to think we lose our minds in the UK with any kind of weather event!

[MargoLivebetter]

I appreciate we are a small island just off the Atlantic that generally enjoys a very benign climate with limited extremes. But I do think we collectively lose our noodles if there is any kind of extreme predicted. I don't think it is helped by the media who seem to like to hype everything up and be as alarmist as they possibly can be.

I often think to myself if a hostile country wanted to invade us all they'd have to do is wait for there to be half an inch of snow in the ground (in England) and just walk on in. Or they could maybe pick a really hot day and again there'd be no one manning the posts because of extreme danger to life!

I have every sympathy for the elderly, health compromised and very hairy dogs in hot weather, but most healthy people should really be able to cope. It is hardly like we are all toiling in the fields for nine hours with scythes and mattocks.

tell me about it! in winter mention snow then you find Tesco's full of folk stockpiling bread loo rolls enough food to last them a lifetime. All that for just a few small flakes of snow and places do not shut usually.
Hot weather and its all grabbing fans' ACs any and every type of drinks leavin gaps in the supermarkets!

What an original post OP. Never seen before.

A red warning is a danger to everyone not just the elderly or vulnerable

The Met Office does not issue red warnings lightly. To do so they have to look at the impact of national
infrastructure closing down. When they do it is be amuse there is genuine risk to life.

Where I live we are looking at a temperature of 40 degrees and a humidity of 92% on Thursday. That means that the human body cannot effectively cool itself by sweating.

There is a thing called the wet bulb number. Good explanation here: https://www.reading.ac.uk/news/2026/Expert-Comment/UK-heatwave-experts-comment-as-records-set-to-be-broken
When the wet bulb reaches 35 that is the point that young, fit, healthy adults with no underlying health conditions start dying from the heat. We are predicted temperatures and humidities that put our wet bulb number in the high 20’s. That is unprecedented for this country.

So yes, whilst this country does enjoy to complain and exaggerate about the weather, this latest message is accurate. The heat on Wednesday and Thursday is life threatening.

Had to be done! Just thought I'd get in there first on this occasion! 😂 Thank you for keeping it alive with a comment.

I've just been for a lunchtime walk. It's hot but not dangerously so that I can see. Drink plenty of water, wear thin loose clothing, don't rush, stay in the shade wherever possible, and it's pleasantly warm.

I can see it would be an issue if caught in a snarl-up on a motorway without water, or to people who cannot naturally regulate their body temperatures such as small babies or the very elderly, but not otherwise.

I'd cope better if I was bought that mr frosty I'd asked for as a kid

I went to the office in London today on public transport and it was perfectly copable. However I would rather the met office issued warnings and people listened - we have a lot of people in the UK who seem to be unable to contemplate adjusting their plans or behaviour for the weather - i mean look at all the people on here who still think opening windows when it is 36 degrees outside is a good idea!

Indeed, we do. All sense of perspective is lost.

Can't say that it's a new thing, though. It always seems to have been this way.

Agreed. I went for a run first thing when it was already about 20 degrees, been out since now it’s 30 and it’s fine. Granted I’m young and healthy. Just keep hydrated and wear loose clothes. I went on holiday to Italy a couple of years back and it was 35-36 degrees every day, I walked 20-30k steps a day and was absolutely fine.

Yeah, if you want to spend half an hour furiously grinding to produce a thimble full of thin ice that melts before you get a chance to eat it, maybe. I was one of the lucky ones to actually get a Mr Frosty and it was the biggest disappointment of my young life 😂

Do you think you know better than the experts?

It’s because the UK isn’t built for extremes. We don’t have aircon as standard everywhere, we don’t have snow ploughs in every neighbourhood. So when there is extreme heat or a dumping of snow /ice, it impacts life more than it would elsewhere.

You don't think the fact that we're a generally very mild country that doesn't have consistent extremes of weather, might be why we're not used to dealing with it?

We don't get a shitload of snow in the winter, so it's not a good use of money for build the infrastructure to deal with it. It's true at the personal level - have you bought snow chains for your car OP? - and its true at a national infrastructure level as well.

And its true at the other end of the scale too. Traditionally, we don't have long periods of hot weather, so our homes and workplaces aren't built for it.

We get wet and windy weather, but generally not too wet and windy, so we don't build our homes to be tornado proof, and we don't have massive storm drains in our cities.

We're not a climate of extremes, our homes and lives are built to be used in consistent, mild weather, and they're bloody good at that.

So yes, when we get a bit of extreme weather, we're less equipped to deal with it than a country that gets that weather frequently would be.

Agree, I think that is exactly what my first sentence said 🌞.

It's hot, it's really uncomfortably hot at the moment.

Many people's houses are like ovens, many have to work in places with no air-conditioning, many women will be heavily pregnant, many live in stifling top floor flats, many live in places with few trees to shade them.

Different people cope or don't with extreme heat or extreme cold.

Red warnings are rare and serious. People might find it fine going from air con car to air con offices. Not everyone has that luxury.

Most people will cope, but for a lot of people, temps in the high 30s is unpleasant and perhaps things they were looking forward to doing will need to be postponed (or work schedules changed, etc).

I wonder if the people starting these threads to talk about people "losing their minds" are in the red warning areas, or if they are just in the many areas with temps in the mid/high 20s.

@SomersetBrie as the thread starter, I can confirm I am in the red zone. Commuted into central London today too.

I am also in the red zone - in an upper floor flat no less.

I think the problem is that we are sleepwalking into a period of increased weather instability and extremes. It used to be the case when I was growing up that a heatwave was mid to high 20s in temperature and winters were relatively mild. The summer of 76 was seen as a once in a generation event when temps peaked at 35.
However now we are regularly seeing summer events with temperatures in the high 30s and even low 40s for extended periods and the UK just isn't designed for that. We really need to start thinking about how we build houses and infrastructure as this is not going away and will only get worse!

@Bobbingtons I think we have moved into a changed weather pattern, with more north to south or south to north air flows, meaning that we will get colder and hotter temps more regularly. Our housing stock leaves much to be desired in terms of temperature retention, be that heat in the winter or coolness in the winter. However, you are talking about the majority of houses or blocks of flats in the UK requiring either rebuilding or considerable work undertaken to make them more suitable. Given our obsession with preservation, I don't see much change happening any time soon.

They are shutting schools and issuing warnings in France and Germany too. It's not a UK thing.

Exactly, Picked up DC from school earlier, temp was 33, we're in Sussex and it's predicted to be 38 tomorrow and Thursday....it's bloody boiling here, so humid

I find the press is very much more excited than people I meet.

I find people just have a minor moan but just get on with it. People have cancelled things but in a pragmatic rather than a lost our mind way..

I do think we are a society with no resilience in the proper use of the term. I dont mean individuals as a moral failing. I think all our structures and systems are on the edge so things dont work when put under strain. The school estate is poor, hospital are understaffed, roads and transport stiffed to the brim etc. So minor issues become bigger.

But it's very fashionable to slag off the UK don't you know....