatwaves in UK are relatively rare. The important thing to remember is that climate change is not producing them, it is weather events moving hotter air upwards from Africa and Spain depending on the pressure patterns.

This weather event will quickly pass and fizzle out. Climate changes over hundreds and thousands of years. UK's climate is not drastically changing right now, but weather events can make it seem like it is.

Yes, it's going to be hot for a week or so, and very hot for two days. Heat in summer, who'd have thought it No, we're not prepared for it but that's partly due to it not being worth installing air-con or whatever for the handful of days a year when it's a problem, and partly because people don't take the simple steps that they can thus making the problem worse than it needs to be.

When did every event - heat, rain, snow, storm - have to be a massive drama where everyone rushes round asking everyone else if they're ready for [insert normal weather event here]?

Yeah I'm aware there are hotter places in the world. I'm wondering if people who lived in those hot areas would cope so well with our cold blustery weather? The fact is we aren't acclimatised to such hot temperatures. Hot countries also are designed for hot weather, schools/businesses open early and shut at midday. Their architecture is better suited to heat and lots of bigger buildings and some homes will be air conditioned. In England we have almost none of that!

and they have a dry heat that isn't as oppressive.

Hmm, tell that to my relatives who have 84% humidity there at the moment and have had months of humidity being over 90%.

For a couple of days..am sure we will survive!

Next week will be a challenge in the. UK But what’s actually getting massive underplayed is the fact that cold weather kills twenty times more people than hot weather. Cold winter weather kills thousands every year in the UK. And this coming winter will likely be one of the worst ever.