To be terrified of the coming summer?

[screamingbanshees]

Last year there were 24,000+ heat-related deaths due to the heatwave, and the temperatures here were astronomical. It was the worst summer I've ever experienced, sweating constantly, sticking to every surface, always dehydrated, warm water coming out the cold tap, and sweating as soon as I stepped out of the bath. I also had a very unhappy, sweaty, screamy 1.5 year old!

AIBU to be absolutely dreading this year? Apparently the Met Office has claimed 2023 will have an even hotter summer. I don't know if I can bear it again. DP and I are thinking of booking a holiday just to be somewhere liveable. This is also the first winter I've actually enjoyed because of the relief from the heat.

Losing weight is a big game changer when it comes to summer.

YANBU. I'm also dreading it. Temperatures of 40 are insane in a country that is just not designed for such heat. On the hottest day I had three fans, wet towels etc and I felt like I could barely breathe. Sleep was pretty much impossible. Unfortunately heat and lack of sleep trigger migraines so I'm not keen on summer at the best of times, but last year was just awful.

If I lost any more weight I'd be on the brink of death.

Really? You think all it takes is a fan? I have a pretty good fan, it alone would have done fuck all the help as it was just pushing around hot air. During the hot days last summer I closed all my curtains from early morning till late evening, hung blankets and throws over them to try to keep the heat out, opened all the windows all night to let "cooler" air in, put ice in front of the fan. By the afternoons my flat was still like an oven. I think the blankets over the curtains kept it about a degree cooler than without. My bedroom at midnight was 28 to 30 degrees.

As some have said, we're all different. Some cope fine with hot weather, others find it unbearable. A lot of people on this thread seem not to be able to appreciate that just because they found it fine, lovely, not a problem, not that hot etc it doesn't mean everyone did. This feels like the competitive cold house threads - instead of declarations of "my house is 3 degrees C all day long and it's fine as long as I wear a jumper" it's "it was 37 degrees C and it was fine as long as I didn't wear a jumper"

I’m in south east and there was a few weeks where it was boiling last year, like high 30s, I didn’t mind though, it makes a change to rain!

OP, air con units exist! Get one!

I’m with you OP, I’m reallllly not looking forward to it. I also have a chronic illness, and a symptom of it is that my body struggles to regulate its temp. We went to the Dordogne last summer, and every single day it was 40 and above, far too hot to do any.proper sightseeing or activities, complete waste of a holiday.

To all these hot blooded types - be grateful! You won’t be shelling out loads of cash on your heating like everyone else this winter.

P.s how do you cope when you go on holiday?!

I live in the South and we got air con in our bedroom. Pure bliss on very hot days. Would like to have it in living room too but can’t justify the expense.

"sweating as soon as I stepped out of the bath"

Well having a bath in 40 degree heat probably didn't help. Have a cold shower surely?

Can't afford one and also couldn't go to a hot country due to allergy!

Also on holiday you can laze about , get in and out of water, there is often AC and you don't have to work so it's not really the same

I don't have a shower.

To be fair, holidays aren't the same as you don't have to go to work, commute or send your kids to school. Lots of people also avoid hot countries 🤷🏻‍♀️

@screamingbanshees I also hate very hot weather but there’s a lot you can do to plan for extreme heat or cold. Lined curtains and blinds help to keep heat or cold out. Start buying ice packs, ice lollies, insulated water bottles, fans, sports towels, water spray bottles, loose fitting cotton clothing etc a few weeks/months before summer begins. Work out how you can comfortably sleep downstairs or wherever your home is coolest. I started doing this many years ago because I live in the South East and we almost always have a week or two when the temperature will be above 30.

This thread is funny. Some serious summer lovers here. THIS IS NOT THE THREAD FOR YOU!

OP I completely agree. It was unbearable at times last summer and I dread it so much already. We had decent fans but it felt like they were just blowing hot air at us. I might splash out on an air conditioner soon actually because I don't want to go through it again!

I agree with you OP. I get migraines in the heat and I found last summer awful, and air quality was terrible too, so my ds with asthma found it difficult.

Great for those who enjoy it, or can afford aircon or to holiday somewhere cool, but not so much fun for those of us who are commuting on crowded trains and living and working in buildings not adapted to extreme heat.

Has anyone mentioned microfibre cooling towels? You can get them for a few quid on amazon. They're not miracle-workers but it's useful when you're out and about to have a towel in your bag that is instantly cool to drap on your shoulders or head.

Fucking roll on summer I am freezing.

That's not quite accurate. Plenty of posters have agreed with OP, including me.

Even though I live in a cooler part of the UK, I completely relate to the fact that some people find it extremely difficult to cope in hot weather (me!) People's homes, jobs, health etc are all different and not everyone has the same experience of hot temperatures. I'm fine as long as I'm lazing about, but the minute I have to DO anything, if there's no mitigation in place, I'm a mess. Not just physically, but mentally.

Meaco fans are quite effective (cheaper and better than Dyson).

A cooling scarf (microfibre) around your shoulders, a bowl of cool water for feet and having wet hair up in a bun also help.

OP, buy an aircon unit, I did in the hot summer of 2018 and it's literally changed my life, I used to dread summer too but now I can get out of it, it is so much better. We have one downstairs as well as in the bedroom now. Sweet relief.
PS Ours was about £220 from B&Q

Posters droning on about how it wasn't that hot and, if it was, it was only 4 days. People feel heat (and cold) differently. Surely that is well known?

I don't particularly feel the cold but do feel the heat. 25 degrees is too hot for me so last year was awful.

I get migraines in the heat and so felt ill for weeks.

A poster asked how do people cope on holiday. Well I don't go abroad in the summer because it is far too hot for me. DH loves the heat but thankfully he puts my comfort before himself.

I’m not sure why there have to be so many arguments about people not liking either cold or heat. People can’t survive in extreme cold or extreme heat so of course it causes stress. Usually, in this country winter is more extreme than summer but most of us have central heating that we now can’t afford to use.

Last summer, I actually booked an air conditioned Air bnb for the two days of very extreme temperatures. I would take the dogs into the garden and feel pretty horrified. I mean we can no longer kid ourselves that everything is fine when it’s 41C in England can we? And yet there were still idiots saying that it was just a normal summer! I’m not sure how anyone can be so unaware of their own psychology that they don’t think “Hmmm maybe I’m just trying to delude myself so that I avoid being terrified”. It’s perhaps a better way to live.

But anyway, I’m actually not dreading this summer because I’m moving from an upstairs flat in the south east to West Yorkshire in a few months. It’s generally 2 or 3 degrees cooler and the air is fresher. I also find that although there are hot days, it cools back down in between far more quickly than it does here.

Weve got two portable air conditioners but obviously they’re very expensive to run and they're very noisy. I only used ours on very hot days but they did make life more bearable.

New build flat with a low ceiling, too low for a fan. Not unusual in London, I don't think. On the upside, my heating is off right now. I will try to remember that in summer!

I appreciate what I'm about to type will be deeply unpopular and not in keeping with the popular mood but is it not worth considering that there's just a possibility last summer was an outlier and that the coming summer it might not end up being 40 ++?

Maybe as well as buying AC just in case it might be worth stocking up on cardigans and waterproof clothing just in case?

Of course it is, 1975 & 6 were not harbingers of doom either.