This is it - climate change is really beginning to bite

[Wowwee1234]

We know the climate is changing and it is us. This particular heat wave feels like the next step up after a winter of devastating storms.

YABU - It's just too hot
YANBU - This is the taste of things to come.

All of the human races (piss poor) attempts at net zero could (and probably will) be wiped out in a few hours when the next big volcano decides it's bored.

Once again, this isn't a reason for doing nothing. Merely a suggestion that we do something productive instead.

Did it hit 40°C?

No. It did in 2022.

I wish that the Boomers on this thread would stop banging on about 1976. It was notable because it was unusual for its time. Extreme weather is becoming much more frequent, last month was the hottest June in England since records began.

I lived through 1976 and can confirm it was very much a one-off.

I was out with friends yesterday and one was chatting with her son. She said that the 30 years before his birth were completely different weather wise to the 30 since.

Any idiot can point to a dot and say "see" - indeed it's clear many are. What they need to do (or ask a friend if it involves scissors) is take 1970-1980 (for example) and overlay it onto 1980-1990, then 1990-2000, then 2000-2010 and then 2010-2020. Apart from keeping them busy and from butting into serious discussions, it would show an upward trend every decade. If UK productivity had followed the same trajectory, we'd all be millionaires by now.

Remember when that Icelandic volcano erupted back in 2010? The flights grounded as a result saved about as much as it emitted.

Irrelevant. Average temperatures being higher is the problem, not a comparison of one off days

Not really sure that can be used as a way forward though.

My DM is 89 and says the same. Her legs have swelled up due to the heat. They will soon moan like fuck when she is sat in front of them in A&E

I don't think we should stop flying. We should just decarbonise aviation.

Other countries have air conditioning In the UK we have yoghurt on the outside of windows Would love for this academic to show me how someone who lives in a tower block is supposed to do this.
Absolute fucking stupidity.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg4rg3nqq7go?app-referrer=deep-link

1976 was the only year in the 1960s and 1970s when the temperature went above 30°C. There were no years in the 1980s and 1990s when the temperature went above 30°C. There were 5 years this century when the temperature went above 30°C. They were 2005, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2025. In 2022 the temperature went above 40°C for the first time ever.

There were no years in the 1980s and 1990s when the temperature went above 30°C.

On 3 August 1990, London recorded around 37 °C (98.6 °F) at Heathrow, which was at the time one of the UK's highest ever temperatures.

I remember this as there was a discussion on the radio about whether a car could be fined for parking on yellow lines that had been obscured by melted tarmac. (The answer was yes, by the way).

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/17/weatherwatch-august-1990-record-hot-teperature

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Yes, you're quite right. I stand corrected. bookworm17 has also said 1990 was an exceptionally hot year. Different sources seem to be saying different things but all of them are saying we have had many more years of above 30°C this century than in the last. This is what Microsoft Copilot says

Notable Years with 30°C+ Temperatures

• 1976: One of the most infamous heatwaves, with nine consecutive June days above 30°C.
• 1990: Multiple days over 30°C, including a peak of 37.1°C in Cheltenham.
• 2003: A European-wide heatwave pushed UK temperatures to 38.5°C in Kent.
• 2018: A prolonged hot summer with several days above 30°C across England.
• 2019: Cambridge hit 38.7°C — a new record at the time.
• 2022: The UK shattered its all-time record with 40.3°C in Coningsby, Lincolnshire.
• 2023: Heathrow recorded 30.5°C in June, marking the first 30°C+ day since 2022.
• 2024: Brief but intense heat spell in late June saw multiple stations exceed 30°C.
• 2025: As of July, several regions have already hit 30°C+, with Cardiff reaching 33.1°C

This seems to confirm that 1990 was hot as well as 1976. It's even worse though than what I wrote before.

Incidentally, the fact we no longer have melty tarmac intrigued me. It suggests that someone, somewhere had a clue back in the 1990s

https://www.rsta-uk.org/winter-gritters-repair-summers-melting-roads

Not true. There were temperatures over 30 degrees recorded more than once in:

1906, 1947, 1975, 1976, 1983. 1990, 1995 and 1997

This is it, exactly. Although my mum did used to call June "flaming June" when I was a kid so I guess there was a time it was hot...I just remember it being rainy!

It's amusing how all the "we lived through '76" voices forget those. Maybe it's age thing. Although I remember 76 and am not yet looking for my marbles.

Patronising.

We shouldn’t have to bring our own electrical equipment into school in order to be able to work at a comfortable temperature.

Even if I was willing to take my home fan into school, I’d be very selfish to do so, as my husband works from home and needs it here.

And aside from those arguments, my own personal fan wouldn’t have been PAT tested and would therefore be forbidden.

I am sure there are some employers who would charge employees for using their own electrical devices at work. If only for the fact that otherwise some cheeky fucker will be charging their EV on it.

This. It's set to cool down again next week.

We definitely didn’t have summers like this in the 80s and 90s.

The record for the hottest ever recorded temperature in the UK was a couple of years ago, where my local Met office weather station recorded over 40c which was surprisingly not the hottest temperature in the country!

the hottest 10 years on record have all occurred in the last 20 years.

www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2025/met-office-july-weather-records

That's interesting. Not 1911 then. According to a page on Wikipedia in 1911 the temperature got up to 36.7°C in Raunds, Northamptonshire. Just goes to show we need to have a definitive source of our information.

On this page is a chart of the 10 hottest days in the UK. 1990 is in there along with 1911. All the other days are in this century. 1976 doesn't even get a mention.
United Kingdom weather records - Wikipedia

Isn't having kids the very worst thing for the environment? Yet tell people you're not having kids for that reason and people think you're crazy!

The very fact people are worrying about their grandchildren's children points to them thinking they actually have the luxury to have as many kids as they want. Well maybe they do, but I'm not sure if the planet has that luxury...we just need fewer people that's the bottom line.

Isn't having kids the very worst thing for the environment? Yet tell people you're not having kids for that reason and people think you're crazy!

We are waaaaaaayy past that now. All we can do is weather the storm (so to speak). The time to build shelter was 50, 60 years ago.

And some rabbit holes lead to permanently damaged children.

Which is the worst rabbit hole?