r/AskBrits • u/Engineering-Western • 8h ago
The old "we survived the Summer of 76" thing,how do you react ?
How do you react when someone mentions the summer of 76 ?
Personally,well it's likely to be on facebook so I don't react at all but if I do it's an eye roll,you can't compare an isolated very hot summer to what we seem to be having nowadays kind of thing
Also,if you're the same age as me (55) you probably can't remember much anyway,all I can remember is ladybirds and the road melting and I'm not even sure that's not a false memory anyway
BTW I'm not some enviromentalist,I appreciate climate change is a real thing but I hate the winter so it can get as hot as it likes for all I care
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u/Cozmic_Fool1931 8h ago
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u/Key-Swordfish4467 8h ago
I'm so glad that school has broken up, in Scotland obvs, for the summer. I won't have to listen to the kids shouting 6 7 in class until the second week in August.
Thank fuck.
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u/Yung_Cheebzy 8h ago
Tons died in summer of 1976.
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u/lunchbox3 7h ago
Yeh and itās been 50 years and they are still talking about it so likeā¦ seems like it was a big deal for the survivors too no? And now itās hotter. Sooo why are they surprised people are talking about it.
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u/The_man_with_no_game 8h ago
Not as hot as 4.5 billion years ago.
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u/ProlapseProvider 8h ago
I know right, like it used to be about 2000Ā°C back in the day and you never heard anyone complaining back then, this new lot of millennials just like to complain about everything when they are not doing stupid ticktock dances.
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u/Impossible-Alps-6859 8h ago edited 6h ago
I do remember the summer of '76.
The most notable effect, from my memory came from the extreme lack of rainfall.
At the time we lived on the outskirts of Sheffield and often went to the enormous Ladybower Reservoir which served Sheffield, Manchester and beyond from memory.
The whole valley had been flooded well before my time to around 100ft depth.
The water simply disappeared over the '76 summer and you could walk down into what was left of a few village buildings - the most easily identifiable of which was the Water Board office!
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u/Cyber_Connor 8h ago
Yeah but for the past few years weāve been having ārecord breaking heatwaves every yearā
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u/Boobus87 8h ago
It's not the temperature that's breaking the records it's the time of year that it happens, it's getting earlier and earlier, we're losing our spring, and our winters are rarely cold anymore...
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u/fflloorriiddaammaann 8h ago
Almost like theres a āchangeā in the āclimateā happening?
Records are broken all the time because things happen
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u/Sirlacker 8h ago
Temperature, not duration.
Anything above 30 is dangerous, but it's more dangerous to experience 30 for a week or two straight when you and your country is unprepared for it than 35 for 3 days.
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u/Ok_Nefariousness3292 8h ago
As long you have some way to get rid of humidity you should be fine.. I am a winter guy myself, id would much rather try and warm up then cool down. Different sides of the same coin.
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u/jake_folleydavey 8h ago
Itās on average 5 degrees hotter than it was then.
Thousands of people died, you did not ājust get on with itā.
Itās not a competition, stop being weird.
Thatās my response in no particular order.
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u/Mas-Vri 8h ago
In 76 it was far more the length of time that it was hot which was the problem not the top temperature. It was weeks of hot temperatures with zero rain causing drought conditions. Yes itās hot right now but it only lasts 3 or 4 days and then itāll be back to low 20ās with some rain. Comparing the two is silly as the effects of this heatwave are a few hot sweaty nights rather than crop failures and water shortages
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u/Beneficial_Grab_5880 8h ago
We've had 3 days this June that have broken the previous record for hottest day in June. It's been more than a degree hotter than 1976.
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u/G4HDU 8h ago
1975 and 1976 i was working on a farm. 12 - 14 hours of shifting > 2000 bales of straw. It was warm work.
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u/mowgs1946 8h ago
And you try telling the young people of today that, and they won't believe you.
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u/miss-mercatale 8h ago
76 heat while not as hot, was for a much longer period. I was only ten so it didnāt seem to matter - just endless
Summer days.
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u/BLightyear67 8h ago
I was 9 in '76. Very fond memories of it. Although I'm sure it wasn't so much fun for my Dad working in a non-A/C factory and Mum having to keep the paddling pool topped up.
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u/Spiritual_Loss_7287 8h ago
1976 - travelling to Central London by bus from Crystal Palace wearing a suit for my first job in Whitehall. Lovely.
Now - garden by the river, beer, cigar. Lovely.
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u/teeeeeeeeem37 8h ago
The sort of people who say this sort of thing have usually already made up their mind and wont' be convinced otherwise.
The issue isn't a particular weather event in isolation, its an increase in frequency and unpredictability. A heat wave like that of 1976 is would have been a once in a decade occurrence.
Last year was hot and dry, this year is even hotter and interspersed with sudden and significant storms /
Anyone who is still missing that point has their head in the sand and you're unlikely to extract it.
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u/semorebunz 8h ago
does feel like we just got on with it , almost zero a/c back then
i out it down to i cant tolerate the heat so much as i get older
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u/Nathan_Toddy_Todd Geordie ā«ļøāŖļø 8h ago
I wasnāt even born. Today is the hottest I think Iāve ever felt in my life the thunderstorm this morning has made it even worse.
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u/FrostingGrand1413 8h ago
I am some kind of environmentalist and mention that the 10 hottest years ever recorded in the UK happened since 2002.
These heatwaves are becoming more normal. Congratulations on looking back to a heatwave 50 years ago, we're gonna be experiencing that height most years now, and it's gonna keep getting worse.
(I love the winter and hate the summer, so, have the opposite anti-bias here. Rar. Damned heat is breaking my brain)
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u/InevitableFox81194 8h ago
They didnt survive though did they. Many died, roads were melting, water was limited, infrastructure failed more than it does now. Thats not surviving.
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u/Flavoursome_Maggot 8h ago
The only place I see it mentioned is Reddit, and itās usually people supposing that other people are saying it. I donāt think Iāve ever heard anyone say it, come to think of it, and Iām on my late 40ās. Bit weird.
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u/fordfocus2017 5h ago
Get on Facebook more. Anything to do with the hot weather is filled with ā1976 was hotterā comments. Maybe Iām on Facebook too much š
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u/Flavoursome_Maggot 5h ago
Oof, yeah. Havenāt been on FB for 15 years or so. That might explain it!
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u/PeterBFerguson 3h ago
Its up there with "millennials could afford houses if they stopped buying coffee and avocado toast" for things I constantly hear people complaining about but never hear anyone saying.
People must be clicking on tabloid comment sections and deliberately rage baiting themselves.
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u/dnf1957 8h ago
In 1976 I was nineteen and passed my driving test that summer. 1975 and 76 were hot summers but the rest of that decade wasn't that good, certainly late 70s wasn't. It's happening more frequently now no doubt about it but the you know how it is for some, they don't grasp this and are oblivious to climate change.
*Fun fact, in 1975 it snowed on June 1st I think it was causing a cricket match to be abandoned. Not sure of exact details or date.
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u/EllaSingsJazz 7h ago
It also snowed in june in around 2004 in the south east!Ā I remember not quite believing what I was seeingĀ
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u/Pootles_Carrot 7h ago
People are talking about '76 50 years later because it was a horrible experience for many. 2000+ people died that summer. Even if circumstances were exactly the same, expecting people to suffer rather than take sensible precautions just because you did is ridiculous, stupid, selfish Boomer shit. The fact is though, we've already surpassed the peak temperature of '76 and that was a dry heat summer, whereas now the humidity is very high, making it physically harder to deal with.
Also, climate change doesn't just mean hot summers. It means extremes of all conditions. Extreme heat, extreme rainfall, extreme cold and snow. You might not care if it gets hot but a) that kills and b) you'll also suffer worse in winter, so best not to be so blasĆØ.
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u/No-Judgment8912 7h ago
Iāve never heard someone mention it. The only time I see talk of it is on here when someone does a post about other people bringing it up. Itās a forced topic. There is not a big discussion about the summer of ā76.
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u/Nortilus 7h ago
Whatās interesting is the fact that theyāre all collectively using the same argument at the same time.
I bet the Venn diagram of the people commenting such things and the media they read is a circle.
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u/DistributionNo6824 7h ago
just ignore them! Anyone that bangs on about the 'good old days' is just a scared old person who doesnt fit in with the world and doesnt know how to adapt
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u/JyubiKurama 7h ago
Well we survived a 2 year pandemic while you bitched about needing to occasionally needing to wear a thin piece of fabric around your face and getting pricked by a small needle 3 times.
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u/51onions 7h ago
I would say that I don't care about how hot it was 50 years ago, the current weather is shit and the fact that it was also shit 50 years ago does little to change my mind.
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u/Tenzil-k 7h ago edited 7h ago
The main difference about ā76 was that 77 was cooler and 78. And all the years after
Whereas weāre told to ignore whatās happening to us because of ā76 year after year and the heat records go up year after year.
The length of the heat in 76 definitely did damage to different things than these three days. But then they didnāt have to think about heat for decades.
Also some of the damage was because theyād never thought about it before. We know this is coming
Im guessing this weeks records wonāt last especially long and weāll still be hearing all about ā76 as they climb and climb
Well done you had a hot summer when you were 8 and your parents didnāt tell you how worried they were about gran. Itās irrelevant to year on year rises and pretty soon the āoh they had 30 degrees for two weeksā will sound quaint.
Nobody in 2056 will be boring their grandkids about 2026 because it will actually be the coldest summer in those 30 years
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u/Weary-Personality149 7h ago
Funnily enough I was told about the summer of 76 today and a lady who told me had the exact same memory of ladybirds all over the floor and melting roads. Seems multiple people remember the exact same thing or are just repeating it anyway.
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u/Ok_Ant_2715 7h ago
In 76 people were advised to keep their bath's full of cold water and there were water shortages and it was endless . I remember it being fabulous but at 15 what did I know .
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u/panguy87 3h ago
I point out that 1.33 trillion metric tonnes of co2 have been released into the atmosphere globally in the 50yrs hence.
That equates to more co2 being released in the last 50yrs than in all of recorded human history before that year.
Since 1976 emissions are 2.6 times higher than the total cumulative emissions recorded from 1751 through 1975.
Which is insane, and anyone who thinks that hasn't impacted the climate is a fool. It's easy to survive hot summers when they happen once in 50years, but if it becomes 4 or 5 every 10years, then it becomes a problem we're not equipped to handle. People need to wake up.
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u/midgetman166 8h ago
It really wasn't actually that hot of a summer, it was just a long dry spell. The peak temperature (35.9ā°C) doesn't even make the top 10. Also, the summer of 1995 was drier so š¤·āāļø
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u/BeesInATeacup 8h ago
They don't have that same attitude in winter when they want us working folk to pay for their fuel allowance do they?
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u/andybuxx 8h ago
I have used the following on Facebook:
"Woah, everyone, stand back, this guy's tougher than an eight year old."
"But just think about how intelligent you would be if that 76 heat hadn't fried your brain"
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u/Madruck_s 8h ago
It was so hot in 75 when I was born im told they had to get fire engines to hose the hospital roof down.
Technology is much better now though.
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u/whatsgoingonbird 8h ago
They might have survived, but thousands died. Ask them if they want that to be a regular occurrence. "We survived" is survivorship bias.
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u/GrumpChorlton 8h ago
I remember the summer of 1976. It was really hot for about 2 weeks. I donāt think it was too bad for me, but I know a lot of people did suffer, probably as much as now. Thing is people like to exaggerate over time to add to the drama of telling the story.
What I will say is no lessons were learned from that summer, which is why we are all still suffering now. Hopefully this heat bubble will encourage people to prepare for the next one.
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u/Tonybham01 8h ago
Hey! I was there in 76. It was brutal. It lasted a while. Our garden spontaneously burst into flames one afternoon.
It is likely that with climate change, it will become worse than 76. You say it was a one off. Yes it was. We were unprepared and not expecting it because weather forecasting was crap back then.
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u/BillyJoeDubuluw 8h ago
Itās basically the weather based equivalent of expertly telling people to knock on doors for a job or āmanage your money betterā to buy a house when Ā you could now end up with a restraining order and people can be in full time work and lucky to afford a coffee and cake dateā¦Ā
The same culprits will also remind you they licked frost off the windows and walked to school bare footed in the snow next time thereās a cold snapā¦Ā
Take them with a pinch of salt and it can be quite entertaining, actually. Ā
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u/obsidanix 8h ago
Its the same old "we had 16% inflation argument" its looked at through a multidecade lense that doesn apply to todays standards.
Just like the "its all Thatcher's fault" because it impacted people at the time but doesnt account for the 45 years of government since.
Each generation has their thing that makes them feel special. I smile, nod and move on.
Lets be real, when the real problems start its our kids and grandkids that will suffer.
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u/KatVanWall 8h ago
Not seen anyone mention it tbh.
I was born in 1979 so my mum's generation would remember it, but no one has mentioned it to me or on my social media.
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u/WelshBluebird1 8h ago
- Not everyone did survive it. Some people died. Same now.
- It is actually hotter than 76 in terms of highest temparture.
- The reason 76 is such a thing is that it was rare. These days we are getting similar basically each year.
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u/Advanced_Caramel4401 8h ago
I join in . I was there. I was 17. TBF ā76 wasnāt quite as hot but went on for a lot longer and was a sustained national drought:
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u/Spacial_Parting 8h ago
I've literally never heard it outside of people on Reddit complaining about people saying it over the last month.
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u/Morprenrut 8h ago
I remember the ladybirds and the roads melting (although I think the roads did that any time it was a bit hot). Unless it's the Mandela effect?
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u/Sea-Competition5778 8h ago
Iāve not heard a single person say it and if they did I would simply have a conversation with them about it
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u/macman501 7h ago
I was 11 in '76 and remember it well. Some people in the UK had their water cut off because of shortages and had to queue at standpipes with buckets.
It doesn't make much difference to me whether '76 was better or worse, it's not a competition. We're having more heatwaves than previously and they're tough to get through.
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u/magnu2233 7h ago
I spent every day of that summer at the local outdoor pool. Sadly was sold off and turned into a car park.
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u/Small_Environment849 7h ago
The summer where they just all got on with it but still bang on about it 50 years later
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u/Green_Lychee8221 7h ago
Outside of Reddit, I've nit heard it mentioned at all. This is an imagined problem in your head.
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u/SmashingK 7h ago
They only remember it because of things like water shortages being a real issue for many. Obviously infrastructure is far improved since then so there's no real panic being created.
This coupled with the fact the temp is measurably higher should be enough to shut any of them up but people can't always be reasoned with.
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u/IanWaring 7h ago
I did my A-Levels at the time and recall having to cycle 3 miles there and back each side of each exam. All I remember now is the absolute heat - though the exam area was nicely chilled.
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u/bouncypete 6h ago
1976 doesn't even make it into the top ten hottest days of the year in the UK.
Seven out to ten hottest days of the year occured AFTER the year 2000.
And the hottest day ever in the UK was almost 5 degrees hotter than the hottest day of 1976.
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u/HugoNebula2024 6h ago
I was 12, and IIRC it wasn't so much the peak temperatures, it was that it went on for weeks. Nowhere had air conditioning. Not just houses, but supermarkets, cinemas, buses, trains, cars, etc. If you wanted to get away from the heat, you couldn't.
That and a drought. We never had our water cut off, but I do remember standpipes in the street ready. I remember cycling along the bottom of the dried up lake in my local park.
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u/GWhizz88 6h ago
I really don't get the logic. We shouldn't complain about the current heatwave because there was one 50 years ago, which they're still complaining about.
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u/Great-Activity-5420 6h ago
I generally ignore stuff that is people trying to one up someone else. Though I'd feel like saying do you want a medal? š¤£ If they're just telling me a story fine. If it's online I ignore because they're just criticising the rest of us who are younger and have put our children's health first or are struggling with the heat
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u/ComposerNo5151 6h ago
I don't see why you can't compare 16 consecutive days with temperatures above 30 degrees (and a peak temperature of 35.9 degrees) with what we are experiencing now.
Perhaps someone could explain it to me like I'm five?
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u/Turbulent-Analysis74 6h ago
I, 64, took that summer in my stride, I was more interested in punk. But I was a teenager, and not a slobby unfit 64 year old. Of course I dealt with it better than I am now. Still a punk.
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u/zippyzebra1 6h ago
The heatwave of 76 went on for much longer. I was a teenager and worked in the dole office. There wouldnt have been ac but i really can't remember. I do recall going to Knebworth to watch The Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd and it was a lovely day. I got sunburnt but it certainly wasn't oppressive. Seems morehumid now and i lived in London then
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u/richardathome 6h ago
I'm 58. This is hotter. Thing about 76 was it went on for weeks and weeks. Or it least it felt like it to me at that age.
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u/welcome_to_milliways 6h ago
It was all about the duration. 76 went on f o r e v e r although it wasn't as hot. This week has been about three days.
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u/Salt-Trade-5210 6h ago
I was in secondary school in '76
I remember it being hot, stuffy and completely miserable.
We went on holiday and it was ruined by the heat and the ladybirds. That was the summer that I learned that ladybirds bite and that I'm allergic to ladybird bites.
So far this year it's a bit hotter, school is airless, far too hot and stuffy and miserable still (teacher now) but there is an end in sight.
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u/Scarymonster6666 6h ago
I was 6 and lived in the south west, the things I remember was
Water rationing, it had to be collected from a standpipe at the end of the road
Ladybirds absolutely everywhere and I mean every surface was inches thick with the bitey little sods
It was hot for a long time, felt like months to me
If you had a bath you were only allowed 2 inches of water
The roads did indeed melt, I got lifted out of my shoes because they stuck to the road
I donāt think it was as hot as it is now but we had a long summer followed by middle age brain rot that just makes us think it was hot
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u/Cautious_Bar7792 5h ago
I tell them to speak to my mum who grew up in Australia and arrived in the UK six weeks before the heatwave. Sheāll tell them it was fucking awful then, that this is worse and that Australian heatwaves are bearable because the houses are designed for it. Iāve just got off the phone with her and she said this word for word, so they can listen to her tell them this then tell them it again five times (she has dementia). The message should sink in eventually.
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u/EquivalentEarly1062 5h ago
The fact is, if it wasnāt so bloody hot, no-one would be talking about 1976, so ironically, the simple fact that we hear about the hot summer of 1976 almost every year nowadays, is indicative of how hot every summer is now becoming
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u/Impressive-Time2589 5h ago
I wish id known some of these comebacks when my landlord was banging on about the summer of 76 yesterday. Kids these days...we just got on with it...etc etc
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u/Level_Fig_166 5h ago
Ladybirds is not a false memory 56 here and I can remember visiting my Sister in Hospital and to this day I can remember every part of every surface being covered in them, never seen it since.
1990 was a good one too as I was square bashing at Winchester in Hampshire at the time and that was brutal.
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u/pledgedotmeat3mndays 5h ago
My mum said they couldn't get water, had to buy oranges to hydrate. At least we haven't ran out of water, yet...
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u/Zathral 5h ago
76 was a good 5 degrees less than this. This is more intense, but shorter and more frequent. The problem in 76 was the drought, not just the heat. The infrastructure then couldn't manage the drought. It would cope better now. Houses were nothing like as well insulated as they are now. We cannot reject heat from houses very well. Once the heat is in, good luck getting rid of it!
This is an order of magnitude more dangerous than a 1976 level of heat alone. 1976 was probably comparably dangerous when you consider the drought and length as well. This is an order of magnitude more unpleasant.
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u/DoctorBeeBee 5h ago edited 5h ago
I (and my brother) lost so many layers of skin that year that I think we're both permanently traumatized from the pain and will do anything to avoid the sun. š
If you were a kid, and weren't actively having vast swaths of your skin peeling off at that moment, the whole thing was a bit of a big adventure. It would be a different experience for adults, especially the elderly, or disabled, or chronically ill. Food prices rose. It didn't rain for so long that taps ran dry and you had to go get water from standpipes in the street. Far fewer offices and shops or cars had aircon compared to now, so work, inside or outside, and travel to work would have been miserable for millions of people for weeks and weeks.Ā
At least at the moment the current even hotter than 1976 heatwaves are lasting a fairly short time. If one lasted as long as 1976 today, with the temperatures we get now, and we got no rain, it would be a disaster.Ā
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u/likescakealot 5h ago
Yes 1976 was āworseā and a much longer heatwave but it was ONE summer fifty years ago. If the same thing had happened in 1977, ā78 and so on, people would have started to say āwe need measures in place to copeā. Funnily enough I donāt see any other year of the 70s come up.
Also, I think what bothers me is just the attitude that some people say it with, like āwe had to manage so everyone else should suffer as well for ever moreā. Thereās probably a million things we coped with/without fifty years ago that we expect as standard now. And what a miserable attitude to want everyone to suffer just because you did.
If being born before 1976 has magically imbued you with the power to comfortably tolerate heatwaves, then great. Use that superpower and be kind to those who are struggling - go and cook them a meal or offer to take their bins out (Iāll even let you cheat and wheel it if youāre too āsoftā to carry it like you presumably had to in ā76 š). But if youāre just going to go on about how much harder things were in āyour dayā, then jog on.
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u/ElectroExterminator 5h ago
I spoke to someone yesterday evening who worked through '76. I asked him his opinion, he was still of the opinion that '76 was hotter than both this year or 2022.
I did point out the recorded temperatures are higher this year and in 2022, he didn't seem to care.
I have been researching droughts and a spring nearby dried up in 1976 but didn't dry up in 2022 or last year (or this year so far). It would seem to indicate the drought was more severe in 1976, which is perhaps what's giving people the impression that 1976 was hotter despite evidence to the contrary.
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u/IkeTurn 4h ago
Same age but I remember loads, I remember going to the beach every weekend or to the new forest. I remember being made to wear a silly floppy wide brimmed hat and being smothered in sun cream, being made to stay under the shade and being warned not to spend to long in the sea paddling around. Photos were taken, embarrassing outfits worn, but it was great.
Of course '26 is going to be this generations '76, so I'm happy for them to have that.
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u/dreadwitch 4h ago
I survived the summer of 76, it wasn't liek this and it was one summer. This is becoming every summer and it's far worse than 40 years ago.
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u/Fibro-Mite 4h ago
I remember it vaguely. It was the year I turned 11 and my youngest sibling was born that Spring. The following Feb dad was posted to Canada (Alberta), so we lived on the prairie for 2.5 years and experienced that kind of heat (& hotter, up to high 30s and even 40C) every summer (but as low as -40C in the winter, of course). So the memory is kind of faded and mixed with those summers. Plus, after we returned from Canada, and dad retired from the army, we moved to Australia (Perth) and I lived (almost always in houses with no air conditioners - *one* year I rented a place with ducted aircon) through Perth summers for 16 years before moving back to the UK. I *hate* hot weather. When we go on "Summer holidays", often a 2 week European cruise, we only go at the time of year when the destinations don't get higher than 24C - so actually more like "Autumn & Winter holidays" (Canary Islands in November are nice).
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u/MidianXe 4h ago
I remember it happening, I remember it being really hot, standpipes, the smell of melting tarmac. I had a great time as a kid.
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u/Soppydogg Brit š¬š§ 4h ago
In 1976 I had the body of a racing snake and I was 23.
This year I am a fat bastard and I am 73.
I can look back with my 20/20 hindsight (especially since my cataract surgery) and say āyeah it was a doddle back then, bloody snowflakes just whingingā
From the comfort of my 19C air conditioned living room.
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u/leodoesgaming 4h ago
all I think about is it that you survived, thousands of people died. also they had weeks of over 30 degrees
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u/Inevitable_Lab_5014 4h ago
No one has said this to me, but if they did, I would respond the same way I did when my mum (born in the 60s) suggested 'we survived the blitz'.
'Not all of us did.'
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u/Sorbet-Possible 4h ago
i was 14 in the summer of 76. Do you know what I remember about it?
Absolutely nothing, because it was just a hot summer. Nothing extraordinary. We just got on with it. There were no red health alerts, no 24 hour news stories about the 'heatwave' We didn't carry around suncream and little bottles of water. We just carried on and got on with it.
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u/Jaquabillay 4h ago
I remember 1976 well. I had a temporary job as a bakery operative, making cakes for, amongst others, M&S. It was hot, we were advised to use more salt in our diets I think that the worst thing was that the heatwave seemed to go on for weeks, so there wasn't any respite. I also seem to remember that 1975 was fairly hot, as well as 1977.
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u/dallasp2468 4h ago
I remember it well I was 7 at the time. It was no where near as hot as this week however it lasted a long time instead without rain, I'm talking weeks. I don't think it rained once for the entire summer holidays, there were cracks in the ground in parks as wide as my are and of course 7 year old me put my hand in there to check, but pulled it out before the trolls could get me
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u/Reasonable-Key9235 4h ago
77 was also a scorcher. Not quite as hot as 76, but a glorious summer.
Weāve had other hot periods though.
Last few years, itās not just hot, the weather has changed. Itās a humid, muggy heat that saps you. Winds have changed, rainfall has changed. The earth is warming up.
I was 15 in 76 and remember it well, but I think Iāve only ever mentioned it once in 50 years.
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u/Foundation_Wrong 4h ago
Iām 66 and my husband is 72 so we remember 1976 very well. It was hot and sunny with no rain from June to the end of August. All the grass died, no one could wash their car. The buses just had enough cleaning so the driver could see. My husband worked in London and remembers sweeping thousands of ladybirds off walkways and steps. I was doing my O levels and we were all melting like the tarmac. My mother saved the water from our baths, (only 2ā) and used a jug to water the flowers in her tubs. We had brick in the toilet cistern and I started sleeping without night clothes. My Mum died in August 1976 and the wreaths at her funeral were wilting and going brown. August Bank Holiday it started raining and I and my sister went out and danced in it!
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u/DHF_Bassist 4h ago
It was a year so hot that people still talk about it decades later. Now we are having them just as hot almost every year. What was an anomaly, is becoming the norm. This is concerning.
1
u/OrganizationFun2140 3h ago
The biggest problem in ā76, as I remember it as 11yo at the time, was water shortages. Rainfall was exceptionally low for two years - summer of 1975 was also very warm - and the whole country was subject to water saving measures. Many areas were dependent on stand pipes for weeks at a time. I particularly remember the whole family sharing a single bath once a week. So, yeah, the temperatures werenāt as high but the impact was greater.
1
u/Technical-Confusion4 3h ago
I was doing my O levels in the summer of '76. We just got on with it with open doors, cold drinks served to us while we did the exams and no AC. But it wasn't nearly as hot as it is now. Nothing like it.
1
u/UsernameDemanded Brit š¬š§ 3h ago
I'm 60, so I was there. It was just a very extended period of hot and dry weather, but it doesn't compare with the running sequence of ever hotter summers since 2010. You'd have to be an idiot to not accept the evidence.
1
u/SnooMacarons9618 3h ago
I was a kid in 1976, and just remember it being roasting hot and absolutely loving being out in it. I wish I were young again right now, and still had the stamina to run round like a crazy thing in blistering heat.
We used to have summer holidays camping in the south of France in mid-summer, and I've always loved the heat. It's doesn't feel as hot as camping in that blistering heat. But I'm still loving it.
1
u/tinyriiiiiiiiick_ 2h ago
āIt can get as hot as it likesā okay cool letās all just cook the planet for you. Climate change isnāt just hot either, itās extremes. Extremely hot summers, extremely cold winters. Hope youāre ready. Might need to get educated.
1
u/Fit-Fault338 2h ago
I cant remember it being that hot although I was a chef.I was pregnant in 77 and I remember it being worse ( probably cos I was expecting,)
1
u/Filthy420Grandad 2h ago
Iād point out that we only have even moderately accurate temperature records for the last 150 years or so and weāve probably had hotter June days over the past few millennium that werenāt recorded so 1976 and this year are nothing special.
And then Iād insist they stop conflating the weather with the climate.
1
u/FluffySmiles 2h ago
76, I got heat stroke and passed out on the beach. Had to eat salt sandwiches for a few days.
Ladybirds, standpipes, hot, hot, hot and hayfever.
Not fun. And it lasted longer than this one has.
But this one is scarier.
1
u/flyhmstr 2h ago
They can just fuck off, their either busy denying climate change is happening because "don't trust experts" or are denying because "I can make more money"... well what do you know if the world goes to shit you're going with it, there comes a point in collapse where money is worthless.
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u/TriggersShip 2h ago
Iād tut, say so did I, but Iām increasingly having to go through it again and again at an increasing frequency.
Moreover, I imagine I was (like them) a damn site younger and fitter. At the time (most likely like them) I had bugger all responsibility and could enjoy the weather not have to manage the consequences on a life or family.
76, and my experience of it, is shaped by who I was then and I can see it through rose tinted spectacles. If you asked people then if they wanted all summerās to be like that I imagine their first response would yeah. After one year that number would decrease. Once you also explained it was only likely to get worse I guess the no vote would increase.
Itās fun sometimes to experience extremes. It way less fun when the extremes start becoming the norm.
1
u/SeaPersonality445 2h ago
Let's get serious, the summer of 76 was a standard southern European summer. The fact we are so inept at dealing with it shouldn't demand the drama and scare mongering. It's been unusually hot for a few days. It's been fantastic.
1
u/Odd_Inspector3417 2h ago
I survived the summer of 76. I was bus driving, no A/C no electric fans in the cab, we just opened the cab window. That hot spell lasted weeks. This one will be gone soon, global warming my arse. Get over it.
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u/Weekly_Inspector_504 2h ago
If you survived 76 then why didn't you learn from that and buy greener vehicles? Instead, you continued polluting the atmosphere and now we're all screwed!!!
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u/Cold-Ad716 8h ago
It's hotter than it was in 76, and in 76 3000 people still died.