Scorchio...

[andyoxon]

OK, now ~22C in & out.  I've had back doors and all windows open since 6am, now south facing doors & windows closed & curtains drawn.  North facing windows on 'ventilation' gap, curtains open

[hubner]

Top floor South East East facing flat here in London, windows opened and curtains drawn (small gap for ventilation) since midnight. A small fan will be on all day.

Today is a day off but tomorrow will be at work.

[ian]

I realise that the elderly may not be included in this, but is anybody else a bit baffled by what looks like hysteria over 35⁰, when at the end of next week many will choose to jet off in seek of such temperatures?

At one office in Cambridge, temperatures just over 32C produced office temperatures of 40C.

If it were 40C outside, I'd refuse to go in to that office.

Any tower block of flats is equally badly designed, with even less air flow to dissipate heat.

People are not physiologically adapted to coping with such temperatures. People will die.

That penultimate sentence is entirely untrue.

OK, I'll expand on it, to satisfy you.

When people live in a particular climate, they become adapted to that climate. Their body changes how it responds. People living in a cool climate like the UK are not accustomed to hot weather; equally, people visiting from a hot climate (say, Australia) find UK temperatures difficult, far too cold. It isn't a matter of comfort, they shiver in what we consider balmy temperatures.
I remember a ridiculously cool Christmas in Australia one year; we were wearing thick wool jumpers because the temperature was 25C.

Was it the phrase 'physiologically adapted' that upset you? Will you be satisfied with 'acclimatization'?

It's better, there are minimal physiological adaptations to heat (unlike, say, altitude). Yes, hot is uncomfortable and you shouldn't opt to run a marathon in it unless you've got used to it, but the calibre of much of the news is the same sort of scrolly death as covid reportage. Deflatus makes a good point that entirely unacclimatized British people jet off to specifically enjoy these temperatures all the time. I enjoy a nice hot bath. Last week I was working at 35 degrees. I've spent a fair amount of time in the far east and after a couple of days, you're generally used to it.

[rafletcher]

I count myself fortunate that, although I’m off work today so not taking advantage of the office air on, we do have a small garden that, with foliage and a couple of parasols, we can keep in the shade all day. It’s about 24C inside (NE facing terraced cottage from the 1840’s).

ETA and our late  ‘70’s (as in age, not vintage) neighbour is out cutting his hedges. A man who can choose whatever day he wants to chooses one of the hottest ever. Barking.

[andyoxon]

I grew up in Africa (1200-1350m altitude) but the most I ever knowingly experienced was 37-38C.  It wasn't until visiting the Alps/Passy-Chamonix area a few yeas ago that I felt what 40C was like.  Punishing heat when out in direct sun.

[23.5C Inside: 29.5C Out]

[rafletcher]

I grew up in Africa (1200-1350m altitude) but the most I ever knowingly experienced was 37-38C.  It wasn't until visiting the Alps/Chamonix area a few yeas ago that I felt what 40C was like.  Punishing heat when out in direct sun.

[23.5C Inside: 29.5C Out]

I think my first experience of similar (feeling, if not actual) heat to today’s was a visit to New York one summer. And perhaps when I went to Ras al Khaimah. In both cases the humidity was brutal. Walking out of JFK in the afternoon was like being hit with a hammer.

[Canardly]

A flight stop at Jeddah introduced me to very high temps for the first time. As the aircraft doors were opened it felt as if a blast furnace was outside.

[Mr Larrington]

As a small Mr Larrington I experienced summers in Hong Kong. 30+ degrees and fierce humidity, though the air temperature rarely reached 35.  I may actually have melted.  Coming out of air-conditioned airport buildings in the likes of Phoenix and Tampa was worse, as was the contrast between 8C on the coast N of San Francisco and >40C a handful of miles inland on US-101.

I'm just about to go out shopping, by bike. I do not expect to enjoy the experience.

[ian]

I grew up in Africa (1200-1350m altitude) but the most I ever knowingly experienced was 37-38C.  It wasn't until visiting the Alps/Chamonix area a few yeas ago that I felt what 40C was like.  Punishing heat when out in direct sun.

[23.5C Inside: 29.5C Out]

I think my first experience of similar (feeling, if not actual) heat to today’s was a visit to New York one summer. And perhaps when I went to Ras al Khaimah. In both cases the humidity was brutal. Walking out of JFK in the afternoon was like being hit with a hammer.

I worked for one summer in Athens, Georgia, which was hot and sticky (and made even worse by the ferocious a/c in every building, so you'd alternately freeze and broil as you walked across the campus).

Much of Africa isn't as routinely hot as people think, the far-east is a lot hotter and humid, getting off the plane is like being mugged by a hot, wet blanket. You know it's hot when the waiter wanders over unbidden and drops ice in your beer or wine and you're thankful.

I'm currently counting 23 mossie bites from last week's trip, as I forgot to DEET myself.

[Wowbagger]

25°C inside, 31° outside at 11.15.

I went for my stoutness exercises in an air-conditioned gym between 9 and 10am, and cycled slowly back via the park. Enormous carp were basking just below the surface. They often do that in sunny weather, sometimes just because they want to. On other occasions, the water is very lacking in oxygen and the council asks the fire brigade to provide a pump to create a fountain.

I've just had the coldest shower I could manage. I could have tolerated colder water, but the tank is in the loft, and the loft is an oven with black slates on the roof. High tide is at about 5pm. I might, or might not, venture out for a swim. Will see what the air temperature is doing then.

I don't think I have ever experienced 40°C. We did have a very hot day in Como about 20 years ago, but I'm pretty sure it wasn;t that bad. Also, the last day of our tour with AH & James when we were on the banks of the Rhine was very hot, but again, I'm sure nowhere near 40°C. I recall the car thermometer reading 38°C or 39°C in 2003 when Heathrow reached about the same.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I used to have a bike computer with thermometer and I've seen that read 44 when left standing in the sun. I've also seen a mercury thermometer reach 40 on our balcony in Poland (and minus 18, but not on the same day).

[rafletcher]

Looks like the “Laughingly named Accuweather” is actually quite accurate. The bedroom clock (which incorporates a temp readout) has been brought down (bedroom 26C, lounge 24C) and is currently sat in the shade next to me on the lawn. 31.5 and slowly climbing. ETA to the current 34.7C @ 12:30. Checking back the highest temp in August 2003 was 35-36C over the weekend of 8th-9th.

[Kim]

It's about 27C in the upstairs rooms and 34C outside currently.  Somehow barakta is managing to be still asleep, possibly because I closed the window at about 8am when the temperatures crossed over, and it's now dark (I covered the bedroom window with foil during the 2019 heatwave, and it's proven useful for migraine purposes, so has stayed).

23C in the dining room, which is where we'll be camping for the next couple of days...

[Nuncio]

Looks like the “Laughingly named Accuweather” is actually quite accurate. The bedroom clock (which incorporates a temp readout) has been brought down (bedroom 26C, lounge 24C) and is currently sat in the shade next to me on the lawn. 31.5 and slowly climbing.

I'd always assumed the 'accu' bit was short for 'sometimes accurate'.

[ian]

Twenty-eight Earth degrees in the remote command centre. Bad Cat is hiding under some plants outside as the cleaner is here. No idea where the LMC has gone, saw her heading up the garden earlier, having decided the house is too warm for her. I've found that placing a big fan in the hallway at the top of the stairs really can knock a few degrees out of the bedroom temperature, that said, I suspect we'll be setting up a bed in the lounge or sleeping on my office sofabed if we can't get the temperature down to something sleepable this evening.

Last week we were meeting outside, and the temperatures were 35 degrees in the shade, so we had to move to the pool. I also sunburned my knees owing to not slathering factor 110 high enough up my pasty legs.

I think I'll go for a lunchtime swim today.

[Polar Bear]

The Bear-o-drome is a mid terrace with an East facing garden.  Our tactic is to use the window blinds on the east side until the sun moves mostly south then swap to the blinds on the west side.  We leave the windows open behind the blinds (all of the windows for airflow in fact) to allow for the heat build up between blind and double glazed unit to dissipate.

Inside the house it's still very reasonable but get within a foot of the open back door and the heat tries to claw the moisture out through the pores of your skin.

[Wowbagger]

33°C outside, 25°C inside. That's a rise of 2°C in the past 27 minutes.

[rogerzilla]

31 out and 23 in.  It was cooler last night than Sat night, so the indoor starting point was 20.5 today.  Tonight will be the problem - no cool air to let in.

[Lightning Phil]

33C outside and 24C inside. Starting point was 22.5C at 6:30am. All windows shut and curtains drawn.

[Kim]

The Bear-o-drome is a mid terrace with an East facing garden.  Our tactic is to use the window blinds on the east side until the sun moves mostly south then swap to the blinds on the west side.  We leave the windows open behind the blinds (all of the windows for airflow in fact) to allow for the heat build up between blind and double glazed unit to dissipate.

Same here, though since the double glazing I've found that you can maintain the lower indoor air temperature for quite a while if you keep the windows closed.  Foil seems to do a better job of reflecting heat without heating the room than our curtains.  I went to the effort of molishing some removable correx/bubblewrap/foil panels for the upstairs west-facing window yesterday, which is certainly an improvement.

Of course once the walls heat up you're doomed.  We weren't able to lose much of yesterday's heat before going to bed (can't leave open windows unsupervised, and barakta can't supervise windows she can't see), and I expect it'll be a lot worse tonight:

Inside the house it's still very reasonable but get within a foot of the open back door and the heat tries to claw the moisture out through the pores of your skin.

I'm not going outside without a very good reason.

[Polar Bear]

I agree with the foil tactic wholeheartedly.  Our blinds have foil inside to improve heat retention in winter and fend off excessive solar gain in times like today.  There is a 5cm gap between window and blind though which can and does heat up significantly when the windows are left closed.

[Jurek]

 

[Mr Larrington]

Although I make no claim as to the accuracy of the numbers, the ancient Trek computer on the Perfectly Good Gentleman’s Mountain Bicycle said:

31: on being retrieved from the Sheds
38: on reaching Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles, approx 2 km of full-on sun
29: after being in my pocket for half an hour inside an air-conditioned shop
38: before reaching the car park exit
40: after waiting for two minutes at some traffic lights
42: at the top of Larrington Towers Road and for the remainder of the ride home

The BBC says 34 for this neighbourhood atm.

[Jurek]

Which Sainos?
The one by the Billet?

[mrcharly-YHT]

Still unseasonably cool up here.
This infographic says it all:
https://scontent-cdg2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/292491722_5148339321940915_6653950861517092573_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=R4sJE_VQV3QAX_U36Zi&tn=n8-xEvO-JDmfCNv6&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg2-1.xx&oh=00_AT_S-J8gi8_Waup4f8VL7_GUr756ebj-RukboqOjNASZ9g&oe=62DA911E

Totally bizarre temperature distribution across the UK.