To wonder why some people really enjoy this heat?

[Reflectionson]

I’m sweating, I feel anxious, I’ve got a headache and I feel sick. This is what this kind of heat does to me. It’s like torture. There’s no way to cool down properly, unlike in the winter when you can warm up with a blanket and hot water bottle.

I’m actually wondering if it’s a genetic thing. Feels like some people actually enjoy laying in this heat out in the sunshine.

I like it but am on school hols so have the luxury of not doing a lot. There’s shade and a fan when it gets too much. Plus you know it’s going to be very short lived. Still, it’s not for everyone I know.

I have a very high tolerance to heat and a very low tolerance to cold.

I find it much easier to cool down in summer than to warm up in winter. When it's really cold, no amount of layers or warm things seems to help, the cold just penetrates it all and I can't escape it!

I can understand that some people feel the same way about the heat as I do about the cold.

Also I actually do quite like feeling sweaty. Obviously many people do otherwise saunas wouldn't exist.

I am loving it I ache when it is cold and damp so this is perfect weather for me
Sorry you are suffering OP it will be over soon and then I will be miserable and we can swap

I love it, though I also find it concerning from a climate point of view. I think a fair amount is genetic. I’m good in the heat, my parents are good in the heat. I don’t burn easily. I’m slim and physically quite fit which I think helps too. I don’t tend to get sweaty or feel particularly overheated. I also seem to acclimatise to it quickly!

I have a campervan and time to use it but I’m not going to use it in weather like this - it’s just too hot inside the van.

If you get hot stay in the shade or the house.

It's still far too hot, unless you are fortunate enough to have air conditioning to reduce the temperature. 25 is a hot enough summer day, not 35.

I love the heat and the sunshine. I don’t feel overly hot or sweaty either. Sunshine and hot weather makes me happy - the winter months don’t.

It's also ok to be sweaty and feel hot, I can accept it as a body experience. If you stop thinking this is abnormal but embrace it, it just becomes a different sensation.

Agree with this. I'm currently in the tropics and used to live in a desert country, so pretty much permanent sweat. Getting sweaty is horrible, in that first five minutes when you've just stepped out of your air conditioned house post morning shower and can feel your lovely clean, dry skin start to get all damp and sticky again. But once you are sweaty, if you can just relax into the feeling and accept it instead of trying to get yourself clean all the time then it's fine. I think the problem in the UK is that we're not used to it so we do try to fight it, whereas if you're somewhere that's always hot then the futility of trying to do anything about it becomes obvious very quickly and you have no choice but to get used to it.

I will say though that I can't stand being even a bit hot when I'm trying to sleep. At night it's air conditioning and/or fans all the way

Because it feels soooo good! And I have SAD so it’s nice not to feel miserable for a change.

I love it!!! Makes me feel like I'm on holiday! ☀️☀️👍

I enjoy it but what I hate is the constant faff of suncream on the kids. My 10 year old son brings his friends round so to play in the garden so I'm having to apply factor 50 to multiple kids every day! I don't mind too much though, we'll all be moaning when it's pissing down with rain again.

My flat is like a sauna, so staying in the house doesn't help me. The office at work is relatively cool so I'll be here tomorrow too, and then at the weekend will probably spend some time in a shopping centre or supermarket to take advantage of the air conditioning, and some time in a large park with lotd of trees for the shade.

I do find it interesting that while I, like the OP, feel overheated and uncomfortable and horribly sweaty in hot and humid weather, others feel absolutely fine, and presumably don't get at all sweaty. The human body is amazing in its vast range of reactions to heat.

The issue for me is people naively enjoying this as “gorgeous weather” - crops are literally failing throughout Europe, lakes are drying up. This isn’t a lovely summer, it’s a worrying symptom of climate change and the impacts on food prices are going to be horrendous. Farmers are saying this is even impacting feed for cattle, so there will be knock on effects through winter too. I struggle to bask in the sun and enjoy it given the context.

But do I usually enjoy a warm dry spell when it’s mellowed by rainfall and the world isn’t about to set on fire? Sure I do!

I'm not in the UK but somebody said about sleeping with a duvet? It can't be that hot if you have duvets on the bed surely?

"This heat" varies in different parts of the UK.

I have taken a few days off work to enjoy this heat. Today it actually got to 27C which was glorious. I am loving being outdoors and soaking up the rays.

We had rain for most of the last heatwave so I am making the most of the lovely weather.

I don't fancy living down south though because I wouldn't enjoy the extreme heat.

Getting sweaty is horrible, in that first five minutes when you've just stepped out of your air conditioned house post morning shower and can feel your lovely clean, dry skin start to get all damp and sticky again. But once you are sweaty, if you can just relax into the feeling and accept it instead of trying to get yourself clean all the time then it's fine. I think the problem in the UK is that we're not used to it so we do try to fight it, whereas if you're somewhere that's always hot then the futility of trying to do anything about it becomes obvious very quickly and you have no choice but to get used to it.

This is an interesting oint. I am someone who usually does fight the sweaty sticky feeling. I have been on some long distance non air conditioned buses/coaches in very hot climates, After the first 20 minutes of so of thinking about how horrid it felt to be really sweaty, I decided that as I could do nothing about it I just had to accept it, and it did sort of stop feeling so horrid and start feeling normal /ok. I think perhaps the being in a hot country, on holiday, which is a situation where you might expect to feel hot and sweaty possibly helped. Sitting in my lounge or on a British bus while really sweaty seems not normal so maybe that's why it makes me feel horrid.

Very well said @Blueberrywitch. This heat feels menacing to me for exactly the reasons you describe.

I love it. Feel physically and mentally better in the sun. I’m soaking it up to get me through winter! You have to have the right mindset though. Accept a slower pace and being sweaty and shiny. Love those summery food and drinks.

Definitely no duvet here, I've been sleeping under just a sheet since sometime in June. I think the person who mentioned a duvet is someone who loves the heat and doesn't feel overheated in it, thus can sleep under a duvet without boiling to death.

I'm neither sweating nor feeling overheated.

I'm feeling relaxed and sun - soaked. I don't really sit in the sun but I love to sit in the shade with my book and cold drink and look out at the beautiful blue sky.

Days feel endless and easy - everything slows down, can always cool off by going for an outdoor swim or having a cool shower and sitting in front of a fan.

Going to sit in the garden this evening and have an ice cold gin and tonic whilst DH fires up the BBQ. Bliss.

Much better than in winter when I really have I guard myself against SAD.

Yes! I love that too!

People in the UK are just shit at weather, too hot or too cold. Lots of places have very hot or very cold weather, quite a few have both depending on the time of year. Wear the right clothes, plan your day to do things when the temperature allows it. When we had the 40C days the other week, a colleague came into the office first thing and complained it was cold because we had shut the windows and put the blinds down as this was the shaded part of the day. Despite everyone explaining the windows were opened and blinds up so everyone was roasted at 2pm when the sun hit the windows. Just because she was wearing a tiny sundress and could not put a cardigan on.

Loads of threads on here about 'just getting on with it because people in other countries do' - conveniently forgetting that they actually adapt to account for the heat. So no rushing around at the hottest part of the day or wearing less with skin exposed instead of appropriate fabrics, keeping rooms cool by blocking out the sun etc. They are not all sitting by or pool or in air-conditioned apartments like we do on holiday but carrying day- to- day. I love the sun, harder when working- particularly as I have to undertake visits and be out and about. However I am not digging roads etc so cannot really complain.

I think anyone who lives in a built up area, doesn’t have air con, and enjoys mid 30s+ temperatures is a freak.

But they’re also the winners of runaway climate change so really I guess I wish I was one of them.

YANBU if that’s how you feel. It’s horrible feeling too hot- my DD says exactly the same thing about not being able to escape from the heat in the same way you can warm up from the cold. That said, I am personally loving this heat- it’s 30 degrees here today which is perfect. When it was 41 a few weeks ago that was too much but this is lovely. I’m pretending I’m in Greece. But I’m lucky that I’m not having to run around outside - if I was doing that I wouldn’t be so smug!!

Should also add that if anyone is finding it too hot go and hang out in your local supermarket chiller aisle. From experience Morrisons is the coldest but any will do!