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.

Yes! We're in Essex too and the 40+ heat was only just for a few days but the rest of the time it was still over 30! I'm sure it went on for weeks. When I was a kid it would be over 30 for a few days but now that seems to be the average. It was a horrible summer last year

Wikipedia can be a wonderful source. The heatwaves were Europe-wide, not just UK-wide, which is even more concerning and it's a very clear signal that global warming is already upon us.

And of course OP is allowed to be frightened but it won't actually change anything and will just ruin the next six months 🤷🏻‍♀️

I just remembered the wild fires too! They were scarily close to our house, we could smell the smoke

people saying it wasn't hot last summer do you live on another planet?! I live in the south east and oh my god it was another level , weeks and weeks of soaring temperatures! I was going to bed hugging a frozen hot water bottle with a fan on full blast every night. I was 8 months pregnant at the time too which didn't help 🥲

Climate change will be terrible for the world.
But the worst hot weather we are likely to experience in the UK is what other countries regularly experience.
I have a portable air-con and used it in the bedroom for the 3 very hot nights last year. Otherwise it was quite tolerable where I live in E of England.

I really do sympathise, I truly run with sweat when it's hot and hated last summer. I found that a tower fan helped in my bedroom but eventually bought a portable air conditioner which kept the temperature down a bit.
We had to put the hose through the window last year but now have holes drilled through the walls so it should work better and I can move the conditioner about..
Obviously the only way to really get the temperature right down is full air conditioning in, say, living room and bedroom. But this is way beyond most peoples' budgets and you have to be able to put the external part of the equipment somewhere which isn't always possible.

Ok- go ahead and spend your life in terror, thats your choice. But to me, that doesnt seem like a very pleasant or healthy way to live worrying about something that "might" happen. However, if you think thats a productive and helpful use of time then go ahead. By the way- stress/elevated cortisol severely affects the immune system and causes a whole host of other physical health problems so if you think terror wont affect you then think again.

If you don't mind me asking what kind of air con unit did you buy? After the horrendous heat last summer I was considering buying one but they are expensive and I didn't know where to start x

So when you said 24,000 what you actually meant was 3,000

I doubt the OP had her central heating on during the heatwave 😂

I was largely OK inside. It was not feeling able to go outside, often for days on end, that was the biggest issue for me. An air conditioner doesn't help with that.

All you climate change deniers out there do you not watch the news ? What about the fires in London and other places last summer? School day trips cancelled because of the heat etc

It all seems a bit over dramatic.
Posting European heatwave death numbers seems disingenuous to me, and as a PP said, you didn’t look at the displacement.
I don’t doubt that you didn’t enjoy it, but it really wasn’t for long so “terrified” just seems to be silly. You’ll sweat, but you’ll live. And a week after that you can be terrified about winter temperature and fuel prices.

I feel exactly the same about winter! I am so tired of feeling freezing all the time except in my car. I cannot wait for summer

Oh you meant western Europe wide, not just uk.

Of course heatwave will be all over not just in UK... I mean like, come on.

24 000 people died out of 300 000 000+.
While it was unusually hot, 24k out of that many people is not "terrifying". Brutal, but let's be realistic.

If you have certain health conditions it is very concerning, if you are averagly healthy person, just use common sense

I'm due at the end of May and I cannot wait for summer. Long days, no coats, washing on the line, lovely walks.

I'm south east and agree that we had about 5 or 6 days of really hot weather, the day it reached 40 degrees weren't particularly enjoyable but I don't remember the rest of the time being any hotter than previous summers.

We won't be going on holiday for a couple of years so DH is planning on buying an air con unit for our bedroom so if it's really hot, the baby and us will be able to get some sleep.

On the hottest day last year, I was at work for 11 hours. I work in care, so had a mask on and thick compression tights as I am on my feet a lot. It was 36° here.
It was fine.
The only part of the day that I found too hot was when I sat outside for my lunch directly in the midday sun, in the shade was ok though.
We're all different. 🤷

Wow, just saw where you live. We must be thinking of very different summers….

It’s funny how it’s perfectly acceptable to collective hate the cold weather but not the extreme heat in the summer.

Honestly people are downright dim to think a paddling pool and a fan are going to deal with the extreme summers that are going to be part of our lives from now on. And pretending we didn’t have an extreme summer last year is ridiculous, we can all remember it and if your short term memory is that bad, look up the weather records.

OP, climate change is terrifying and it’s fine to acknowledge that. One of the reasons I moved back to the U.K. was extremes of weather further south in Europe were already starting to get too much.

I live near where the peak was recorded, we actually had road closures due to melted tarmac on the roads, the hospitals were really struggling. Trains were cancelled due to the rails overheating.

It was more than 4 days. I had to walk the dog at 5 am and 11pm not looking forward to it again. But I hate the heat.

Was it hot? Sure.

Was it so hot it's worth panicking about six months in advance when it might not even happen again?

No, probably not.

Tbh more elderly die from
December to February because humans are not well adapted to cold, believe it or not.

Death rates in summer are demonstrably lower, although will be temporarily elevated during heat wave

I remember being happy to discover that a massive fan only cost 24p tp run all night...