I can’t understand why so many people on here can’t seem to understand that this is NOT normal historically and we are not just talking about nice ice cream and beach weather. Which yes, is extremely worrying in terms of the climate crisis. These sorts of temperatures were totally unheard of in the U.K. when I was growing up.
Also it’s really not fair to compare to countries where it’s hot all year round and always has been and everything is set up with that in mind. I have several colleagues and friends who grew up in much hotter countries and say it was easier to cope there than here as the U.K. just isn’t set up to cope with it and we don’t get a chance to acclimatise here as it seems to swing wildly between eg actual hail last week and red alert weather warnings this week, it’s ridiculous.
A pp also makes a good point that we are absolutely not all experiencing the same level of heatwave in the UK at all. I’ve been thinking to myself this might be why some people on here are aghast at any sort of concession to the heat, where others of us are genuinely frightened and struggling to cope with it. I am originally from N Ireland where it will peak at 24 degrees for a few hours late Thursday afternoon, but be in the low 20s at most (and much of time less than 20) for the rest of the week. I now live in S England in the zone given the red weather warning and it was about 34 degrees today and predicted to be at least that for another 3-4 days, and some nights not really cooling down much either. It’s a completely and utterly different climate.
Even if we were all experiencing the exact same climate, we have different houses, different access to things like air-con, different work environments and regulations and most of all different medical history. I am perimenopausal, on thyroxine and sertraline which are known to cause more difficulty with temperature regulation, I have asthma and migraine, and I have been diagnosed with an underlying sudden cardiac death syndrome which is known to be potentially triggered by overheating and dehydration.
I also work as a GP in an exceptionally hot building with no air-con (except for the fridges of course!) I genuinely find the heat frightening, feel dizzy and nauseated in it, my asthma starts to play up, I struggle with migraine, am irritable, and my thinking capacity is definitely significantly slowed down in this sort of heat. Which is a problem for the sort of job I do and it’s not like we suddenly have less patients or less complex issues to deal with because it’s hot.
So no, it’s not hysteria. I see every year how many people struggle with all sorts of issues caused by the heat as well as finding it tough myself. We must start taking this seriously. It is a very real problem for health for so many people, let alone the pressure on railway lines, risk of fire etc.
If I were PM I’d want to pass laws meaning any new buildings have to be built to take very hot summers into consideration. I do think public buildings where lots of people gather, particularly if likely to be more vulnerable such as schools, retirement homes, hospitals etc. should be fitted with air con, or at the very least have awnings and shutters and ceiling fans installed etc. I also think there should be central government funding available for people who want to retrofit their own properties for the heat by installing some of these things at their own expense on their own homes, so that some of the money can be claimed back. Like they did for insulation at one point and I think boilers at another point.