to think that many folk in the UK don't understand how dangerous extreme heat is?

[FunnysInLaJardin]

Seriously, telling a teacher to suck it up in a classroom with no aircon and 30 kids at 40 degrees.

I have many times experienced this kind of heat and you have to keep cool, otherwise it is truly dangerous

Good for you! You’re obviously not in the East Midlands where it’s forecast 37 today and 41 tomorrow.

You need to spend a few hours in plastic PPE in a hospital. Not a full 12-14 hrs like the rest of us obviously; you wouldn’t make it.

‘Lovely aircon’, you fool.

It is just after 9am here in the south of England. I am sitting outside…. In a cardigan! It is perfectly pleasant in the shade.

I have been (lived) in countries during heatwaves. People have absolutely no idea. True heat is when you can barely breathe and there is no difference in temperature in the shade because the air is so thick with humidity (I’m sure that’s not the right term!).

It's a bit four Yorkshiremen, this thread.

What is the relevance of that! While the U.K. has been slow to adopt the metric system, Fahrenheit hasn’t been used weather forecasting for years and, using Celsius, 41 is indeed almost double f the average of 21.

It's all the chefs that I worry about, it is hot in those kitchens to begin with.

ITS 2 DAYS!!!!

I cannot believe the drama

I will be outside for the 2 days looking after animals - in the direct sun all day for both days

and …….. I’ll cope I’m sure!

41 forecast for tomorrow where I am - just get on with it !

no one in real life is causing a drama over this - just on here!
probably the same people that are still hysterical about Covid 🤷‍♀️

“Schools need to invest in good aircon”. Hmmmph. Anyone remember 2004? 2007? Or 2012 (The Olympics will be a washout!). That year school sports day and fete were cancelled due to waterlogged field. I can remember 1977 and six weeks of wearing an anorak in the holidays. Those were all appalling summers. In fact even last year I think we sat outside twice. The worst run of summers was apparently the 1950s until 1959 when there was a heatwave.

Now, I’m not denying global warming at all, but installing air conditioning in every school is a) a bit hasty and b) detrimental to the environment.

👏👏👏👏👏👏

@BustopherPonsonbyJones I'm retired, so my life is one long holiday 👍
It doesn't stop me from having empathy for those who have to continue to work in this weather.
Kids won't die from being in a classroom.

Frezia · Today 01:26
are lots of people in my local FB group shitposting about the snowflake generation wanting to close down schools because of a bit of hot weather and how they would never have survived The 1976...

Time to point out that the hot weather of 1976 took place in August when all English schools were closed for the holidays.

@MissTrip82 the OP didn't say "lovely aircon" but don't let facts stop you from being an arse

This thread is so feckin" British it's infuriating. A teacher can't express concern about being in a classroom with no aircon, minimal ventilation on the hottest days that the UK has seen in history, because others have MUCH harder jobs and will be MUCH hotter and WILL JUST GET ON WITH IT. How DARE she be concerned about how she and the kids will cope?? She should be fucking WELDING or PUTTING OUT FIRES, then she'd know what true heat really is.
Never mind loads of posters accusing her of saying "lovely aircon" when she didn't say that!!!!!!!

(And I'm an AHP who's going to spend the next couple of days in houses which are very much not airconditioned wearing full PPE)

Don’t know much about the rest of the world but in Italy schools are closed for 3 months summer holiday from June till August!

in addition, in hotter countries buildings are designed for the heat. So smaller windows and shutters. So many schools in the U.K. have a sea of windows and no curtains or shutters. Those windows can’t be left open at night; some don’t even open much during the day. Some schools built before WW2 will probably be fine; schools built in the 60s & 70s definitely not!

The number of threads on which some posters castigate others who are risk-assessing and planning ahead has somewhat surprised me.

So I expect we will be seeing avoidable casualties.

@Norgie I had one in hospital on Weds from heat stroke. So, no, she didn't die, but she did have 24 hours on a drip.

🤣🤣🤣👏👏👏

Yes this is really important to note. Schools are all different. Some will be fine; some will be unbearable.

@IneffableGenderFairy 😂😂 my thoughts entirely. In my day we had to go to school with no shoes on down the tube as people were bombing us (actually, that was my parents schooling). They had it tough. Doesn't mean carrying on regardless to the detriment of others is a good idea. Over 2,000 students at my school and the rooms are old, some of them v high up and we have cladding to keep heat in. Site staff have told me that the top rooms are already 38° and that's with no one in them.
My DD will be in the wards today v v hot. Others have it much worse, but why would we put kids at risk when there is no need. Primary I get as it's needed for childcare. Secondary schools if it's 40, just no. I remember 1976 as a summer of fun - but I also remember the water supply being buckets from the standpipe in the street and having to queue in the morning. Oh, and it was August, so no school.

Thank you! You made this very hot mum lol 😅

"Other workplaces restaurants, offices, be it hospitals supermarkets have lovely aircon" hahahhahahaha
DHs hospital managed to finally turn the heating off in his office on Friday (it's been on all year up to now) . Aircon is restricted to a few operating theatres /labs otherwise the hospital is hot as hell and there is only central control for the heating which is still often on in summer.
DHs office (/cupboard) does have a window now but it only opens an inch.
The wards are slightly better thank god.
When in the aircon spaces he will be wearing leads so will be hot and sweaty anyway.
My brothers restaurant has aircon for customers but the windowless kitchen where he works does not, it's roasting in there in winter.
Schools are often badly designed for this kind of weather but so is lots of the UKs building stock. We have been used to fairly moderate conditions and issues such as rain have been more of a problem.
It can be done both in new builds and retrofits without resorting to aircon everywhere but that requires skill and knowledge which is sadly often value engineered out of projects.

It's worth remembering that even the worst equipped school is going to be cooler than some kids' homes, especially if they're overcrowded, on the top floor of a block, and their parents aren't going to make sure they cool down or might put them outside for the day.

A home would have to be particularly bad to be worse than many schools. In a top floor flat you are safe to leave the windows open all night and can keep the curtains closed all day.

Full of empathy and able to see the future too - why don’t you use your retirement wisely and act as an adviser to COBRA. The fact that a red alert/state of emergency has been declared suggests it could be serious and this is because of the fact there is a risk to human life. Children get heatstroke. Heatstroke is deeply unpleasant and can put even young, healthy people in hospital. and yes, it’s only two days but that’s enough to cause a lot of illness.

It’s like bloody covid all over again. Not only do viruses not get into schools but we are exempt from feeling the same temperatures as the rest of the country. It’s bloody amazing so I can’t understand why we are so short of teachers. Let’s hope the weather isn’t as hot as has been forecast anyway.

I think the difference is that if we could all relax in a shady garden with a cardigan this hot weather spell would be a piece of cake!

It's the people that have to commute, work long shifts, ferry little kids or old people here and there (vulnerable) or who are easily affected by heat and who have no access to air con or a garden/shade (people are different, right?) that may be at risk. Cities trap heat, too - being in the country at 40 wont feel like being in a city at 40.

I don't know why people tend to get so macho over this! I'll do fine in the heat with my shady garden and WFH flexibility and my shutters. I don't underestimate how lucky I am and how easy it is for me - and I also know it'll be really rough for a lot of people who don't have those things. It's likely we will get more of this weather over time, so we need to adapt, and one adaptation is not posturing all over the place, having a go at people who are quite rightly a bit concerned that 40 degrees might be dangerous for some (because it is).