EXTREME WEATHER WARNING

I completely agree with Monica re the post above. 100% right.

LtEve I agree with you. Also the temperatures we are expecting are record temperatures that we have not experienced in this country before and it is too easy to really underestimate just how debilating the exceptional heat is.

People may have experienced these temperatures on holiday. In countries where houses and hotels and the whole pace of life is designed to run round the high temperatures and where air conditioning is ubiquitous.

I spent part of my childhood in South East Asia, before air conditioning, where temperatures run into the low/mid 30s and we lived in a large airy bungalow with deep overhanging eaves and high ceilings. I can remember how hot that could be and how we lived our lives round avoiding going out at midday.

In this country our houses are designed to hold heat in not let it escape, we have some of the smallest dwellings in Europe and there was discussion last summer about the dangers built into many blocks of recently built blocks of small one bedroomed flats where there is only one outside wall, facing south and containing all the windows.

In 2003 there was European heat wave that resulted in 30,000 deaths (more than 14,000 in France alone).

jaberwok do not underestimate how dangerous this heatwave could be in this country, where the majority of us do NOT spend our holidays in Dubai, and wouldn't if we could.

Jaberwok

If you are badly affected by not weather then of course you avoid a hot climate, so if the forecast here is for very hot weather then surely you would know, without having to be told endlessly, what precautions to take. I can't believe that people are so helpless that they have to be told multiple times how to.protect themselves against excessive heat.

You may think that but it’s not backed up by fact otherwise myself and my colleagues would not have our hot day shifts filled with mostly 70+ year olds who poo poo the warnings and go out in the middle of the day and then collapse. A lot of them refuse to drink more because ‘we never had this rubbish in our day’ they wear totally unsuitable clothing, don’t take things easy and go out gardening in full sun with unfortunate results.
Today and tomorrow there will be an increased number of deaths from stroke, heart attacks and respiratory problems many of which will be due to heat and people not taking things easy.
I suppose you could say they don’t need the warnings and advice as they don’t take any notice anyway.

It’s funny but it is one of our coldest days for a long time here. I am wondering if the global warming is more global shifting because we don’t get the really hot weather like we used to 40 odd years ago here. It used to be 40 C for days but very rare now. It is also drier than it used to be. Things are definitely changing. Perhaps all us lot will come to the warm uk in the future to escape our cold !

If you are badly affected by not weather then of course you avoid a hot climate, so if the forecast here is for very hot weather then surely you would know, without having to be told endlessly, what precautions to take. I can't believe that people are so helpless that they have to be told multiple times how to.protect themselves against excessive heat.

Mine are in my kitchen, though!
I'm working on getting rid of them, bit by bit.
Cinnamon seems to have done the trick.

They usually only fly on a couple of days or so in mid-July.

We notice them every year and I remember sitting outside one warm evening a few years ago and watching small birds swoop across the garden, catching them.

Flying ants! Horrid, I remember them in 1976, they were a real plague especially at my parents who lived in the country in deepest Oxfordshire. We lived in a nearby market town and weren't so badly affected. Haven't seen any where we live now in Wiltshire again in deepest countryside, so fingers crossed they stay away. We do have our own bees though (two hives) and my word they are very busy in this hot weather.

Ants flying here too. I'm a bit surprised as they usually wait until it's a bit humid rather than baking hot.

I've closed the curtains and started a jigsaw!

I've had an absolute plague of them for the last month or so.
All around my window...
I've only just got rid of the mice!,

To add to all the problems we have an influx of flying ants in the kitchen!
How are they getting through closed windows?

I did say to DH that they usually take flight around 16th July!

Jaberwok

So, how do so many people aclamatise when they go on holiday to very hot countries for just two weeks or so? Surely the excessive heat of Spain, Italy, Turkey and so on for so short a period must prove very trying and dangerous, and yet these same people return multiple times from our usually much cooler climate without apparent harm. But three days here of very hot weather is somehow an emergency and a big fuss exactly like cold weather is in winter!

But not everybody does go.

Some people are very badly affected by hot weather. and avoid going to very hot countries.

You seem to be arguing from the particular to the general, which is not the same as arguing from the general to the particular.

I’m as fed up as others about what feels like patronising advice about the heat. I agree we get the same levels of ‘fuss’ when we have snow or a cold snap.
People who regularly go to the southern med in July and august often know about that heat there. They’re also usually in accomm with air con, tiles, swimming pools, outdoor restaurants covered with shady vines.
The uk isn’t in any way like that.
My cardiologist made very clear I’m not to exercise in heat, I expect many people with AF haven’t been given that useful advice

People don’t always manage the med heat. The Greek village I know well regularly has tourists needing rescue by mountain rescue teams because they’re selfish and daft enough to set off on an 11k walk in the mountains without appropriate footwear, clothing, water etc.

So, how do so many people aclamatise when they go on holiday to very hot countries for just two weeks or so? Surely the excessive heat of Spain, Italy, Turkey and so on for so short a period must prove very trying and dangerous, and yet these same people return multiple times from our usually much cooler climate without apparent harm. But three days here of very hot weather is somehow an emergency and a big fuss exactly like cold weather is in winter!

Despite the endless warning on the news and in social media, I’ve seen 8 dogs being walked over the past couple of days in the midday heat. Their owners are oblivious to the risk of paws burning or dogs over heating and dying.

Crazy

We were walking along the beach yesterday and somebody was camping on the dunes and obviously had a barbecue going. The dunes are tinder dry at the moment. There will be fires caused by barbecues over he next few days and ground nesting birds will perish. I hope the forecast rain arrives on Wednesday.

Casdon

StarDreamer

Sago

So it’s hot!
Millions of us leave Blighty every year to find sun for a week or two, when we get there we know what to do!
Please don’t panic everyone.

Each to their own.

No way would I go to try and find a hot place.

I am not panicing.

It is like when COVID-19 started and the media ranted about so-called "panic buying".

I remember Sky News, interviewing a woman who had just emerged from a supermaket building with a trolley piled high with food.

She, quite calmly, said that she was not panicing, the government had said that people might have to stay indoors for a fortnight so she was getting enough food for her children, her husband and herself for a fortnight.

I am not panicing. I am very concerned. I am quietly trying to think out what, if anything, I can do to help me survive such extreme temperatures.

You state "we know what to do". So could you tell me, and anyone else who would like to know, what to do please?

I honestly don’t know what you are concerned about, people who live in hot countries don’t stay inside for two weeks because it’s too hot. They get up early, do their jobs outside and their shopping, close their curtains, life goes on.
There’s a panic mentality in the UK that just isn’t warranted. We’re all adults, we know heat can kill, so we are sensible and don’t break the official guidance about keeping safe.

casdon you obviously have no idea about adapt-ation, it is how a body can slowly become used to certain ambient circumstances. Living in a hot country means that they are adapted but we in the uk are not. This very hot temperature has happened quite suddenly and people over 50 start to lose their ability to adapt

No need for the sneering remarks btw casdon. I for one believe that the warnings and government advice have been very necessary. My dd has already dealt, in her surgery, with heat exhaustion and a stroke caused by heat

If anyone is unsure, look at John Cambells video, re heatstroke. I posted the link under health. There are certain sensible precautions that anyone can take to minimise the chance of getting heatstroke, which is very serious. Re heat exhaustion, you have about 30 minutes to recover before becoming quite ill. You will know what to do if you watch his video

I reckon the warnings are more to prevent people from packing up a picnic and going to spend a day on the beach, as much as anything.

Just hope you don’t get the bushfires like they have in Spain and we seem to get most years.

Callistemon
By the time we are geared up it will be over. 2 days !!!!!!

Calendargirl

DD in Australia is always “Wow, a heatwave! How will you all cope over there?” whenever I mention the temperature is rising.

40 degrees commonplace in her neck of the woods, of course, plus floods, bushfires, droughts, ……

I suppose that is the difference. We are used to more moderation in our weather.

Not to mention humidity and still having to carry on working as usual.

They are more geared up to the heat than we are though.

DD in Australia is always “Wow, a heatwave! How will you all cope over there?” whenever I mention the temperature is rising.

40 degrees commonplace in her neck of the woods, of course, plus floods, bushfires, droughts, ……

I suppose that is the difference. We are used to more moderation in our weather.

Daisymae

Grant Shapps says that we should be resilient enough to enjoy the sunshine over the next few days. That's alright then, there's me thinking that that's a first red weather warning issued for a reason.
.

Now, would it be mean of me to .......

Yes, it would.

Grant Shapps says that we should be resilient enough to enjoy the sunshine over the next few days. That's alright then, there's me thinking that that's a first red weather warning issued for a reason.
.

welbeck

but those who died in the heatwave of 1976, and of 2003, are not here to comment.
there are excess deaths in a heatwave, and are expected in this coming one.
it is incorrect to say that we all survived perfectly well in the 1976 heatwave.

People commenting here about 1976 were all a lot younger then.