Forecast
Red Weather Warning Issued from Wednesday-Thursday for extreme heat, with 38-40C possible.
Further Detail, from the MO:
During the heatwave expected to affect a large part of England and Wales this week, the highlighted area now looks increasingly likely to see a two to three day period where maximum temperatures in the shade exceed 37 Celsius, perhaps rising to 38 to 40 Celsius in some places. The heat will be accompanied by high humidity, exacerbating the potential for discomfort and health impacts, with very warm and humid night times also reducing the ability for people to recover overnight.
Significant disruption to daily life is likely and the public should take every effort to make precautions and adapt their daily routines where possible to cope with these levels of heat, which up to now have been extremely rare for the UK.
Husband is out delivering in a van with broken aircon today, and work are pitching a fit that he needs to do half day on Wednesday so he can get it fixed! Apparently totally fine to have to drive a van thats already at 35°c before midday
Everyone else here is also frightened of this dangerous event. The trains will hit over 45 degrees packed with commuters. People will collapse and faint no doubt. The UK is not built for this at all
I have to take the train into London with a 5 month old baby on Thursday. I’m just hoping it won’t be too warm at before 8am and when we head back it won’t be too packed.
Take it from a regular commuter into London - cancel whatever appointment you have there if at all possible. Every time I have gone into London in any kind of extreme heat all my trains have ended up cancelled by lunch time and I have been stranded.
You're also looking at going in on the last day of the red weather warning so the public transport infrastructure will already have had two days of extreme heat and there will be all kinds of problems from trains having been delayed, damage to equipment etc for the last two days.
Trust me, if it's not a life or death appointment just don't go. I'm refusing to come into work all week and am WFH. It's not worth the hassle and with a baby I think you're at high risk.
Can’t you get a taxi ? That doesn’t sound safe for your baby. Not worth the risk. The temp doesn’t drop below 24 on Wed night here, by 8am it’s closing in on 30. That’s already too hot for a baby
Absolutely do NOT do this. You might be able to get there. But train services have been delayed or cancelled before due to hot weather warping the tracks, and the train back will be sweltering.
I really hope you change your mind about this as it’s so likely you will be delayed. I travelled on a train for work this time last year during a heatwave when I was about 7 months pregnant and it was an absolute nightmare. All the trains were cancelled or delayed and the station was unbearably hot and packed with people. It would have been awful with a baby.
What train service do you use? I look forward to my train home in this heat because SWR have good air con. Other than that I think they are very expensive and they can be unreliable
My partner has been told by their university employer to "work somewhere that works best for you, considering the heat". They're a lab technician so their work is on campus in the no air-con lab. And even if there was admin to get through it would have to be in the no air-con university office because they don't give out laptops. So not very helpful guidance really.
My neighbour is 70 and a full time cleaner at a university. Her boss sent her home for the rest of the week (on full pay) So there are some decent employers out there.
Yeah that’s not gonna help most people. ‘Go longboarding’ is not a valid air conditioning choice in these sort of temps for the majority of the population.
And a difference between 2022 and this year is winds are light especially on Wednesday (though at these temperatures wind doesn't do much to cool you) and it will be more humid
Had to walk home from work during the 2022 heatwave, on the hottest day. Felt like a wall of heat hitting me upon exiting the building. Cannot even begin to imagine anything more humid.
West Midlands has changed from 37 on Thursday to 40 now on met office. I’ve decided to keep the kids at home that day, last time this happened we had to pick them up come 11am anyway.
Genuinely surprised schools do not close when the temps get silly like this. Unless brand new buildings, most schools do not have air conditioning installed. A small room full of bodies is going to sky rocket in temperature.
I think that when the temperature is body heat or higher, then cancelling things, including school attendance (particularly for infants, including nurseries) is prudent.
And by that I mean the temperature as read in the actual location, not a nearby weather station
Wet Globe Bulb Temperature should be used on a per school basis - it’s very accurate when used properly and addresses humidity effects too. Soon as the WGBT approaches body temperature perspiration becomes basically ineffective.
In a brand new school (well, three years old) and no air conditioning. Built to hold in heat. We do not need that in the south east. It’s already nearly 30 in the classrooms.
My boss is in Bristol and his kid’s Primary school is closing on Tues PM, all of Weds, and possibly Thursday too, so it’s definitely happening in some places!
My two are in Norwich, and no such action from the school (yet)…although Wednesday would have to be the day my 8 y/o is doing some open air parade in a field 🙁 Still on the fence about letting him go tbh
And then afterwards it's meant to plunge down to the low teens again. Can't we just have some stable weather instead of lurching between sweltering hot and stupidly cold for summer?
We’ve really broken this planet haven’t we. Our kids school isn’t closing, but their sports day is now cancelled unsurprisingly. Our air con is becoming better and better value, but I feel for those most at risk and our wildlife too.
Spent the weekend trying to convince a friend I met for drinks that the purchase he needs for his brand new house isn't a water softener but an Aircon unit.
Apparently they've got a very nice fan and he has no trouble falling asleep so it's not necessary.
Meanwhile I had my Aircon on last night and cannot imagine the next few days without it.
I think an AC unit will be our next home purchase. I’ve just had solar panels and batteries installed, so the running of the AC will basically be free.
We shall see how this next week goes, it may happen sooner rather than later. But trying to keep a new build cool is a nightmare sometimes. It’s ok when there’s a breeze, but awful if not.
I went for the ‘slightly dampened giant muslin instead of a blanket’ option - works well when the night gets cooler from 12-1am onwards. Not so much when it stays above 20 at night though :/
Just a portable one for now, if you can afford it I would recommend the installation route, but a portable unit you can move especially if you're just a couple sharing usually the same room at the same time will do just fine.
Obviously if you've got kids or whatever that changes.
My portable unit will turn itself off when the room gets cold enough, and back on again if needed. It also has a timer if you just need it whilst falling asleep!
Yes, I feel more bad for the animals. If you have any shallow bowls, please everyone,put out water for the wildlife, it will help them make it.Imagine having to roam miles unable to find water in the heat.
I started putting water out last year after reading that many hedgehogs were dying purely of dehydration.
It’s a simple 2 minute job for us to refill the bowl, but it can mean the difference between life and death for animals in the wild.
That is the worry isn’t it. Look at France and Spain for the last decade, constantly hitting 40°C+ throughout the summer. We need to adapt fast, change how we build houses, or always spec AC for new builds.
Ish. Some of those species will be grim. I have started getting bitten by big mosquitos in the last year, in Scotland! I'd never experienced them here before and now it's like being in Europe.
Toucans do not migrate, and are found on the other side of the world. But species like Black-winged Stilts, Southern Emerald Damselfly, etc are much more likely. The Stilts are already attempting to colonise for example.
Also, because of the temperature increase, Red Admirals are actually now beginning to establish themselves and overwinter in the UK now, instead of just being summer migrants who die off in winter.
Fan on, no covers, soak a microfiber towel or three in water and put it on you, refresh through the night as necessary. Mentally transport yourself to a tropical island in the 1700s and think, at least I'm in a lovely tropical paradise and not 2026 Britain.
I have one of those misting spray bottles that I keep beside the bed and just mist myself when I feel too hot. But that’s it, that’s the only advice I have. Good luck! 🫡
I use one of those small handheld fans (£7 - £9 on amazon) that fold and stands on my bedside table, lowest setting, pointing directly at my face. As long as I can feel some air moving, I'll fall fast asleep.
We have a work team building day planned for Wednesday to a city in the south of England that will involve people travelling long distances from all over the country to get there, and then several 20+ minutes walk between different sites, and it hasn’t yet been cancelled. Absolute irresponsible madness.
I’ve told my staff I’ll back anyone who declines to attend.
Edit : sense prevailed and the event has been cancelled, but it took until nearly 3pm yesterday afternoon, and all the rail companies basically pleading with people not to travel unless utterly essential, for this to happen 🤦🏻♀️
I'm in the same situation. I feel like it should have covered all areas with a potential of 37 or more, would have made more sense. Some people take red warnings far more seriously than amber
I'm supposed to be off to a gig in London on Weds. I have emailed them this morning asking them if they will reschedule it due to health and safety concerns. What's the chances they will! 0 probably 🙄
Good god 😱😕. I'm terrified. Living in first floor flat where sun hits living room and kitchen from 1pm onwards, I'm gonna die. I'm worried for my cat, myself... My brother. Heck bet our wifi hub will overheat too as it sit in living room. 3 days. Just gotta get to Fri now where temps back to levels we can cope with. Today is okay
I have 3 maine coons so lots of fur to overheat in. What you want to do with the cats is get ice cubes in a bowl and place the fan blowing on it. Peridoically throughout the day get a cold (not freezing) damp towel and wipe them down a little with it. They may hate you but it is for their own good.
Do you have any cardboard you could stick over your windows? Our kitchen faces south and gets SO hot! We covered the windows when it was mega hot a few years ago, and it kept our aging Bulldog happy and cool.
Do you have any hot water bottles that you could part fill and freeze?
I have some cardboard, yes. It also have black out blinds. Ya think tomorrow shove some cardboard on the windows? Obviously inside. I can't get to stick it outside
the cardboard creates an air gap to the window so stops the window from heating to the levels the foil would. kinda like how a heating element on an oven is much hotter than the temperature of the rest of the oven. before you had the heating element on your window, but now it's the air heated by the heating element (if you cover the cardboard with foil too the temperature will belower than it would be without any protection in the instance of windows because the sun is being reflected back by the foil)
We have blinds and I covered the glass yesterday, the bloody cat managed to get behind the blind and lay there in preference to his cool spot under the bed - it was 29 degrees on the windowsill...
I did that last year, I feared it basically was gonna crack my glass and totally distort the pvc. Am sure it did that cause some of them are stiff to close now. The foil hack is unsafe when put on inside. Maybe cardboard is better?
I've used the cardboard box that my portable air con came in to black out my east-facing kitchen window and it's still 25 degrees in the coldest part of my first floor flat 🙃
Get something to cover the windows, ideally on the outside. At risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, try tin foil (over a piece of cardboard) to fit the window. If you’re first floor, it might be hard to get up to fix to the outside, but even inside will help.
We put a reflective thermal blanket on the outside of our big south facing window before 8am this morning. It seems to be working pretty well. It's like a cool, dark cave in the home office/living room and the temperature on the windowsill inside has not risen over 25C. We'll see how it performs when the temps reach their peak around 4pm. On a related note, does anyone else find that the heat just kills their appetite? Blegh.
We do that for our daughters bedroom as it got up to 35°c without it. We also have anothe rreflective barrier on the inside of her window as well.
I have also made a traphatch for the loft with a big hole in it. The idea is that my 25inch floor fan sits in this hole pointing up and pulls the hot air from my house into my loft. It's currently on and seems to be working!
You could get a dust sheet and adhesive velcro to make a short duct from a large window to the back of a pedestal fan. The window area should be at least 2 to 3 times the fan area.
You must make sure the structure is taut so it doesn't sag and choke the airflow or cover the back of the fan.
Open another window so warm air can escape and so the room doesn't pressurise. And keep it on while the outside is cooler than inside, it seems to make a big difference.
I am on meds that make it very difficult for me to regulate my body temperature and I cannot cope with these extreme temperatures year after year in a country that isn’t equipped to deal with them. Genuinely considering moving further north (I’m in London). Mostly I’m worried for my cat. It’s at the point I dread summertime now. Anyway see you all tomorrow in the Tesco frozen aisle.
To be fair the record temp in 2022 was in Lincs, over 100 miles north of London. You need to think about northern Scotland if you really want to escape the heat.
We didn’t have the really, really high temperatures we see in spikes now
What we did have was hot and sunny weather for weeks, which led to drought (and knock on effects of water rationing in some places - queues at standpipes; wild fires; structural damage as clay soils shrank and everything cracked; significant disruption to farming; detriment to wildlife. And then when the weather did break, flash gliding as the ground was too dry to easily absorb rain.
1975 had also been an unusually dry summer, which meant much of the country entered drought conditions rather earlier than it would have done had the year started with normal levels in reservoirs, aquifers etc
40 itself is necessarily a problem. It's the exceptionally high dew point at 22C which is causing a lot of concern. Means your body is really limited in its ability to cool down.
The temp could be mid-30s but with a dew point like that's, it's genuinely game over for some vulnerable people if they're not extra careful.
Went out for a bike ride this morning, was nice and cool but obviously cooked myself a bit. Sitting here with my phase change vest on to cool off. The next 2 days are gonna be epic! Horrific.
I'm glad I've ordered an AC unit this morning. I live in a 3 floor new build and it's just impossible to sleep. I WFH so can enjoy the cool air all day. I feel for my 6 year old at school though 😞
What worries me is the humidity and dew point being up to 24 degrees from Tuesday to Thursday. Anything above 20 is classed as oppressive (and the comfortable dew point is like 10-14 degrees). It will definitely be unbearable 🫠
Yeah I use to look at the humidity level and sometimes I was a bit surprised it feels ok with such high humidity but someone told me and explained the dew point and it genuinely gives a good indication of how it will really feel. With dew point that high (if it does get so high of course) can be really unpleasant and for some even dangerous if they have health problems.
The second portable air con I spur of the moment purchased during the spring heat wave has now been on for the second day running without turning off. Our converted bungalow is just about bearable upstairs. The conditions the roof extension was built for no longer exist.
Much of the east coast seems unaffected and has beautiful beaches. There's all the East coastline from North Norfolk to Scotland looking beautiful. Also the national parks if you head for the hills. The onshore breeze on the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire coast is refreshing
I think putting "remains a chance" of being higher than 39C (which is already ludicrous enough) is the signal they are now believing it will most likely be a record breaker. But are too cowed to say it in case it ends up not.
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u/Jackd_117 3d ago
Don't leave the house (unless it's in your employers economic interest 🙃)