When did the narrative around warm weather change?

[Katypp]

It used to be considered a lovely thing if we had a warm summer. Older people (me!) have happy memories of summer 76 and endless days playing outside in shorts during the holidays.
No it seems to be considered a bad thing, with people complaing about the heat, getting agitated about children going to school or even going outside at all. Weather forecasters wanging on about 'staying hydrated' as if we are children and delivering the forecasts as if it is a bad thing that we can enjoy nice weather for once.
Why are we so joyless, sucking on to bottles of water as if they were dummies and seemingly afraid to venture outside in case we self-combust.
Yes i know ow global warming and skin cancer but our reaction to a pleasant day is somewhat OTT i think.

I was a child in 76 and remember being sent home from school with heatstroke. I passed out and vomited.

If you love the heat, good for you. The heat, humidity and very high pollen has played havoc with my asthma and sleep - neither of which are my usual triggers. So, yes, I feel miserable in the heat.

I had my first child in 1976, at 24. It was hard to keep a 4 month old cool. I remember setting off to walk into town 40 minutes away with my big pram and a canopy to shade the baby. I stopped at a phone box on the way to phone my mum (no home phone or mobile) I can still smell the reek and feel the temperature in that phone box! I had to hold the door open with my foot. My mum told me I should go home, it was too hot to be out. I can even remember what I was wearing a wrapover cheesecloth skirt in orange and yellow stripes, and a yellow teeshirt. A little glimpse of my would-be-hippy 70s life 🤣

Was is this hot though?

I remember the long hot Summers in the 80s and 90s. But it was like 25 degrees. Not over 30.

I don’t ever rem bed temperatures reaching 30 degrees.

Funny, my mother has a completely different view of the summer of 76. As a baby, I spent the entire summer with prickly heat. She recalls it being horrendous as she was unable to be outside with us for very long. There was a hosepipe ban so all her greenhouse and garden plants died (despite her carting bathwater down there to water them) so that means we had less fresh veg as we were skint. Trying to keep three young kids occupied and cool was not at all a fun time for her. The local pool was shut down and the beach, which was close by, was mobbed, not that she could have us there a lot as it was too hot. She spent a fortune she couldn’t afford on suncreams.

‘76 was not just a few days of hot weather, it was one of the most prolonged heat events in our history, lasting ten weeks with no let up, leading to one of the most serious droughts we had. This impacted on farming and led to a terrible harvest that autumn (and for a few years after). Summer deaths were 20% higher than in previous years. We need to stop romanticising that “lovely” 76 summer and suggesting people are stupid for being careful now during heatwaves.

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1976-07-01/1976-07-31?basicsearch=heatwave&exactsearch=false&retrievecountrycounts=false

Lots of negative stories here

Basically children.experience things differently to adults. And are less likely to be aware of the downsides to a heat wave or be reading negative newspaper articles.

Has it occurred to you that it’s not the same people?

I will complain it’s too hot. It has not uplifted my spirits. You will not hear me complaining that it’s too cold when the temperature drops to zero. You won’t hear me complaining about it being too wet either.

That's more because Fahrenheit was the version most people used and understood before there had been a few batches of kids learning EU measurements - they may very well have used Centigrade alongside Fahrenheit since the 60s in weather forecasts, but they were still doing both well into the 1980s, as that's how I learned 16 and 61 were acceptable temperatures and above 20 was when I was likely to pass out and/or get burned to the point of blistering.

My 1976 was spent being kept indoors, occasionally being allowed into the back garden before anybody got up for work/school or in the evening when my mother would run the hosepipe up to her beans so that nobody would see her. On the rare occasions I was allowed out, once I was bitten by a ladybird, once I tripped over because the pavements had cracked all the way down the street and the other ended with me being banned from going out in summer at all for the next nine years because I became really ill after walking with her about a mile to a shop and collapsed after crying that my head and legs hurt. And then years later, on the first day she decided as I was 15, it was probably OK to leave the house in hot weather, I fainted twice before midday and woke up in hospital at about 1pm with a doctor taking a rather painful core temperature reading.

We are weak about everything now. See also schools closing because of a military of snow.

Yeah getting worked up about silly little things like skin cancer and global warming

My DMs legs have swollen badly due to the heat Shes 89 Imagine this replicated 100s of times over If she has to go to A&E i hope she gets seen before you if you also happen to be there

I’m guessing because the internet wasn’t around for people to moan publicly.
I do agree that people are getting more dramatic in general, but equally we never heard about other people’s thoughts on hot weather back then unless they were people we knew and talked to.

I’m in my 30’s with two very young children and YANBU, I love it…the way the sun shines through the house in the morning and it’s not all dark and depressing like winter is, being able to just throw on a vest and shorts, children playing barefoot in the pool and being outdoors all day.

During lovely weather like this we get out early for a walk and breakfast picnic or all go for a wild swim/paddle and our children are so much happier and really thrive in the warmer temperatures. Weirdly we all sleep better even though we have no fans/air conditioning, I haven’t found it ‘too hot’ yet this summer at all!

I was 17 and carefree in 1976. It was a great summer for me and my friend and we have fond memories of it. I don’t remember it being as hot as I’ve found the weather this week but now I’m 66 and find it difficult to do anything outside in this heat. I remember the standpipes and the empty reservoirs.

Indeed, the internet was how the fear and panic of Covid swept round the world so quickly.

The only year it was “a lovely summer” was 2020, the year we were not allowed to enjoy it, and the “selfish arseholes” were “flocking” to the beaches, people were distracted from “climate change”. I noticed that Greta was very quiet then as well - she had been put back on her box for other kinds of doom to be wheeled out. She wasn’t even brought out to say “you see, giving up flying is not so bad after all”.

I remember noticing some years ago that temperatures are suddenly quoted in Fahrenheit for hot summers; and now I think this makes them sound scarier. “Temperatures in the high eighties.”
Where are you hearing people use Fahrenheit all of a sudden? I haven't heard anyone outside the US quote any temperatures in Farenheit pretty much ever. Certainly not on any news outlet.

Do you mean the 1976 heatwave where there were plenty of government warnings about the weather,

Strange how that's the only year that is referenced despite the many years of endless summers 😆

I think June was the hottest June on record...

My childhood summers in the 80s & 90s were not endless super hot days, I remember a fair bit of rain!

We need to stop romanticising that “lovely” 76 summer and suggesting people are stupid for being careful now during heatwaves.

Amen, the romanticising is really odd.

Has it occurred to you that it’s not the same people?

Yes it is. 😆

Yeah, I always find this odd too. There have been quite a number of long hot summers since, yet it's the 1976 summer that people always bang on about.

It's like The Football World Cup 1966. Even though England won it, it was the only time England did, and it was nearly 60 years ago. Yet some people parp on like it was 3-4 years ago.

I complain in real life about the heat. And so do loads of my friends 😂.

We now have a hose pipe ban, which limits things and the potential of further restrictions due to lack of rain. Not sure that is something to celebrate.

I always think 25 is too hot, and will never complain about the cold. I love the sunshine, but it’s been over 30 here for a few days and it’s too much. I couldn’t even go outside yesterday until 7pm.

We have a dying traditional news media as people increasingly turn to social media and other sources (wrongly or rightly) to find out what's going on. When was the last time you bought a newspaper? I can't remember when I did. People are turning off tv news as it's seen to be biased or detrimental to their mental health. So everything is weaponised to make the world a terrifying place to attract attention to the papers, Sky/Fox news etc. Everyday things are portrayed as a threat now. I think a lot of people have a poor assessment of risk as well.

My son has really fond memories of 2020. I heard him and his friends reminiscing the other day. Because he was a young child, he didn't see the negative news stories or have the same concerns adults have (the economy, my job, who looks after him if I'm sick, relatives). In the same way, you and the original poster don't remember negativity from when you were younger. Because you were children. Now you are adults

I agree the.internet/social media has changed things. But the letters pages in newspapers from the past weren't all sunshine and optimism.