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!?

I live in a country which isn't as hot as Australia, but we do have temps in the range you are expecting every year or so. We don't have people dying in the streets, the schools don't close, people who work outside just carry on. We also have insulated houses, with carpets, and a lot of people don't have air con. We cope, we don't fall to pieces. Some of you are being so dramatic!

Hot countries also are designed for hot weather, schools/businesses open early and shut at midday

Some hot countries may do that, but by no means all of them.

The world has
How do you know this winter will be bad ?
I'm the uk and I admit that one day of snow in the south East can cause disruption, but it's not normally that bad and doesn't last too long if it's snow etc

Clearly, most of you have not spent all of August in an NYC heatwave. Typically, it's like living in a Turkish bath with temperatures above 105F and humidity at nearly 100%. It happens most years for two or three weeks and is unpleasant. So you do as little as possible during the hot part of the day, and anything physical is done very early or very late, or in AC environment (work).

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

@mbosnz a lot of people in NZ don't have air con (heat pumps). For most of my working life we had fans going in an office, blowing papers around everywhere. I'm sure the good people of the UK can deal with heat for a few days.

We were in Washington a few years back - my god it was so hot i thought my eyeballs were going to melt. Our friend out there (from India) said when his dad visited the year before he said ‘are you trying to kill me with this heat?’

Absolutely.

I would hope we all do everything we can to minisimise our impact on the environment. Running around screeching that everything's fucked doesn't achieve anything, nor does ignoring the fact that people have survived far worse than this brief hot spell throughout 1000s of years of human history - without electricity or anything else to fall back on.

Genuine question here - what is the danger to human life in the UK if the heat goes above 32 degrees? It was over 39 degrees on 11 August 2003 I have very good reasons for remembering. I'm fairly sure most of the deaths recorded in the heatwave that year were from people sadly drowning in rivers.

You and you also have to remember that countries that are usually hot are better equipped to deal with this. Our house becomes an oven in the heat as it's all designed to trap heat (or maybe it's just been designed with no thought at all).

Having said that hot countries are getting hotter too and are suffering as well obviously.

I'd like to know too.

This will be wildly unpopular, but long term strategies for recurring high temperature events include -

Your body systems will be working hard to deal with the heat, so have a break from other stressors, like nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, sugar, excess food.

Lose weight. Carrying around a layer of insulation makes cooling more difficult.

It’s going to be mid-30s for a couple of days - hardly the end of the world, is it?

It’s the same hysteria in winter as soon as there’s a little bit of snow.

YANBU, none of us can read the forecast nor appreciate the extent of the head, just a select few super wise people can read the high numbers and listen to the news.

Increased greenhouse gases affects air pressure though, leading to increased heatwaves, extreme weather events, storms etc.
So this heatwave may well be a direct effect of global warming/climate change.
Heatwaves in general certainly will be.
How often and how bad remains to be seen.

It's hotter than normal but you've had plenty of notice to prepare. Ice in the freezer, food and fans or fan heaters with fan only settings.
I can't see how not going to work or school will make it cooler or bearable, heat is heat it doesn't vanish at home.
Many people will be taking vacations to warmer climate in the coming months.
Just get on with it, go steady and hydrate.

Where are you all living?! My predictions for next week don’t go much above the mid 20s.

Keeping the curtains closed and not having the windows and doors wide open will mean your house will be cooler inside than it is outside.

It will be cooler inside, yes, but it will still be too warm inside for me personally.

Shame we can't store it for winter

In the UK, where are you?

The U.K., south coast

Uk, Middle of the country forcast 36-37 here.

Sadly we need to start adapting to these extreme weather conditions as we grapple with climate change. Such shame most of the contenders for the Tory leadership campaign want to scrap any attempt to mitigate against climate change

I don't think you're being unreasonable. In hotter countries people are likely much more acclimatised to the heat than we are, and many (certainly not all) have air con everywhere, like in homes, cafes, offices, schools etc.

I work with animals and am really worried about next week, particularly for the older ones. I think vulnerable/elderly people often get forgotten when it comes to extreme heat, but so do animals.

Rabbits die in hot hutches (and shouldn't be kept in hutches anyway!), hamsters die in cages kept in the sunlight, dogs die on walks, I could go on. Of course there's only so much we can do to shield animals from the heat, but some people don't make any effort whatsoever and it breaks my heart.

Agree OP, over 35 is miserable. I usually leave the aircon on for the dogs while I'm at work when it's hot like that. They have cooling pads as well. I'm in Australia and my lounge and front door face west. It's cooking in summer. Put my thermometer out there one day and it maxed out at 50. I've done a whole bunch of stuff to stop the sun coking in huge glass door and windows on that side.

If you are well insulated for heating, that also works for cooling. If the night cools down, open doors and windows. Shut everything up as soon as you get up to stop the sun heating inside your house up. My place can be up to 10 degrees cooler inside. At 37 outside, inside would be between 27-30. I usually set air con to start around 1-2pm as that's when afternoon sun hits and heats everything up. I've got ceiling fans and they're a god send (very humid here too).

Thank f.uck

Shame we can't store it for winter

This would ruin the best season of the year. March/April/Oct/Nov are OK too.