The Heat Haters Club 2023

[The PIT]

Well gave up on the walk was like walking in the jungle. Already up to 23.8C can I keep the air con off. I suspect not.

So to all those who were ridiculing me saying we got get such heat in September now what do you say. Remember I was looking at uppers of 24C when I made the original comments which we haven't had.

Temperatures are 2 degrees higher than they were on the record breaking heat of July 2022. We won't get that but unless we get storms I'm wondering how high it will go today.

Edited September 9, 2023 by The PIT

[markyo]

Its been one of the toughest weeks i've had, not helped by all those London calls i must admit. Top temp was just under 49c, unworkable in the 100% humidity. Only good point was the kit was tripping out so there was time for some cooling breaks. 

Roll on next week....it will be like utopia after this week.

[Gnasher]

1 hour ago, Cosmo69 said:

I personally like 18C-25C.  120-140 days reach 18C or more here (and excessive heat uncommon due to the sea), with nearly 1900 hours sunshine, this location is very pleasant to live i'd say

A survey regarding heat lovers should be regional. Those who live in north and west will more likely hate it, as less used to it.  Those in south east i would think favour heat...though there is a limit...30C plus high humidity is a push to enjoy. Mid to High twenties, dry air, fine.

 

 

 

I live in the south east and hate it. I’ve always not been keen. My mum thinks it’s because I was born in the 2006 heatwave and that made me hate heat somehow. Wondering if any other heat haters were born in heatwaves and that factors into not enjoying heat?

[Chris J]

Overnight cool downs are just something other people get!. Cheshire seems to be the current epi-centre this week of high overnight temperatures and zero breeze!. It didn't get lower than 21c overnight here in the seventh circle of hell although it felt much warmer than that outside even at 5AM - sultry almost tropical even with the air completely still.

26c was the lowest it got to indoors so i've reached the point now where the night time temperature indoors is as high as the daytime temperature outdoors - so subjected to an endless 24 hour loop of the same conditions - no escape or relief.

Suffice to say I spent most of the night sat outside. Given the number of lights repetitively going on and off all night in the surrounding neighbours' houses i'm guessing I wasn't the only one finding it impossible to sleep.

In essence in this Country there isn't really anything you can do at 30c that you can't do just the same at 22c. Although I can think of plenty of things I could do at 22c that I can't do at 30c - sleep being one of them!. I think most non weather enthusiasts would much rather conduct their weekend activity's at 22c than 30c, so 30c is just completely pointless, especially in September.

So I think there are a lot of people out there silently hating every second of this especially at night but who don't have the inclination to seek out a support group. There are also plenty of comments on social media threads and media comments with people professing to be 'hibernating' in their homes in the dark with the doors and windows closed counting down the hours until it ends - which pretty much sums up my weekend plans.

Having experienced 40c for a day last year and 27c and endless Sun pretty much every day last week since Monday, I can honestly say that this long spell of 27c has been more detrimental to both my health and mood than a one shot day of 40c. I think if given the choice I would much rather have one day of 40c provided it was then 18c for the rest of the month!. I would find that far more manageable than the current conditions.

 

 

[Chris J]

49 minutes ago, Gnasher said:

I live in the south east and hate it. I’ve always not been keen. My mum thinks it’s because I was born in the 2006 heatwave and that made me hate heat somehow. Wondering if any other heat haters were born in heatwaves and that factors into not enjoying heat?

I was born in 1973, I don't think there were any notable heatwaves that year. Although I was 3 when the 1976 heatwave took place - obviously I was too young to remember any trauma from it though. I do remember when I was about 7 or 8 though going to Tenby in Wales during the School holidays and it was so hot we all burned our feet on the Sand walking back to the car. I suffered heat stroke effects & sickness that night and it is something I vividly remember even now so perhaps it had something to do with it. Never thought about a possible connection until now.

But I spent my Childhood years as far back as I can remember hating the heat, to the point where my parents couldn't take me abroad, it was always Butlins or Pontins and I was a child who always preferred rain and Winter to sun and Summer. In fact i've never even flown on a plane and have only ever been out of the UK once and that was a road trip with some mates across Europe to Croatia in 2008 via a Ferry and I found parts of Europe too hot for me even in early April. I haven't and won't be repeating it!.

Having just entered my fifties and exactly like a lot of others on here, heat now isn't just a preference it also affects and triggers various health conditions - (never get old!!)

 

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by Chris J

[Carl]

7 minutes ago, Chris J said:

Overnight cool downs are just something other people get!. Cheshire seems to be the current epi-centre this week of high overnight temperatures and zero breeze!. It didn't get lower than 21c overnight here in the seventh circle of hell although it felt much warmer than that outside even at 5AM - sultry almost tropical even with the air completely still.

26c was the lowest it got to indoors so i've reached the point now where the night time temperature indoors is as high as the daytime temperature outdoors - so subjected to an endless 24 hour loop of the same conditions - no escape or relief.

Suffice to say I spent most of the night sat outside. Given the number of lights repetitively going on and off all night in the surrounding neighbours' houses i'm guessing I wasn't the only one finding it impossible to sleep.

In essence in this Country there isn't really anything you can do at 30c that you can't do just the same at 22c. Although I can think of plenty of things I could do at 22c that I can't do at 30c - sleep being one of them!. I think most non weather enthusiasts would much rather conduct their weekend activity's at 22c than 30c, so 30c is just completely pointless, especially in September.

So I think there are a lot of people out there silently hating every second of this especially at night but who don't have the inclination to seek out a support group. There are also plenty of comments on social media threads and media comments with people professing to be 'hibernating' in their homes in the dark with the doors and windows closed counting down the hours until it ends - which pretty much sums up my weekend plans.

Having experienced 40c for a day last year and 27c and endless Sun pretty much every day last week since Monday, I can honestly say that this long spell of 27c has been more detrimental to both my health and mood than a one shot day of 40c. I think if given the choice I would much rather have one day of 40c provided it was then 18c for the rest of the month!. I would find that far more manageable than the current conditions.

 

 

Pretty much with you on that - Got to 38.2 here on the hottest days last year and it was intolerable, but oddly, curtains and window closed slowed the rate of increase of the temp indoors but has had zero effect this time around - no matter what the temp has risen indoors and stayed high all day and most of the night.

It's the prolonged nature of this particular spell which has affected me most - just relentless and coupled with everyone's uptick in activity as the schools have gone back, i'm back working after a week off, we've had a couple of people due out to do work on the house, car troubles and everything else - i'll not beat about the bush, I just want to be left alone, to do as little as possible til it ends - and for a few days afterwards to get back to feeling comfortable, refreshed and rested.

We've got the physical discomfort of prolonged excessive heat taking its toll. The miserable feeling it brings, the frustration of having to be able to engage your brain for work and all the other demands on us and just find it nigh-on impossible to do.

Couple that with the disdain you get when telling people the heat is unpleasant for you - Brits seem programmed to "make the most of us, get drunk and be rowdy" (not all, admittedly but its a national mindset which i find a bit embarrassing - but tbf, if people left others out of it then that's up to them).

All in, it's just a week you want to end and some "sanity" to resume.

This weekend, I will be staying indoors, curtains closed, managing the heat as best i can. I'll be reading this thread as i find it helps with the mood to see others of a similar mindset.

We're nearly there folks and should have best part of six months respite.

Aircon will be a must as we approach next spring and summer. Can't see an alternative now.

[The PIT]

Already passed today's max value for the forecast at 27.2C. The odd cloud slowing the ascent slightly but crazy temps.

[SollyOlly]

I'm totally with so many of you on here. Admittedly, I'm grumpy, due to lack of sleep and this blasted heat - but that phrase 'useable weather' from heat seekers is getting right on my ***s...what is 'useable' about this heat?? It's positively disabling, not useable. Unless one's idea of useable is sitting in a beer garden from 1100 (earlier for Spoons!), drinking endless pints of Stella...dear me. 

This is England, not the bloody Med! Driving me nuts. 

[Carl]

5 minutes ago, SollyOlly said:

I'm totally with so many of you on here. Admittedly, I'm grumpy, due to lack of sleep and this blasted heat - but that phrase 'useable weather' from heat seekers is getting right on my ***s...what is 'useable' about this heat?? It's positively disabling, not useable. Unless one's idea of useable is sitting in a beer garden from 1100 (earlier for Spoons!), drinking endless pints of Stella...dear me. 

This is England, not the bloody Med! Driving me nuts. 

Yup! Useable for the drunks but the rest of us, not so much.

Ironically, we're off to Egypt in a couple of months but after a few months of autumn weather, a week of these temps by the Red Sea is going to be a completely different kettle of fish. 

24 hours and the storms will be with us. Lets hope the air turns a bit fresher after them rather than a couple of days later as it seems from the charts!

[Chris J]

12 minutes ago, SollyOlly said:

I'm totally with so many of you on here. Admittedly, I'm grumpy, due to lack of sleep and this blasted heat - but that phrase 'useable weather' from heat seekers is getting right on my ***s...what is 'useable' about this heat?? It's positively disabling, not useable. Unless one's idea of useable is sitting in a beer garden from 1100 (earlier for Spoons!), drinking endless pints of Stella...dear me. 

This is England, not the bloody Med! Driving me nuts. 

In Honesty I tend to avoid the thread just like somebody who hates Mcdonald's wouldn't go and spend time sitting in Mcdonalds and complain about being there - life is too short and I don't have time or energy to engage anybody in post to post combat in any Mumsnet style Dramas purely because my preference is different to theirs and I too have an opinion!. Its honestly not worth increasing your blood pressure over.

I'm also Grumpy during Hot Weather but many would say they haven't noticed much difference.

I've said this before, but its still applicable. I know many people who think its "not warm" until it hits 25c, but who will moan and complain like a toddler on a sugar rush if somebody turns up the heating thermostat to 20c in Winter. Unfortunately hypocrisy is something we are very good at in the UK. Its our one spectacular success!.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Chris J

[SollyOlly]

True, and very good points... 

I know that I'd be more productive, creative and in fact more economically active if it was 10 degrees cooler...

[legion_quest]

I will simply never understand people who enjoy this kind of humidity. 

A nice sunny day with some dry heat and a cooling breeze is lovely, but humidity in an urban based population zone where the air is just stagnant and dirty and hot, I will never, ever 'get it' 

[Katrine Basso]

I remember the heatwave of 1976 very clearly as I was living in Plaistow and was on my summer break starting from 23rd June when I was 12 years of age attending the Cumberland Road Comprehensive school  and by the time it ended in September when the rains came, I would be 13 years of age as my birthday was at the end of July.  I remember the standpipes where queues of people would come to go and get water.

Now whenever there is a heatwave, I have flashbacks of standpipes in the street and so it makes me extra careful with my water use, except for drinking water. It happened to me last years.

I am now counting the days when there will be a cool down and hopefully it will be done with thunder and lightning or a deep low from the Atlantic.

[mike57]

Well we are still missing the worst of it here, 6c lower than Leconfield, which is 20 miles away. But humidity is very high, any outside tasks reduce you to a sea sweat in minutes. I have jobs which need doing at home but its too hot to even contemplate doing them.

2 hours ago, Gnasher said:

My mum thinks it’s because I was born in the 2006 heatwave and that made me hate heat somehow

My problem is I was born in 1957 and there were years growing up in the 60s where we never even reached 30c, even in London where I was born.

The current climate 'flip' seemed to manifest itself around 2000 - 2003. If you had said to people back in my childhood that we would get 40c in a heat wave, (well 104F as it was then) you would have been dismissed as crazy, and that the 40c would be felt as far north as Doncaster area the I think crazy would be replaced by something worse. And the same would go for a sustained 30c+ heatwave in September lasting 5+ days.

I know the current thinking is average temperatures have risen by 1.5C, but the problem seems to be that peak temps have gone up by more than that. Add to that the recent few years have been noted for blocking patterns which seem to risen in both frequency and length, so the weather get stuck. Again growing up in say the 60s heatwaves were shorter and quickly replaced by a change to cooler conditions, the old saying, about a British summer, two fine days and thunderstorm, reflected the faster changing patterns.

I suspect there id about 'global warming' that we will discover in the next 20 or so years, and I dont expect it to be good news.

[alexisj9]

3 hours ago, Gnasher said:

I live in the south east and hate it. I’ve always not been keen. My mum thinks it’s because I was born in the 2006 heatwave and that made me hate heat somehow. Wondering if any other heat haters were born in heatwaves and that factors into not enjoying heat?

Was there a heatwave in August 1978, I don't even know lol mind you I used to be ok in the heat, it's only since the last few years, have a feeling it's  perimenopause 

Edited September 9, 2023 by alexisj9

[*Stormforce~beka*]

OMG IM DYING!!! The fan is doing nothing and it's 30c in our bedroom. My poohead husband has his computer on blasting out more hot air in our bedroom! The abcde!! THIS is the worst bit of hot weather for me! The bedroom ...

[chilly milly]

We've hit 32.4c here. It's 25.9c in the lounge with the windows and curtains closed. I also feel like I'm dying. But I'm so tired though, due to lack of sleep. I can barely think straight.

Also my left knee is swollen and I can barely bend it. Must be the heat. Just generally feeling sorry for myself.

[Cosmo69]

1 hour ago, mike57 said:

Well we are still missing the worst of it here, 6c lower than Leconfield, which is 20 miles away. But humidity is very high, any outside tasks reduce you to a sea sweat in minutes. I have jobs which need doing at home but its too hot to even contemplate doing them.

My problem is I was born in 1957 and there were years growing up in the 60s where we never even reached 30c, even in London where I was born.

The current climate 'flip' seemed to manifest itself around 2000 - 2003. If you had said to people back in my childhood that we would get 40c in a heat wave, (well 104F as it was then) you would have been dismissed as crazy, and that the 40c would be felt as far north as Doncaster area the I think crazy would be replaced by something worse. And the same would go for a sustained 30c+ heatwave in September lasting 5+ days.

I know the current thinking is average temperatures have risen by 1.5C, but the problem seems to be that peak temps have gone up by more than that. Add to that the recent few years have been noted for blocking patterns which seem to risen in both frequency and length, so the weather get stuck. Again growing up in say the 60s heatwaves were shorter and quickly replaced by a change to cooler conditions, the old saying, about a British summer, two fine days and thunderstorm, reflected the faster changing patterns.

I suspect there id about 'global warming' that we will discover in the next 20 or so years, and I dont expect it to be good news.

Looking back at Heathrow stats for 1960's, there are a few summers.61,64,67,69, that run fairly close to where it is now. But as you say, a few distinctly cool ones.

Don't know what the high's were, but i am sure most years in the 20th century reached 30C or more in London. The stats average about 1.5C cooler in the 60's, but urban expansion has no doubt contributed to a portion of the warming to where it is now.

July av max in London used to be 22C in the 1970's. Now its just under 24C.  I wasn't surprised to see 40C, as it got quite close a few times in recent decades. 

Gatwick, about 35 miles from here, reached 32C at 1pm.

Edited September 9, 2023 by Cosmo69

[mike57]

22 minutes ago, Cosmo69 said:

Looking back at Heathrow stats for 1960's, there are a few summers.61,64,67,69, that run fairly close to where it is now. But as you say, a few distinctly cool ones.

This graphic I think shows how year on year maximums of got considerably higher. Blue years are less than 30c anywhere in UK, and general trend is upwards. This is covering whole of England, max temp each year.

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by mike57

[reef]

14 minutes ago, mike57 said:

This graphic I think shows how year on year maximums of got considerably higher. Blue years are less than 30c anywhere in UK, and general trend is upwards. This is covering whole of England, max temp each year.

 

Its definitely more common even up here. We didn't hit 30C here between August 2001 and July 2018. However since then 6 days have managed it. Today is having a good go at being the 7th but just falling short at 29.8C so far.

[ANYWEATHER]

Currently 28/29c in my location. Whilst the temperature is hot it’s not the heat it’s the humidity which is the talking point……

[Beanz]

Ok, I’m going to admit defeat - I’m off to sit in the car for 15mins with the AC on.  

This is horrendous. 

[Carl]

22 minutes ago, Beanz said:

Ok, I’m going to admit defeat - I’m off to sit in the car for 15mins with the AC on.  

This is horrendous. 

Hope it helped!

I think we've a few more hours of heat then it starts to cool and won't be back up these levels again.

Absolute furnace in here right now but finding fan + spray water bottle is doing the trick.

We have a dog who has been downstairs where its a wee bit cooler and two poor rats who've had to be moved onto the landing. It's one degree cooler there than where they normally live but the difference has been much greater over other days.

Bring on the storms! Not even bothered about watching them so much this time around, just be good to get rid of the sun and have some cooler air follow behind.

[The PIT]

Temps at this time of year tend to peak at 15:00 to 16:00.

Unfortunatley any storms would just add to the humdity right now. The cooler air is miles away to the NW.

[Carl]

11 minutes ago, The PIT said:

Temps at this time of year tend to peak at 15:00 to 16:00.

Unfortunatley any storms would just add to the humdity right now. The cooler air is miles away to the NW.

Good point. Not sure i'm in the firing line til tomorrow but forecast showing her we've got another hour or two and then the temps will drop, cooler tomorrow with storms but dreading any residual humidity.. hope any gusts that come with them get some slightly cooler air through the house though!