The heat is on, but only for a few days

I live near Cambridge, which currently holds the record for the highest temperature recorded in Britain, 38.7 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) on July 25, 2019.

Today the temperature locally is due to peak at 39 degrees Celsius from 3.00pm. It's predicted to maintain that until late afternoon before dropping off to 30 degrees by 9.00pm, which is still pretty hot in my book.

I'm working from home and normally half the windows in the house would be open, even in winter, but I have read that it is best to close windows in a heatwave in order to keep the heat out.

The 'coolest' room in the house is currently the sitting room which doesn't get direct sunlight until mid to late afternoon.

Heat rises so my office upstairs is a little uncomfortable even with a fan because all it's doing is circulating warm air.

Nevertheless it's not the end of the world. I can still work and it's only for two days (yesterday and today).

Tomorrow the top temperature will fall to 27 degrees and although it's due to climb again to 30 on Saturday we should all be acclimatised by then.

Thirty degrees? Pah!

Anyway, if you watched the BBC News last night you could be forgiven for thinking the human race, including the inhabitants of chilly rain-swept Britain, are about to be fried alive, if not now then within a decade or two.

An article by Ross Clark in the Telegraph (The Met Office’s job is to forecast the weather, not to be chief nanny) summed up my thoughts exactly:

The Met Office’s maps also seem designed to frighten us. Where once forecasts used symbols of sunshine, now they employ heat maps showing apparently furnace-like temperatures.

I don't dispute, by the way, the figures that show that the last decade has been the hottest on record. I'm just not convinced that climate change is entirely man-made although I accept that industrialisation may have played a significant part. How significant is open to debate, or should be.

I suppose, as a child of the Sixties and Seventies, I can't help remembering that some scientists were talking of a possible ice age in the not too distant future.

Then there was the famous heatwave of 1976 although I don't remember it being especially hot but perhaps that was because I lived in Scotland where it was sunny but several degrees cooler than in England.

Often, following two or three days of hot sunny weather, a sea mist (or haar) would descend on the River Tay and the surrounding area where we lived.

At that point the sun would disappear behind a blanket of fog, the temperature would drop, and we could only dream about the weather being enjoyed by the rest of the country.

I remember some pretty hot days at primary school in the Sixties too. At that time we lived in Maidenhead in Berkshire and when it got too hot to stay in the classroom the teachers would take us outside to sit under a tree in the shade.

Sometimes they'd take us to the local park and buy us ice lollies from a local shop. No-one suggested they close the school or people shouldn't go to work. Everyone just got on with it.

When I was older and in my twenties the hottest place I experienced was Washington DC in July (1987). I was visiting a friend who rented a house that had just one room that was air-conditioned.

As soon as we returned to the house he would turn on the air-con and within a few minutes we were enjoying what felt like a blast of arctic air.

That said I don't remember the heat outside being so bad that it ruined my holiday, unlike my first visit to New York in 2005.

That was in July too and the heat was so oppressive in the middle of the day it was almost unbearable outside.

I remember walking through Central Park wondering where everyone was and why I couldn't buy tickets for the open air theatre.

It turned out the theatre was closed in July and August because even in the evening it was too hot although when I returned to New York in August 2017 the heat was far more manageable so perhaps I was unlucky that first time.

My first visit to Washington DC was in April 1983 which was a perfect month to go but I was told that in summer people living in the poorer Black quarters were often forced to sleep outside in the street because it was cooler there than inside the high rise blocks and apartments where there was no air-conditioning.

With that in mind I think I can take on the chin a few days and nights when the temperature is a bit uncomfortable.

Nevertheless I'm off to my local Waitrose to collect a fan ordered yesterday from John Lewis. We've currently got two – one pedestal, one table top – and it's not enough!

There's good news though from Ireland. According to John Mallon, Forest's man in Cork, "We have lightning, thunder and rain!"

And with a bit of luck it's heading in our direction.

Update: Cambridge has lost its proud record. According to Sky News a moment ago:

The temperature has hit 39.1C (102.4F) in Charlwood, Surrey - a new all-time UK record.

The previous record was 38.7C (101.7F), set in 2019 at Cambridge Botanic Garden.

See New UK record as temperature hits 39.1C - with 41C expected this afternoon.

PS. Talking of Ross Clark, I met him once at a Spectator party I wasn't invited to.

I think he lives near Cambridge too because when he heard that I lived in Cambridgeshire he invited me to play for his 'all stars' cricket team (although I may have misheard the 'all stars' bit).

That was 15 years ago and part of me regrets that I didn't accept or follow up the invitation.

On the other hand my ability to play cricket is on a par with my golf and I didn't want to embarrass myself.

Meeting some of Ross's 'all stars' might of course have changed my life but, as Boris said, them's the breaks.

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

Just over 40 degrees in Lincolnshire although where I live it stayed at 39 for most of the day. I loved every minute of it and most if it was sat in an inflatable pool.

It's always sad when a heatwave ends too soon but hopefully the next one is not too far away. They are very rare but not unique. Whether it is so called climate change that's responsible or just the way the earth moves in cycles, the politics of weather will never let us know for sure. This heat also occurred in 1911 when temps went just over 100f and stayed that way most of summer. .. and then of course we privileged oldies also had the pleasure of summer 1976.

My view on heatwaves is enjoy them while you can. Winter is long and miserable and summer is often too damp or cloudy with too few days of sunshine worth noting. This summer will live on in the memory even if the weather is on the turn.