Is the heatwave hotter than the summer of 1976?

We bought our first house in 1976.

Since it was bought off-plan we watched it being constructed from the footings upwards. The excitement and thrill of it all was dampened by what I now call the “buckets of cold water brigade” and their many many comments that the ongoing drought would cause there to be untold structural problems in the years to come.

45 years on and the property still stands and is as perfect now as when it was built.

76 was unusual but we get short heatwaves every year now!

I've just been chatting to my hairdresser about this. She remembers visiting the UK in the summer of '76 from her home in North Africa. While everyone here was bemoaning the heat she went around wearing a cardigan!!

I remember emptying the bath to water the garden. Weren't we told to share the bath water or was that another time ?

Summer of 76 went on for weeks .
There were water shortages with stand pipes that people had to queue at for water to try and regulate the amount of water used by households and people were told to share a bath(no showers then!)
I can only remember returning home from work on the bus feeling like I wanted to melt, soles of my feet burning in my 3 inch heeled sandals!
My bosses at the time several times asked the office juniors to bring back ice creams/ice lollies on their way back from lunch the cost for which was either from out of their pockets or petty cash.
I think that these days we are bombarded with so much information about the weather that we start feeling hot from the day before! Can't remember ever having the weather warnings before either!

Summer of 76 went on for weeks being hot everyday and no rain at all. I remember loving it back then and often getting out my mums sun loungers and lying out to sunbathe.
This heat we have now seems hotter and overnight the temperatures hardly fall, I never used to lie with a fan on and wake up with damp pillows. As for getting any sun loungers out
there is no chance I get overheated outside after ten minutes
and that is even sitting underneath the huge garden canopy.
I enjoyed the 76 heatwave sorry I can't say the same about this one.

I never found 76 too hot, despite commuting to central London. I remember 2018 being hot for a long time. I struggle with any heatwave since menopause. I was always cold when young. I wonder if others here are the same?

Yep.Im sure the temperature was higher but it just went on and on and was so draining. DD1 was just one and we had very little water as the peaty area around our house burned for days & what water there was was used to fight the fires. We ‘entertained’ Ghurkas and their green goddess for days on end at the top of our garden. It was such a relief to have them guarding ours and a few neighbouring properties until it got so bad that we evacuated to my parents for a week. We returned and the heavens opened soon afterwards leaking through the kitchen roof where the Ghurkas were sheltering. They thought it hilarious ?

Sar53

The heatwave of 1976 went on for weeks of relentless hot days. My eldest daughter was born in June and the last month of my pregnancy was unbearable.

1976 drought/very hot weather went on forever, the parks and 'greens' were all brown.

in 1976 the heatwave started when I was in the maternity home and went on for nearly 3 months - temperatures were 90F (32C) in our back garden and we had standpipes on the ready in the street but luckily never had to resort to them.

Looking at my front lawn now it is green - back then the lawns were brown for weeks.

I remember it raining for the first time in mid-September and our toddler DD looking out on it in astonishment, wondering what it was!

Burrator was so low you could could walk well into where the water usually reached. We all hunted avidly for the drowned village,
Yes, we were worried in case it dried up completely!

2003 was hot all over Europe and the UK too.

Maximum temperatures
Many parts of Europe saw their temperature records broken during this summer, including the UK. A sweltering 38.5°C was recorded in Brogdale in Kent on 10 August 2003, a record high which still stands today

We were away in Cornwall for a couple of weeks but I remember phoning home and they said how sweltering it was there. We at least had some sea breezes.

My son was born on early June of 1976. I remember pushing the Silver Cross to the baby clinic to have him weighed. It was so hot I dressed him in only nappy, pants and little vest. Putting the hood slightly up to shade from the sun. And a sunshade at the other side
When I arrived all the babies were beautifully dressed and I felt awful.
However when nurse took my son to weigh him she held him up and called out ….Ladies….this is how you dress a baby in hot weather. I was beaming.

I worked in the Central Forecasting Office at the Met office in Bracknell in 1976 and it was incredible . Every day that went by another record was broken somewhere around the country .
Plotting the weather charts was dead easy - the same all over the country .

I`ve mentioned this before, in the hope that someone else might have seen it, but never any takers. We went down to S.Devon in September 1976. As we were driving through a little Devon village, we saw what should have been a picturesque cottage painted all black, and in big white letters was a message saying that the house had been painted thus as a punishment for the occupiers for wasting water. I think the name of the village began with an M. Then as I said in an earlier post, the rain came at lunchtime on the Thursday, we were sitting on the beach at Hope Cove.

I remember now, the village was Modbury, or Little Modbury.

I finished my GCSE's early June 1976 and had the best long holiday. I was nearly 17 and spent my days at the beach and out on dates on the back of motorbikes, funfairs etc. It was the best Summer. I started my first job in October which brought me back to earth with a bump! Think my mother was happier though.

I am sure it was hotter in 76. I too was pregnant and gave birth at the beginning of August. I was a sweaty blob.

Remember the plague of ladybirds?

Hellogirl1

I`ve mentioned this before, in the hope that someone else might have seen it, but never any takers. We went down to S.Devon in September 1976. As we were driving through a little Devon village, we saw what should have been a picturesque cottage painted all black, and in big white letters was a message saying that the house had been painted thus as a punishment for the occupiers for wasting water. I think the name of the village began with an M. Then as I said in an earlier post, the rain came at lunchtime on the Thursday, we were sitting on the beach at Hope Cove.

We lived near there, I don't remember that! Perhaps I didn't get out much that summer!

Modbury was where I bought my first cotton bag - it was the first town in the UK t become plastic bag free.

Remember the plague of ladybirds?

We got grasshoppers indoors!

I am not sure but I adored the heat then and find it overwhelming now. On holiday I have been in hotter climes but the breeze on the ship made it seem much less extreme.

I am now rereading Maggie O'Farrell's novel, Instructions for a Heatwave, a family story set in London during the summer of 1976.

Enjoyable summer reading ?

Casdon

I’d say no, I’m sure the temperatures were in the 30s for ages then, and that it didn’t rain for months. We are only in it less than a week this time so far.

1976 was a prolonged heatwave with temperatures in the high 70s and 80s most days. I remember we went on holiday during the school holiday at the end of May and the heatwave started the following week. The heat carried on with absolutely no rain until well into September because I started a job at the beginning of September and it was still hot. It rained for the first time a few days into September. This one seems worse to me because I was only 32 in the 1976 heatwave and I am nearly 78 in this one and my ageing body can’t deal with extremes of temperature. I don’t think I could deal with another summer like 1976.

In the office where I was working during that summer was a prefab. HR were very worried and kept bringing jugs of water for us to drink.
The heat didn’t bother me at all and we all wore office clothes even tights which people don’t seem to do today.

1976 , remember it well . Expecting first child , talk of standpipes! I was not looking forward to washing terry nappies with standpipes the order of the day!! Fortunately by the time she was born - November, the standpipes were a thing of the past. I have never coped too well in the heat so being pregnant in the summer of 76 was not comfortable.

Coolgran65

My son was born on early June of 1976. I remember pushing the Silver Cross to the baby clinic to have him weighed. It was so hot I dressed him in only nappy, pants and little vest. Putting the hood slightly up to shade from the sun. And a sunshade at the other side
When I arrived all the babies were beautifully dressed and I felt awful.
However when nurse took my son to weigh him she held him up and called out ….Ladies….this is how you dress a baby in hot weather. I was beaming.

Coolgran that's what my DS wore too most of the time. Next door neighbour did buy him two cotton romper suits which were very cool so he wore those when we wanted to be posh

The Silver Cross prams with a white broderie Anglaise canopy lined with green sun shade material were lovely.