Is the heatwave hotter than the summer of 1976?

I had two children under 42 in 1976. It was pretty horrendous. At least this time I don’t have much to do. The only advantage 1976 had over 2021 for me was that I was younger and more energetic, and looked much better in skimpy clothes than I do now!

Sorry, two children under 4. Two under 42 would have been much easier.

I was as Grandma70’s was, not such a big deal, now older it’s unbearable heat.

In 1976, the temperature (in England, at least) reached 32 degrees Celsius for 14 consecutive days. Our family photos show a baked landscape - and a baked family!

We got married on July 3rd 1976 .Wedding dresses were mainly, high neck and long sleeves !
The hot weather went on for weeks and no rain.

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Oh such heady days, I was 18 and about to go to uni. It lasted 66 days not the few days we’re experiencing now. I remember feeling indescribably hot but not minding it much apart from the day I got dreadful sunburn at the beach and not using sun cream (not a thing in those days). It just seemed like an endless carefree summer ?

42 C is hot - not sure about 35C, just normal Summer or it was until the climate changed and it became cooler here over the last few years.

My DD1 was born that year-we breast feeding mums just couldn’t drink enough! DH used to suggest which plants I could pour dishwater on (no dishwasher then) during the day ?

No,it was hotter in 1976 and it went on for weeks as many have posted.
I remember watching tv and being advised to save water bath with a friend and only flush when you need to.
Hose pipe bans too.

Thus ‘heatwave’ hasn’t lasted very long yet. It’s only the 2nd week where I am and it hadn’t been a whole two weeks. It will have to continue for several more weeks for it to even be classed as a ‘long hot summer’. I wish!

We had planted a very long hawthorn hedge right around our boundary the autumn before. Just little 6 inch sticks. I nursed them throughout the summer by lugging all bath and dishwater out there, as of course we had the hosepipe ban. I was very pleased that I only lost two. Just occasionally I will still make a diversion and drive past my old house, and and feel a sense of pride that the hawthorn hedge is flourishing.

We had snow on the 4th June 1976, then 2 days later the heat was cracking the flags until mid September. Not one wet day, just blue sky day after day.

I remember 76 it lasted much longer this has only been a couple of weeks. I was 17 and working in Woolworths on the confectionery counter we had to keep most of the chocolate in the stockroom to try to stop it melting away
We went camping August Bank Holiday and the heavens opened digging trenches round the tents to stop them flooding
Didn't bother me then but what does at 17 now I huff and puff when trying to do household chores

It was the length of time in 1976; I don't recall the temperature but I do remember the baked landscape and the dried-up lawn; baby son was crawling and the spiky grass pricked his little knees.
The previous year, 1975, was very hot as well and I remember the discomfort more because I was pregnant, and spent the summer months wearing shortie nightdresses because they were cooler and looser.

I remember the parched landscape in 1976 and being invaded by swarms of ladybirds! Collecting washing from the line was scary as the headlines said the little creatures would bite and there they were .. all over the clothes!

The reservoirs in Mid Wales were very low, one could see the ruins of the buildings which had been flooded .

Everyone has said what I remember, the brown spiky grass, the ‘save water, bath with a friend’ mantra that we used to chant.
Burrator was so low you could could walk well into where the water usually reached. We all hunted avidly for the drowned village, until a local man said, “You don’t want to believe all that rubbish. It’s just to entertain the tourists.”
Summer 1976 went on and on.

I remember being pregnant with my first child and being cosseted at work, i was I a suppose an office junior, certainly all my co workers where much older. Even the men who i looked on as elderly uncles or even grand dads would fetch me cool drinks and make sure i put my feet up during the lunch break. Oh how i wish i could go back to those days. I loved those people i worked with they made me feel special and cared for. Happy days......... wipes away a tear.

I did my first set of nights as a student nurse in summer of 76, on a male orthopedic ward, all those hot and sticky patients not able to sleep at night and me not able to sleep in the day. Then went on Holiday in September to Devon and the weather broke!!

Before we married, DH and I went on holiday together for the first time (both families disapproved) to the south coast in 1976.

Yes it was hot, everywhere parched but one of my abiding memories is of the fires and burnt areas in the New Forest.

At least I'm not in a "hot" area..
Arizona summers (for example) are difficult at the best of times. Many places will be much hotter.

I remember being on playground duty one day in the summer of 1976 and being bitten by a ladybird! It must have been desperate for liquid.

There was also a very hot spell in the late '40s. My parents went camping in Dorset and, because of the heat, my dad drank a lot of cider. He said that he was perspiring so much that he didn't get drunk. The photos certainly show him looking very tanned.

I was another pregnant one, my son born in July. It seemed to be never ending, went on for weeks.

Hopefully this lot will break down at the weekend. But my son informed me last night that his friend who is a weather follower said next week won't be too bad but the heat will return for about 10 days at the begining of August. I hope he got that wrong!

No, we were younger and dealt with it better. Since menopause, I don’t think my body knows how to be cold! My husband will change in the evening, from shorts to longer trousers. I don’t want anything on, except the fan?.

I started going out with my husband in 1976, and remember it being in the 30’s. Degrees that is. No problem kissing and cuddling. Now....it’s way too hot for that!

eazybee

It was the length of time in 1976; I don't recall the temperature but I do remember the baked landscape and the dried-up lawn; baby son was crawling and the spiky grass pricked his little knees.
The previous year, 1975, was very hot as well and I remember the discomfort more because I was pregnant, and spent the summer months wearing shortie nightdresses because they were cooler and looser.

Yes, I remember this. It was the first year we went abroad. I was 15. When I got home, my friend was more tanned than me. It had been hotter here than in Mallorca where we were?