Hey everyone I haven’t started a debate for a while the last one was about biscuits I believe lol so….
So we are both in various WhatsApp groups for school and the big debate is all about “are you sending your kids to school tomorrow or not?”
So our eldest has a half day tomorrow and a day off Tuesday because of the heat our next school age child has no day off and normal days, they are at different schools, what’s everyone else doing with there tiny humans? And what are the rules set out for you by your local council or the schools?
Usual UK stuff, can’t cope with extremes of the weather and run around like headless chickens.
Our work won’t be doing anything apart from running production, least I’m no longer at the coal face but delivering in a classroom
We got a letter about what the school would do to protect the children
Hospital is providing 2 ice cream vans and everyone can have free ice cream (all staff) relative and patients it’s £2.
This morning it was 18c overcast and raining here in the North east now its 26c and overcast i was 9 in 1976 yes i think a proportion of people are over reacting
Many professions don’t get a choice. The supermarkets will still be open, just as they were through Covid, emergency services and our amazing NHS will operate as normal and probably be busier than ever (I’m ex-fire service and now a builder so know what it’s like during extremes).
The bins will no doubt still be emptied. I was going to add potholes filled and roads swept but that would just be ridiculous .
I know there’s many, many more people out there who will just be going about their daily life as normally as possible and at the same time, others who will struggle for any number of genuine reasons but for the majority of us who think nothing of jumping on a plane and stepping out into the blistering heat of some sun baked runway, just use common sense and look out for yourself and those around you.
I feel sorry for the snowflakes out there!
Both of my kids are going in. Uniforms have been relaxed for the week, extra fans have been bought for the classes, classes will be very relaxed and kids are being encouraged to bring jubbly drinks in for throughout the day. So they are taking steps to keep them cool, which is exactly what I’d do here!
Personally I love the heat, but I’m lucky not to do a manual job, and will be doing hardly anything tomorrow, so I just go with the flow and be sensible!
No tiny humans to think of but I’ve got 3 furry babies that I make sure have lots of clean water.
I’ve been giving them a bit more wet food and less dry to sneakily keep them hydrated.
I’ve been brushing them a bit more to get excess hair off them - bonus is less getting woke up by hairball evacuations.
I have damp towels in the freezer for them to lie on if it gets too warm - I got them a cold mat before and they walked around it. They prefer the tile on the kitchen floor as that stays cooler.
For me I always have a drink beside me and I’ve got the fan on for the breeze. I’ll still be working tomorrow
No kids but I would expect schools to educate our kids, they jump up and down and issue fines if we take kids out of school but they can close the schools when they like. As soon as it snows, schools close putting more pressure on parents who have to go to work. Now when its hot we close again. Schools want it every way to please them and don’t think about anyone else.
Actually, the heat can be quite dangerous for people with some medical conditions. The heat makes my blood sugar levels very low and erratic, not all diabetics are affected this way but it is not uncommon. I have CFS and struggle to control my body temperature so the heat is a nightmare for me and probably many others, @Green_Eyed_Girl, are you the same? The last thing schools want to deal with are fainting / seriously ill students and needing to call for an ambulance - you can imagine the uproar from parents if something serious happened - I’m not sure it’s a problem with schools, more a problem with society blaming / threatening schools and staff.
In the summer of 1976 the “heatwave” lastest over two weeks with temperatures over 30°C.
No extreme weather warnings every 5 minutes then or red areas…and we had a right blast…it was so much fun…using “fairy liquid” bottle water guns…no nerf back then…and some home made frozen lollies…it worked!!!
We were safe AND cool.
I’m sure there’s been some hot summers since then. I think if everyone is sensible and keeps hydrated and uses sun protection…hat and sunscreen…not forgetting pets too.
Enjoy the summer…it’s summer and the sun is supposed to come out.
Think the news has been that much doom and gloom over the last 2 years…it’s now spilling into the weather too.
Some of our local schools have closed others not…and I live in the RED areas for the so called “extreme” weather…
Remember the summer of 76 very well.
Yes tou are bang on, our society seems to have to dramatise everything that is slightly outside the norm.
If the heat effects certain people with conditions, they know what to do to cope with it.
I get uneven heat distribution throughout my body from time to time. My head is usually the part that end up hot and has resulted in horrible headaches on otherwise cool days. Thankfully it hasn’t happened during this, but id imagine it could potentially result in fainting, temporary loss of vision due to over heating (yes, this is a real thing. Its happened to me before).
A friend of mine who also has C.F.S/M.E says the heat is causing the muscle and joint pain from her condition to be much worse.
Personally im voting for the spanish and french solution. Siestas in the middle of the day
My youngest is going in. Im working from home so would prefer hes at school being occupied. The school is also probably cooler than i can keep the house. They are in non uniform and having 2 x ‘fun’ days.
I think there are elements of overplaying it in the sense that if people drink plenty and stay out of the sun they should be okay.
However working on ambulances in previous days (off today but back in tomorrow) there has definitely been an uptick in young and old patients with respiratory problems and fevers. These are patients that struggle to manage their body temperature and cope less well with extreme weather. I imagine this will be the case today and tomorrow. Look after yourselves, you kids and your older relatives. Drink plenty and stay cool.
Well, it’s THAT hot i’ve just seen a Goth take his coat off!
Seriously, like a few others i remember the 1976 heatwave that lasted weeks, we had bowsers and standpipes in the streets, we were advised to share baths, in a few inches of water. Our cars didn’t have air-con, neither did most shops or offices etc.
But, we knuckled down and got on with it, we went to work, we went to school and we played out in the sunshine, we coped just fine.
We didn’t have a hysterical press, media and social media telling us the apocalypse was coming, and a nanny state, stating the bleedin’ obvious.
I can definitely remember spells of up to a week at a time of weather around the same temperatures as we are currently experiencing, in the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s, i know cos i was working in a very hot steel mill during those periods. Guess what? We survived!
As others have said, people with medical conditions already know the precautions to take, as do pet owners, and most people check on their elderly relatives and neighbours.
The use of the word “unprecedented” and phrase “Since records began” are designed to scare people and score hits, sell papers or increase viewing figures. Official records with reliable data only began as recently as the 1880’s, which in the geological scheme of things is a miniscule amount of time.
So just be sensible, don’t be frightened by the sensationalist hype and i’m sure that we’ll survive!
P.S. i am guessing that on Friday a lot of the population will be jetting off to much warmer climes!
It does make me laugh people saying it’s just normal sun/summer and that they were fine through the heatwave in 1976. This isn’t aimed at one particular person - quite a few have commented it on this thread and I’ve heard it on other media too. It’s going to get to 40 degrees which the UK has never experienced before. Yes, the heatwave in 1976 reached temperatures over 30, but the peak heat was 35. Yes it’s summer, but the UK simply does not have the infrastructure for these heats at the current time, and so yes it can be and will be very dangerous for some people - including the most vulnerable in our society. Yes, people have survived before at high temperatures (although we don’t have experience of 40 degrees weather in the UK), but some people may not and so I don’t understand why issuing weather warnings and advice is anything more than a positive thing so people can make informed decisions about what they do. I don’t wish to get into a debate, but palming it off as people making a big deal out of nothing is pretty insensitive in my opinion
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