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!?

@Svara after a horrific death toll from a prolonged heat event in the city where I live in 1995, city services started providing cooling centers, similar to the winter heating centers they had always provided. They also set up a hotline for heat related problems so city services could reach people in trouble.

In places where heat and extreme cold is the norm, places tend to be better set for those extremes than the UK is.

Best advice from the local city government was to look in on your elderly neighbours and make sure they're not suffering.

Ok I see folk are moaning about Mali. My bad for using shorthand.

There is obviously no season we would recognise as winter with frost etc but the charts here will clearly show you July/august as the time of year with the lowest top temperatures and the shortest periods of sunlight. The point was it’s comparing apples and pears to use Mali at its coldest as a comparison for a few weeks of (admittedly high for here) heat. The heat there is much more extreme and sustained for the entire year.

weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Rainfall-Temperature-Sunshine-fahrenheit,bamako,Mali

That’ll teach me for lazy posting,

Yes there are other countries hotter than us in this world, and yes they deal with it on a constant basis but they are set up to deal with it. We are not.

Ah yes, they’re set up to deal with it - all those lovely air conditioned houses and offices in Pakistan and Mali…

Dreading how hot my classroom will be. It has one south facing glass wall.

@mathanxiety That wasn't the case where I lived.

The main thing I am worried about are my teens-2 are very fair and even with high sunscreen they burn easily. Of course, they want to bask in the sun with all their mates! I give them sunscreen to take out with them to reapply-they take it, but I dont think they bother once they are out!

Hats? They have them. Wouldn't be seen dead in them. The only "win" is they will take water out with them.

Because of this, I have told them if this weekend is as hot as predicted, midday to late afternoon is to be spent at home. The eldest in particular-loves the sun and warm, but burns easily and afterwards is very grumpy/headaches etc.

Our back garden is full south, but I will set up a shaded area in the morning which we have done in past years (2018 was a hot summer I think)

I live in a country bordering the Sahara. Everyone does not have aircon. Aircon units are expensive to buy and run. Lots of people sleep on the beach in the summer to cope. We do have aircon- the outside temp is about mid 30s this week and the aircon is set to about 27.

Most houses and apartments are built to be cooler though with blinds and shades. Shops shut at 12 until about 5. I still do outdoor exercise but the classes are either at 7am or 7pm. We have shaded parking. If you go to the beach you go at 7am or 5pm. We have a pool.

I think critical is everyone understands how to live with it. DDs have had a holiday camp this week with lots of outdoor activities but most of them have been in the shade or pool, or the physical stuff much later in the day. You don't carry on 'as normal'- adapting to the heat is normal. We socialise in the evenings and keep the kids up.

But also- we are acclimatized. The first year we were here it was horrid, now we look at 34 and think it's quite cool. We get a long lead in from April too.

Honestly, I know our terrace in London would be unbearably hot upstairs. It is climate change in action- very hot countries are getting hotter too. We had a 50 degree day last year which is unheard of here. The UK might be uncomfortable but lots of places will soon be uninhabitable.

The English are just not used to it. They are used to a mild climate. Beast from the East, 104 f heatwave, flooding, it's all a huge drama here even though these events are much less extreme than in most other countries. Due to the mild and hospitable conditions of England we aren't used to dealing with challenging weather events or natural occurrences. It's a well know fact abroad, that the English have often little 'common sense' and are quite hapless when in less accommodating natural environments. It's because we never had to deal with it. It's why English children wear shorts to school in winter while Eastern Europeans send theirs in warm puffer jackets and cardigans all attending the same school. There is a different perception of how climate can affect health and wellbeing. In Mediterranean countries people stay out of the sun during the day, English people roast on the beach with the sea temperatures. It's because our weather is easier to deal with normally.

Perhaps that is all changing now with global warming.

English people roast on the beach with the same temperatures.

Hopefully it will be short lived but it's building up and homes are already warm and hard to cool down. Please look old for the older, the vulnerable and the wildlife. Put as many dishes of water around outside as you can.

We were on holiday a few years ago in southern Italy when the temps were high 30s. However we barely felt it in the house we were staying in. All ground floor, thick walls, high ceilings, terracotta floors (not a carpet in sight) small windows with shutters. No air con needed. Houses in the UK are the complete opposite. In laws have a town house and the top floor is completely unusable.

The difference between the listed places and here is, those places are geared up for heat because its expected. Our houses dont have AC. Our homes are insulated to the max.

I'm quite worried about how we will keep cool. Fans haven't done much on our hottest days so far.

If DH and DD go to school/ work on those hottest days, I won't be taking them or picking them up from school/ train station. The baby gets very warm in his car seat as it is

It's two days its not going to last for weeks.

The problem for the UK is that we are set up for a very mild, temperate climate. People who laugh at our inability to cope with short cold snaps and snow, or a few days of extreme heat (and 37c is extreme for the UK), are clearly therefore a bit hard of thinking. Our plants and animals, humans and infrastructure are not acclimatised or adapted to the extremes that generally hot countries are, especially not when they come and go quickly, rather than building up gradually (and jumping from 26c to 37c is not gradual, imvho, if that is what happens next week, and it is also extreme for the UK).

We are still not remotely accustomed to the behaviour change required to deal with sudden heat waves. What is bearable in one country, therefore, is genuinely a different experience in another. You wouldn’t pretend, after all, that the animals are all wimps and the ice is being pathetic for melting at the Poles if it was 37c there for a few days.

The already very hot countries now face the prospect of temperatures becoming so extreme occasionally that no human is capable of ever acclimatising to them. And unpredictable weather patterns become a threat to life due to failure to be able to acclimatise to the occasionally extreme, and the increasingly unpredictable and unreliable.

OK

1. no not everyone in a hot country has aircon and
2. insulation helps the house stay cool
3. why do people post about stuff that clearly they know NOTHING about 🤔

That is self indulgent twaddle. Of course other people in other countries can struggle with extreme temperatures. Sorry but the UK is not special.

Thanks! This thread is getting rather frustrating!

Well your teens will have to cope with getting burnt then because it’s just foolish not to wear a hat in extreme temperatures.

...that's what you interpreted from @Walkaround 's post?

FFS.

Maybe instead of moaning, enjoy the next couple of days where it is going to be mid 20s and dry in most areas. House is 21 at the moment.

They are extremely efficient to run, much better than any other forms of heating or cooling.

The dfe have issued guidance for schools for next week or whenever it gets over 30 degrees.
The homes in the UK are built to retain heat mostly unlike countries that have hotter climates.
I know two schools local to me who are rearranging sports day next week because Tuesday it's supposed to get to 36 degrees, this was before the dfe emailed with heat guidance.

I don’t think it is ridiculous. I think you are being ridiculously defensive possibly because you are afraid? Who knows? Do you know why you are being so rude?

Or do you have a problem with hearing that people outside of England have experienced and survived extreme temperatures?

Honestly this thread 🙄

It's right to be afraid of climate change and its effects. Do you know why you're in such strong denial?

Think I'll be keeping my 2 little ones at home Monday & Tuesday - luckily I will be able to wfh!

I've already told the school she won't be joining in, she has a heart condition so it's not happening, but I think they should scrap the idea for everyone's sake!

School sent a 2nd mass email out starting "we are well aware of the forecast.." I imagine they will back down on Monday.