Hot and settled spell discussion and temperature reports July 2013

[jethro]

It's the same with most things though, the more you have/experience, the more you can tolerate. It's been 7 years since we last had a warm spell like this, although it isn't extreme, it's blinking hot when compared to what we're used to. Just because you say 'blimey, it's hot, too hot to work in' doesn't mean you're moaning, it's an observation. 

 

Us outdoor workers do have to just accept and get on with it, regardless of what the weather throws at us, personally I'm just as likely to say 'blimey, it's blinking cold' in the winter - again, not a moan, just an observation.

[CongletonHeat]

I've worked outside in 30c and 0c, and this is much more pleasant.

[Methuselah]

It's the same with most things though, the more you have/experience, the more you can tolerate. It's been 7 years since we last had a warm spell like this, although it isn't extreme, it's blinking hot when compared to what we're used to. Just because you say 'blimey, it's hot, too hot to work in' doesn't mean you're moaning, it's an observation. 

 

Us outdoor workers do have to just accept and get on with it, regardless of what the weather throws at us, personally I'm just as likely to say 'blimey, it's blinking cold' in the winter - again, not a moan, just an observation.

I know what you mean, J...I was working in a garden centre in 1973, on that day that RAF Mildenhall recorded 35C. Breaking-up tarmac, with a pick axe, was hard work! Oh, to be able to do work like that again...

[Polar Maritime]

Correct Jethro, im just glad im off work and in the shade. Have spent my whole life working outdoors in all weather, the hot sort are the worst conditions for me. I am enjoying it sat here in the shade mind you... With my Yorkshire Tea.

 

26.2c in the shade now, and 29.1c in the sun.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Polar Maritime

[Tony27]

Exactly why I don't work in my greenhouse when the sun is on it - like an oven of course! I just wait till the afternoon to sort things out in there.

the afternoon when its the hottest part of the day? 

[Derp Patrol]

It is rather quite funny though. Those telling people that the current temperatures are 'fine' and they shouldnt have a problem with it are the same ones who were moaning in March and early April saying it was too cold.

 

How about people just talk about the weather in this thread rather than constantly saying how people should be liking the current weather? Everyone has preferences but they arent necessarily the same as yours.

 

 

Because the weather we were seeing then was very unseasonal, low single figure temperatures and snow - that's not pleasant for anyone unless we have some cold blooded people on here?

 

It's much easier to have a tolerance to heat than cold.. if you were outside in the freezing cold for a prolonged period with little clothing then you would get hypothermia.. if you did the same in 30C then the worst you could get is a headache if it really affects someone that much 

[matty007]

Who said extreme..? What can you do with the heat working outside, Aircon..?

 

Note I said, cooling i.e if your working indoors. Keeping hydrated when outside. 

 

People are making out it's extreme, especially the papers. 

 

Fair enough if you find it uncomfortable, do things to minimize it. I just wish people wouldn't wish for it to breakdown and then moan when it does. 

[Coast]

Does this compare to 1976? Not at the moment!

 

Flashback to 1976: What UK was like during record-breaking 1976 heatwave

 

Martin King recalls the record-breaking drought's effect on his Warwickshire countryside

 

It started with a massive late-June thunderstorm and ended with another on the August holiday Monday. In between much of the UK endured the longest drought and hottest summer on record. It had been the first year where fields of oilseed rape became common and they had already brought their yellowness to a new rural palette. But that soon gave way to unrelenting brown as pastures withered and looked as if they would never recover.

 

Many gardeners had no need of mowers for at least a month. More significantly potatoes would not grow, wheatears would not become plump, and farmers and horse-owners had to use up winter hay stocks over the arid August - and worry about stocks for the winter ahead. I even found a dead 70cm (28ins) pike in the barely running River Avon on its way to Stratford. Water shortages meant widespread water restrictions with standpipes deployed in the worst-hit areas of the UK as reservoirs emptied.

 

Meanwhile fire crews grew haggard chasing grass and woodland fires. As a young reporter I followed a Warwickshire crew into a copse outside Coventry. "If I tell you to run," said the fire chief, "then run like hell." I was bemused; it seemed only a small fire. Then the flames reached a 10m (30ft) pine. Wumph! It was fully ablaze in a second, its resin crackling and flaring. Wumph! Its neighbour went up, then another and another and we were all running like hell - the light wind fanned by the draft from the flames and spreading them astoundingly fast..

 

We'd seen film of Australian and US forest fires. This was on a lesser scale but its deceptive beginnings made it deadly nevertheless. You become better adjusted to the heat, and to changing your lifestyle to cope - but watching the countryside and its economy shrivel was an enduring shock. The most amazing memory, however, was the speed of nature's recovery after those late-August storms that broke the heatwave. Apples put on a late spurt, and so did some of the potato crop.  Some canny farmers even hauled in an unprecedented late-September hay crop. None of it was as much as was needed but it was better than anyone feared.

 

That copse took longer to recover - but that brought an extra benefit: native broad-leaved species grew in place of the interloper pines. It was only natural.

 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/flashback-to-1976-what-uk-was-like-during-recordbreaking-1976-heatwave-8713469.html

[Polar Maritime]

I worked out in Winter 2010 with temps Hovering around -20c, was wonderful.

[Summer of 95]

It's the same with most things though, the more you have/experience, the more you can tolerate. It's been 7 years since we last had a warm spell like this, although it isn't extreme, it's blinking hot when compared to what we're used to. Just because you say 'blimey, it's hot, too hot to work in' doesn't mean you're moaning, it's an observation. 

 

Us outdoor workers do have to just accept and get on with it, regardless of what the weather throws at us, personally I'm just as likely to say 'blimey, it's blinking cold' in the winter - again, not a moan, just an observation.

"What we're used to"- that's the key.

 

Days with 25 C+ maximum were ten a penny in the 90s and up to 2006; we expected plenty of them every summer and wondered what was going on when they didn't turn up (1993 and 1998). However since 2006, especially since 2008 when it became clear 2007 wasn't a one-off, we have got used to cloudy sub-20C dross being normal in high summer and given up expecting 25C sunshine. So when it finally does turn up it's being mentioned as some kind of freak conditions people are unprepared for- instead of something that was perfectly normal not long ago.

[matty007]

A clean heat?

 

It still feels humid outside, especially in London!

 

 

It's very clean to me, not oppressive.

 

We are not getting thunderstorms which shows that the air is cleaner. For want of a better word.  We haven't got cold air mixing with hot which causes thunderstorms which causes mugginess. 

[matty007]

the afternoon when its the hottest part of the day? 

 

 

Haha this. 

 

My Dad still protests that 12PM is the hottest part of the day because the sun's highest. 

[Polar Maritime]

At this time of year I would say 2/3pm is the hottest period, as my weather station tells me. 

[Methuselah]

Haha this. 

 

My Dad still protests that 12PM is the hottest part of the day because the sun's highest. 

Somewhere around 4:30, I believe?

[matty007]

At this time of year I would say 2/3pm is the hottest period, as my weather station tells me. 

 

Yep, I've always experienced the most heat at 3-5PM. 

 

The sun is highest at 12PM but it obviously takes time for the ground to warm and for the Earth to absorb the heat. 

[Stargazer]

...and, of course, the sun isn't at its highest at 12pm - in summer, anyway.  In the UK the sun is at its highest around 1.00pm (the exact time varies depending on the date and your longitude).  The hottest part of the day is usually an hour or two after the sun reaches its maximum elevation, generally between 2 and 5pm in summer, earlier than that in winter.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Stargazer

[matty007]

Somewhere around 4:30, I believe?

 

Spot on, every temperature reading I've ever taken has peaked at around that time.

[Bottesford]

the afternoon when its the hottest part of the day? 

 

Ah but my greenhouse doesn't get any sun after approx 1:45pm (well last time I checked at the weekend) so it returns to ambient temps pretty quick after then so I can work in it. Not an ideal site for a greenhouse but still the sunniest spot I have available.

 

Hottest temps for me fall at around 4:30pm. Thermal lag much in same way we're approaching the warmest time of year a month after the solstice.

[ARW WeatherMan]

Wow it really is hotting up here! Around 1pm it hit 30.8oC here, really was hot and the sun hadn't gone in once all day, then some cloud started bubbling up with the heat and the sun blocked out between 1 and 2:30 making the temp drop to 28.8oC temperature just got back up to 30.5oC but another extremely slowly moving cloud has blocked out the sun and temperature has started to drop again! if we had no cloud today I wouldn't be suprised to have reached 33oC and I would think somewhere around the London area will?

[Polar Maritime]

From my location yesterday in the sun. 27.8c here now in the shade.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Polar Maritime

[Bottesford]

Sadly high cloud has rolled in again just when we were getting close to beating this years temp record.

So todays max is 28.4c just 0.1c off the yearly record. 

Now 27.3c and falling.

[Costa Del Fal]

30c here!

[Costa Del Fal]

The heat here doesnt usually peak until about 5-5.30pm at the moment.

[NorthNorfolkWeather]

Well, 27.2 at the minute, sea breeze has started to work it's magic and it feels much nicer than an hour ago when the temperature was only 0.3C higher

 

Winds of 10-12 mph with gusts to 18 making it feel very pleasant

[hillbilly]

Ah but my greenhouse doesn't get any sun after approx 1:45pm (well last time I checked at the weekend) so it returns to ambient temps pretty quick after then so I can work in it. Not an ideal site for a greenhouse but still the sunniest spot I have available.

 

Hottest temps for me fall at around 4:30pm. Thermal lag much in same way we're approaching the warmest time of year a month after the solstice.

I have had at least 4 days with max at 6pm and one day max at 9pm!!! a week or two ago 26deg now