To think this Telegraph article is missing the point re the differences between 1976 heatwave and this one?

[Jane379]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/23/heatwave-hysterics-wouldnt-have-lasted-a-day-in-1976/?recomm_id=5c4fe0b2-18cb-42bf-9ca5-46c0d81dcb68

Those old buffers at The Telegraph would have been young then, no wonder they're romanticising it!

I was at primary school in 1976. I remember we all had to walk to the local park to practice sports day several times. It was hot and uncomfortable, my headached and I felt sick, no one had water bottles in the 70s we were probably dehydrated.
The heatwave may only have been 2 weeks but we were weeks without rain everything was bone dry, fires kept breaking out on the moors.
Lots of areas had stand pipes
Not something I remember as good.

Once upon a time the Telegraph was a serious newspaper which, though I didn't necessarily agree with its general political stance, I would read whenever I got the chance because, well, it was serious and thought provoking. These days it seems to just be the Daily Mail for people who think they're too good for the Daily Mail, but who still want to get wound up about things not being exactly as they were in the good old days of leaded petrol, widespread racism, asbestos, industrial accidents, coal fires, smog, predecimal currency, housewives, imperial weights, and national service.

So I'll stick my neck out and say the article will be total shite.

They're remembering the sun which is a good pleasant thing generally, but forgetting the awful heat.

15 months of drought

Although 2022 had the highest temps, 2006, 2017 and 2018 were the most horrendous years. 8 weeks each in those 3 years. July 2010 (4 weeks) was pretty bad as well.

Not really.

Yep. It’s sad, isn't it. Very few of the papers are now what I would consider ‘serious’ - just a load of someone’s opinion, designed to rile people up to generate clicks (and sharing, like this OP) and no real journalism going on for the stuff that actually matters.

‘Peak temperature: 35.9’

It was a long heatwave and caused a lot of excess deaths, but the peak temperature is several degrees lower than predicted for this heatwave and than we’ve had in recent years.

Except clearly we do, as in the May heatwave something like 13 people died swimming in cold water. And not all on the same day, spread out over the week. Clearly the early reports didn’t put people off, or maybe some people didn’t hear the warnings?

I mean the elephant in the room is the fact that the heatwave in 1976 peaked at about 33. In 2022 it hit 40. That’s quite a difference.

I've not read the article but what I remember of 1976 is that it was unusually hot for the UK, maybe not as the very high temperatures as we're having this week, but the difference is that in 1976 the heatwave went on for weeks, not a couple of days. We were living in a Med place and my parents were out visiting, we had unusually wet weather and all we heard on the radio is how hot it was in the UK!

Yes, the hottest period was 16 days but there was a lot longer than two weeks of fine, dry weather. It seemed to go on forever.
I'm not sure about the actual temperatures. I am sure it was not as hot as it is now. The bigger impact was the drought and the forest and moorland fires which resulted. Our local Asda burned down and there were forestry fires locally.
We coped as best we could, but the world was a very diferent place in those days - less worker protection, no internet and just a daily, printed newspaper.
The Telegraph comparing 1976 and today is like comparing apples with oranges.

A customer was wanging on about it today, said things were so much better in 76, peoplr more resilient etc..told him I agreed as I was 10 years old, I went out to play everyday, riding my bike, building dens etc..this time sucks as I'm working in a unair-conditioned metal shed! 😉
There is so much information now, accessible to all, that how anyone could be ignorant of the effect of doing daft things in heat probably touches Darwinism.

Only because that is including Jersey.

As far as the UK, there were only two weeks of temps at 30 and above.

I'm sure my mother's house was much cooler - what with it pointing North East, being built from double course bricks, wooden suspended flooring over foundations, no insulation, purpose built cold larder and a coal store, chimney and the necessary fireplaces in every room and single glazing with windows on all 3 sides creating air movement, garden and therefore air space and shade going around three sides, designed for air circulation to avoid smoke particles and mould collecting in the house, all the gardens around us full of plants and trees rather than driveways, extensions and blocks of flats in the larger ones, hedges rather than fencing, wide road with large grass verges and pavement planted trees every 6 houses and suchlike.

Swap that for newbuilds crammed in together with zero grass, brick paths on sand, facing SE, no gardens, all the mature trees chopped down in order to build them more easily, lots of insulation, concrete slab foundations and floors, narrow roads and driveways, no side windows because they might overlook a random's garden or cost a couple of quid to install and designed to keep as much heat in as possible.

The temperature of 32.2C and above lasted 15 days in the south east where I lived but hot weather lasted for 2 months from June to August without rain which is why there was a drought and stand pipes in some areas.

Exactly- I'm really sorry about your friend's father.

The Conversation had an excellent article showing how people making these claims about 1976 ignore all the people who were ill or even lost their lives to it.

https://theconversation.com/the-dangers-of-romanticising-britains-1976-heatwave-260046

It’s the Torygraph. Their median reader is at least 78 years old. They know this, they aren’t stupid, so they pander to ‘it was all harder in my day, today’s youngsters don’t know they were born’ nostalgia. It’s not as if 1976 was even particularly hot by today’s standards, but you try telling an OAP that…🙄

Just linking to right wing paywalled newspaper content with no information or opinion of your own whatsoever to accompany it isn't an appropriate way to make a thread.

The Telegraph encouraged their readers to vote for Brexit, so I think we can safely disregard anything they write as bullshit.