To be utterly pissed off and fed up with this weather….

[TheFairCat]

I know there’s already been loads of threads about it, so apologies for being so original but OH MY GOD!

I’m not usually a particularly whiny person and I don’t ever remember being particularly troubled by hot ( or cold!) weather before but honestly, I feel like I’m going lose my mind!

Maybe it’s combined with hot flushes or something because no one else I know seems to be struggling that much.

I was fine at first; just thought it would only be a couple of days we’d have to suck it up. We
got the fans out, ate a criminal amount of ice lollies and did as little as possible. But now it feels like it’s been a couple of weeks of non stop over 28 degree heat every day where I live. It’s also unbearably humid. Trying to clean the house is grim. I feel like I’m swimming through treacle and my brain is mush. I can’t concentrate on work, I can’t sleep at night. I am constantly uncomfortable and the house has now heated up to such an extent that no room is even close to cool.

I realise this probably sounds ridiculous but I can’t really go out in this heat. I mean I can go to work (though my office has no air con and is also grim) and I can manage the school run and the supermarket etc, but I can’t go for a walk, or run about at the park with the kids. I definitely wouldn’t want go out in town or mooch about the shops, or eat out etc. I don’t want go in the garden because it’s so hot. The swimming pool is lovely but the changing rooms are beyond the pale. There’s no way I could cope with a day out at the zoo or a theme park with the kids.

I’ve never been so hot or so uncomfortable in my life! I have lots of loose, comfortable clothes, summer shoes etc but I still feel like I want to rip my skin off!

Is it just me? Weather forecast seems to be saying 10 more days of heat wave and I could cry!

Cold and peeing down again here in NE Scotland. Tomorrow looks warmer (20) but grey still. I teach so am off work and really really want it to be nice enough to sit out in the garden! I googled autumn fashion trends this morning - because at least you can reliably wear A/W clothes unlike summer stuff.

Ah yes, the Boomers to blame again. Pray, tell me what your generation is planning to do about climate change or specifically you?.

I am reading this whilst my face melts off…

I totally feel you @TheFairCat. I am permanently hot, frequently on fire… and am totally over it!!

@Magpie50

why not go to the gym if you want to exercise? It’ll be nice and cool with air con

My niece lives in Leeds, she is half dead from the heat. If this is going to be a regular occurrence we’ll all need air conditioning.
Hopefully you get a good thunderstorm soon OP.

I'm loving it. Hope it's like this every year. I've always bemoaned the lack of a proper reliable summer but at least this year we're getting something decent.

I’m getting worse too. I can’t bear it. I thought I was going to faint this afternoon.

Because I don't drive so getting to anywhere with AC is going to be a long sweaty walk there and back!
Just praying for cardigan weather now (I miss my cardie!)

I am done too. Had enough of it all.

I think people need to get a grip to be frank. We live in a country where it’s hot for maybe 3-4 weeks a year and yes it gets VERY hot but usually for a few days then it dips down again. Get a fan, drink cold drinks, eat ice lollies.

@Magpie50

bus? Get on a bus to go to the gym. I’m hoping it’s not gonna be cardigan weather for some time! 🤞

I know right! It’s really no big deal. Most of the year it’s cold and pissy rain. Stop complaining!!

Totally. The moaning on here is off the scale.

It’s bloody lovely. It’s also brief and over too quickly. Enjoy it!

As Shakespeare said ‘summer’s lease hath all too short a date’.

Just cleaned the bins which absolutely stank, every thing is dusty. I will be delighted when it rains properly

We really need some. None forecast here in Wiltshire until the 17th July.

I'm not finding this week too bad because it's cooling down at night to around 16. 2 weeks ago it was 32 degrees overnight in my upstairs bedrooms and it's at least 10 degrees lower this week.

To be fair, June was the hottest on record for England, with average daily maximum temperatures well above the long-term meteorological average for June. July is set to be the same.

Maybe it’s not a big deal for you, but your experience is not everyone’s and is probably not even the majority. Many vulnerable people will die (about 1.5k deaths in 2025 were attributed to extreme heat). Many more people will suffer significant harm and adversity. These will be poorly people, poor people, neglected children and those without adequate housing.

Admittedly I am not those people, though I do work with some of them. I am just miserable and uncomfortable. I can understand that your experience is not mine, can you not do the same?

Totally agree. Sure, people will complain and I get that not everyone wants to hear it, but this 'keep calm and carry on' mentality is dangerous. People need to be alive to the reality that extreme heat episodes like we've experienced multiple times this year are an existential threat, and that carrying on as before with absolutely no adaptations, because "we were fine in 1976," will result in many thousands of excess deaths.

@InveterateWineDrinker

what do you suggest we can do about it?

We know what to do, just don't have the willpower and most people, if they're honest, expect someone else to pay for it.

In the near term:

Adapt existing homes and public spaces to cope with it: passive cooling including shuttering, shading and, yes, airconditioning. Buildings (and, indeed, public transport) designed for a climate that no longer exists are not fit for purpose and need to be altered or rebuilt.

Educate people. I've seen too many people throw windows open when it's far hotter outside than in. Clothing choices of many in this heat are absolutely shocking too. Hardly anyone I've spoken to understands the science behind sweating, evaporation and cooling. And, stay out of the fucking midday sun when it's 35C! Red alerts are there for a reason but far too many people just have the mental approach completely arse-about-tit.

Build networks to protect vulnerable people so that they are checked on a systematic basis and early action taken where necessary. The French managed this quite well after 2003, the UK rather less so.

In the longer term:

Stop the weapons-grade self delusion about fossil fuels and climate change. To paraphrase a climate scientist quoted in the May heatwave: "yes, it's climate change from burning fossil fuels; yes, we predicted it; no, we've not done enough." If someone is pushing to drill more oil in the North Sea, they need to be called out for the fundamental danger and ridiculousness of their position. If someone says "but we only produce x percent of greehhouse gases" they need to be told they are the problem. We have left it too late to be leisurely about net zero: we have to do everything we can, at pace. We need to rapidly change our diets and other patterns of consumption because our lifestyles have caused this heat problem.

Accept that you are going to have to dig into your own pocket. Yes, electric cars have been more expensive to buy. Tough. Don't want a heat pump because you find comfort in a gas boiler? Tough.

We need very different design codes for new building: not just the building itself but the environment around it with respect to trees and so on. It will probably result in less 'efficient' use of land.

The government can do two things very easily, right now, but hasn't so far. It can break the link which means the price of household electricity is four times the price of gas no matter what the generation costs are, which will turbocharge decarbonisation. And it can force better - and cheaper - building through the planning system.

Well make reasonable adjustments to our working lives for one.

In other countries that face extreme heat in summer, people slow down and even shut up shop temporarily and seek shade in the afternoon hours. Then work till later in the evening.

Both of my oldest DCs have had the option extended to them to work from home to avoid the inadequately air conditioned travel on the hottest days. They're lucky they both have that option, they have professional style jobs they can mostly coordinate from home. Those who are key workers, or those doing manual jobs don't have that luxury, though I note some teachers have had a break because some schools shut.

Some tube services and buses do not have air con.

I had to take an Uber because I got caught out from the heat and just knew I was risking heat stroke if I attempted public transport home. The driver said I was one of many he had had to ferry in similar circumstances that day and he was making a lot of extra cash and consequently loving the weather! I imagine people are spending more money on travel than they would normally to avoid sweltering, stuffy, even dangerously hot and crowded public transport. More opportunities to WFH during severe temperatures could be a good thing.

Rethink our cities: Planting more trees, and tighter regulations around cutting down trees even those based on private property. Every spare bit of brownfield has now been used for development in the SE of London. So called weed infested overgrown Brownfield sites are better than plain grass to capture emissions. Clearing a brownfield, then building ten houses and putting a patch of green grass in the front as a replacement does not provide the same carbon capture at all.

More artificial shade mechanisms that provide cover over streets, as they have in places like Dubai. As it stands not all bus stops or train stations even provide cover.

Then there's tackling emissions etc

Some businesses and cabbies are loving it, but I know that I’m not. It is awful.

I love it. Get used to it it’s going to be the new norm.

Hotter summers but also colder wet winters. The winter sounds good 😊

Out of interest will you also be loving the higher food prices that come with it when the crops start to fail regularly?

Yes i wonder whether those posters would put their money where their mouths are and volunteer to be last in line if there are food shortages