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!?

Not all of us are expecting a heat wave I’ve only been out once this summer with short sleeves. Level with Liverpool and this is my forecast:

This just isn't true. The same factors which hold the heat in (thick stone walls or cavity walling, smaller windows and pitched roofs) also keep the heat out. They only keep heat in if the heat source is coming from the inside- whereas in hot weather the heat-source is on the outside. 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.

No the UK is NOT a hot country just because of a few days, possibly a week of hot weather. People are already worrying about paying winter heating bills so hardly the definition of a 'hot' country.

Yes, this is extreme as was 1976 but it is not consistent is it?

Without wanting to sound heartless, it was rather 'mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun' situation with that British couple then. Who on earth would think it was a good idea to go hiking, in a heatwave, and take their baby and their dog. People just need to be sensible & take sensible measures.

I’m north east, a mile in from the coast. Will probably wake up to sea fret.

What a patronising post 🙄

Ir regularly gets to 40c + I’m some of those countries so your comparison is dumb.

I have lived in places where temperatures rise above this, I even worked outdoors at one point when it was 40C for weeks on end. We did it but we were making constant accommodations - drinking water, hats etc. It was very uncomfortable.

I now live in a cooler climate so 27C feels hot to me, largely because it tends to be very humid. Humidity is the killer, it literally drives people crazy.

Dry heat is more manageable but even so I would not be sending my children to school at temperatures higher than 35C unless their classrooms were air conditioned (they’re not) and and I’d be up early to get stuff done before the hottest part of the day. We have air conditioning so home is fine.

Yes it will be very hot but it has been this hot before in this country. There are just more warnings and information nowadays. I remember that it was 36 degrees the day I gave birth to dc2 in central London.

You need to look at the wet bulb temperature (combination of temperature and humidity) dry heat is very different to humid heat.

Of course we bloody know. The latest burst of heat made us hotter than Jamaica. I think that gives everyone an idea. Have bought a large fan and am expecting not to sleep. Not much more i can do

Don't let her go. Seriously.

(Am an A&E doctor/GP).

This country is not equipped to deal with extreme heat,unlike places such as Spain and Florida. We probably have about a maximum total of 2 very hot weeks a year,so the powers-that-be aren't going to spend a fortune on air conditioning.
Personally,I'm more worried about my cat than myself in the heat next week.

It’s not about the heat though is it, it’s your ability to acclimate and adjust. If I lived in Greece I would adjust slowly and acclimatise. But I don’t, I live in Yorkshire where it’s freeezing, snowing or grey most of the year, as a ginger I’m ok with that. In Greece or Africa I would have grown up with it and likely have olive or black skin.

I'm still alive but I’m not comfortable.

I would expect an African to struggle in Scotland in the depths of January without any central heating. Same thing.

i would be happier in the north of the UK with no heating than Africa with no air con and little shelter from the heat.

it’s not a competition.

I come from a hotter country and to be honest where I am from was set up so much better than the UK for heat. I remember our school was in 33 degree heat for the last few weeks of school every year, and yes we were hot, but it was fine! For some reason being out and about was just a lot easier than it is here.

The problem we have in the UK is that we just aren't set up for it, we don't have the cool/wet/etc spaces designed for hot weather living, the railways and services can't cope (a railway in London caught fire the other day just because it was hot!-& it wasn't even that hot!), and so on. I expect the situation is the same in most hot weather countries - living is better designed for it because they know to expect it.

The other thing is that the heat just seems to sit here, all day and all night. In my home country, it tended to be a lot cooler at night, and we tended to have more storms in the evenings that broke up the heat. Just my experience!

My friend is Turkish and a few years back they were over for the summer and she swore it was pushing 50” and ‘hotter than hell’ and she really loves the sun.

Some of my family is from the ME (born and bred) and are finding the heat here unbearable.

For those saying ‘oh well it’s hotter in Cairo/I lived in Iraq and it was hotter’ we just aren’t geared for the heat - our houses and officer were built for a cool, soggy climate. We don’t generally have air con. We don’t start our day earlier in the cool, have a break/siesta over the hottest period then work late.

I can’t say that I am unduly worried.

This the warmest indoor temperature I can remember. I survived, and life carried on around me.

It’s a few hot days, it will be fine. And it’s a good opportunity to pretend we live in Southern Spain for a few days, and behave like people who live in hot countries.

Get up early, do stuff, hide away as much as possible in the middle of the day with the windows & curtains closed. Eat very little during the day but drink loads of cold water. Have a cold shower. Come out after 9pm & have a light dinner late. Open the windows & leave them open overnight.

Keep her at home. That's fucking insane.

I'd rather be dead than live in a consistently hot country.

I don't go out during UK heatwaves unless I absolutely have to and have zero choice. I keep all my curtains shut.

What's this acclimatising thing? Sounds like a myth to me. Human beings from different parts of the world do not have physical adaptions that keep them cool as far as I am aware. People change their behaviour in to cope in different climates, yes, but how are their bodies adapted?

We live with those temps regularly plus high humidity, but our homes are designed for it and we have powerful air conditioning. The city also has cooling centers set up for anyone who can’t afford to run air conditioning or just in case your a/c breaks because not having it can be deadly for some people.

if you aren’t prepared for it, that really is frightening.

And all this about the Uk not being built to cope like other countries- people lived in hot countries long before air conditioning was invented.

Obviously has no idea what it is like on a ward. I am not going to correct you but please do not tell nurses that they have more opportunity to get a drink. I have worked many 12 hour shifts when I can can count on one hand how many small cups of water I managed to get.

I keep reading this advice, so have diligently been leaving windows and curtains closed all day, and yet my South and West facing lounge still ends up very uncomfortably hot by late afternoon. It was 30 degrees in here yesterday afternoon, right now it's 29 degrees, and on both days it feels cooler outside than inside. I did used to leave windows open in hot weather but it made no difference during the day - still hotter than hell and hotter than outside. There is bright sunshine sun shining in to my windows all afternoon and all evening.

It's not so much the temperature as it is the fact it's not a temperature we are used to getting here so of course it's going to affect people more.

If you live in a very hot country you're used to it. There's probably air conditioning in a lot of places. You know how to deal with the heat.

Similarly people who live in extremely cold countries know how to deal with it. People at very high altitude. We are all adapted to our surroundings. 🤷 It's not really very useful to talk about what is a bloody high temperature in the UK and say well, in X country it's always like that. This isn't X country and it isn't always like that!

My late mum in law visited the UK one summer. She was freezing cold! Wore jumpers. I was sweating buckets just looking at her!