5 ms·

The first ever Red Extreme heat warning issued in UK

55 points by oumua_don17 4y ago

wharfjumper 4y ago
Scorchio!
ChuckNorris89 4y ago
At least the UK has the luxury (and downsides) of the breeze from the seas and the ocean, since it's an island. Meanwhile, on continental Europe, most landlocked countries are being cooked alive. Bonus since many countries don't have AC in residential buildings.
- petercooper 4y ago
  You're right, though the effect of that only seems to go about 20 miles inland (which is a fair bit of the UK, to be fair). The other downside to being surrounded by sea is almost guaranteed high humidity which makes the heat far harder work (a la Florida vs Arizona).
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  The effect of the ocean does not go far inland as you can see on the map included in the Met's tweet. Forecast for England pretty much matches that for France.
  - refurb 4y ago
    Indeed. The weather in San Diego along the coast is amazing (lows in high teens, highs in the high twenties). But go 10 miles inland and it’s a desert where 30C+ is typical for a good part of the year.
qubex 4y ago
I don’t want to diminish this in the slightest, but the current system was only introduced in 2021 so it’s not like it’s a “first time in centuries” kind of thing (though it’s entirely possible that long-standing records have been or will be exceeded).
- layer8 4y ago
  Right. The more informative part is: “This is the first time we have forecast 40°C in the UK. The current record high temperature in the UK is 38.7°C, which was reached at Cambridge Botanic Garden on 25 July in 2019. […] Some models are now producing a 50% chance of maximum temperatures in excess of 40°C in isolated parts of the UK for the start of next week. Mid, to high, 30s Celsius will be seen more widely with an 80% chance we will exceed the current record.”
  - irthomasthomas 4y ago
    That's great! Hopefully, domestic tourism will return. No more flying to Med for some sun.
    - ben_w 4y ago
      The forecast for Death Valley this week has a range of 32-49. Being in the middle of Death Valley's diurnal range is not actually a good thing.
      - irthomasthomas 4y ago
        It's one day, and it hasn't happened yet. I'm sure we'll manage. Our Met Office are drama queens. They always have been [0], but they're getting worse. [0] https://books.google.co.uk/books/content?id=CSvCYDh4KkMC&pg=PA264&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U2SzOtVgcmpn28LJP7pEcI9_ddMxg&w=1025 https://books.google.co.uk/books/content?id=CSvCYDh4KkMC&pg=...
        somewhereoutth 4y ago
        Don't look up!
        ben_w 4y ago
        That argument — it’s one day and hasn’t happened yet — is incompatible with your own previous comment. Also, the cover of the Daily Mirror shows how much the Daily Mirror likes drama, not anything about whoever they’re discussing. Even moreso given who appears to have written that particular story and who was supposed to be getting warned…
adamc 4y ago
Here I was thinking, bad as 104 degree weather is in Texas, at least we all have AC, since life without it here is close to impossible. Huge problem in a place like Britain.
- mytailorisrich 4y ago
  It was 37+C (about 99-100F) today where I am at the moment (Southern Europe) and no AC but a traditional house with thick stone walls + shade and good air flow = all fine. Of course it was also dry heat.
  - adamc 4y ago
    Yeah, it's more humid in central Texas, but also there is a lot of stupidly designed architecture that doesn't cool well without AC.
Havoc 4y ago
RIP all those that need to take the deep tube lines.
- james-redwood 4y ago
  They should honestly close it down for those days. It sounds like a torture method straight out of Guantanamo.
- jonatron 4y ago
  You can avoid deep tube lines for many journeys. Elizabeth line, Thameslink, overground, circle, district are all air conditioned. I've definitely taken slightly longer routes to avoid the deep tube lines when it's been hot before.
- r_hoods_ghost 4y ago
  Something that is very cool (hah!) is that originally they used the coolness of the deep tube lines as a selling point in summer[1], but over the last century the surrounding clay has absorbed so much heat that the ambient temperature is something like 30° [1] https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/cooling-the-tube-engineering-heat-out-of-the-underground-20873/ https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/cooling-the-tube-engine...
  - hanoz 4y ago
    That is very cool. So if the capacity of the under ground to extract heat from the underground, is something that can diminish on a decades level timescale, what does that say about the longevity of ground source heat pumps I wonder?
    - Teever 4y ago
      It depends on the composition of the ground and how heat pumps are used. In places like Canada with wild temperature variations over the course of the year heatpumps have the potential to be used as both a means to cool buildings in the summer, and then heat them in the winter with that stored heat.
zarzavat 4y ago
Many homes in UK are well insulated, at least compared to the wooden barns popular in the US. One day of extreme heat can be well tolerated, just by closing the windows in the morning. The problem is that it is very hard to expel the excess heat overnight, so a long series of merely moderately hot days can quickly render homes unbearable to live in.
- idiotsecant 4y ago
  You seem confused about U.S. building practices, the US is quite large and has varied climates and building codes on account of covering a good portion of a continent. The UK latitude would be most equivalent to US building code zone 6 or 7, which has building codes well exceeding the UK in terms of insulation and airtightness.
  - ben_w 4y ago
    The UK latitude mostly doesn't overlap with the USA, with only Scotland just about lining up with the southern tip of Alaska and everything else only overlapping with Canada. The UK climate is more like Seattle. Is this map right? If so, that would be a zone 4? https://www.ecohome.net/guides/3521/climate-zones-map-usa-canada-construction/ https://www.ecohome.net/guides/3521/climate-zones-map-usa-ca... I have no idea if that makes any difference to your core point.
throwaway378037 4y ago
Thinking about checking into a hotel for 3 nights and staying indoors with the AC on
Proven 4y ago
donkarma 4y ago
I bought an air conditioner earlier this year because I anticipated this, but you'd have to consider if it's worth 300 for just one month.

55 points by oumua_don17 4y ago

Scorchio!

At least the UK has the luxury (and downsides) of the breeze from the seas and the ocean, since it's an island. Meanwhile, on continental Europe, most landlocked countries are being cooked alive. Bonus since many countries don't have AC in residential buildings.

petercooper 4y ago
You're right, though the effect of that only seems to go about 20 miles inland (which is a fair bit of the UK, to be fair). The other downside to being surrounded by sea is almost guaranteed high humidity which makes the heat far harder work (a la Florida vs Arizona).
mytailorisrich 4y ago
The effect of the ocean does not go far inland as you can see on the map included in the Met's tweet. Forecast for England pretty much matches that for France.
- refurb 4y ago
  Indeed. The weather in San Diego along the coast is amazing (lows in high teens, highs in the high twenties). But go 10 miles inland and it’s a desert where 30C+ is typical for a good part of the year.

qubex 4y ago

I don’t want to diminish this in the slightest, but the current system was only introduced in 2021 so it’s not like it’s a “first time in centuries” kind of thing (though it’s entirely possible that long-standing records have been or will be exceeded).

layer8 4y ago
Right. The more informative part is: “This is the first time we have forecast 40°C in the UK. The current record high temperature in the UK is 38.7°C, which was reached at Cambridge Botanic Garden on 25 July in 2019. […] Some models are now producing a 50% chance of maximum temperatures in excess of 40°C in isolated parts of the UK for the start of next week. Mid, to high, 30s Celsius will be seen more widely with an 80% chance we will exceed the current record.”
- irthomasthomas 4y ago
  That's great! Hopefully, domestic tourism will return. No more flying to Med for some sun.
  - ben_w 4y ago
    The forecast for Death Valley this week has a range of 32-49. Being in the middle of Death Valley's diurnal range is not actually a good thing.
    - irthomasthomas 4y ago
      It's one day, and it hasn't happened yet. I'm sure we'll manage. Our Met Office are drama queens. They always have been [0], but they're getting worse. [0] https://books.google.co.uk/books/content?id=CSvCYDh4KkMC&pg=PA264&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U2SzOtVgcmpn28LJP7pEcI9_ddMxg&w=1025 https://books.google.co.uk/books/content?id=CSvCYDh4KkMC&pg=...
      - somewhereoutth 4y ago
        Don't look up!
      - ben_w 4y ago
        That argument — it’s one day and hasn’t happened yet — is incompatible with your own previous comment. Also, the cover of the Daily Mirror shows how much the Daily Mirror likes drama, not anything about whoever they’re discussing. Even moreso given who appears to have written that particular story and who was supposed to be getting warned…

adamc 4y ago

Here I was thinking, bad as 104 degree weather is in Texas, at least we all have AC, since life without it here is close to impossible. Huge problem in a place like Britain.

mytailorisrich 4y ago
It was 37+C (about 99-100F) today where I am at the moment (Southern Europe) and no AC but a traditional house with thick stone walls + shade and good air flow = all fine. Of course it was also dry heat.
- adamc 4y ago
  Yeah, it's more humid in central Texas, but also there is a lot of stupidly designed architecture that doesn't cool well without AC.

Havoc 4y ago

RIP all those that need to take the deep tube lines.

james-redwood 4y ago
They should honestly close it down for those days. It sounds like a torture method straight out of Guantanamo.
jonatron 4y ago
You can avoid deep tube lines for many journeys. Elizabeth line, Thameslink, overground, circle, district are all air conditioned. I've definitely taken slightly longer routes to avoid the deep tube lines when it's been hot before.
r_hoods_ghost 4y ago
Something that is very cool (hah!) is that originally they used the coolness of the deep tube lines as a selling point in summer[1], but over the last century the surrounding clay has absorbed so much heat that the ambient temperature is something like 30° [1] https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/cooling-the-tube-engineering-heat-out-of-the-underground-20873/ https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/cooling-the-tube-engine...
- hanoz 4y ago
  That is very cool. So if the capacity of the under ground to extract heat from the underground, is something that can diminish on a decades level timescale, what does that say about the longevity of ground source heat pumps I wonder?
  - Teever 4y ago
    It depends on the composition of the ground and how heat pumps are used. In places like Canada with wild temperature variations over the course of the year heatpumps have the potential to be used as both a means to cool buildings in the summer, and then heat them in the winter with that stored heat.

zarzavat 4y ago

Many homes in UK are well insulated, at least compared to the wooden barns popular in the US. One day of extreme heat can be well tolerated, just by closing the windows in the morning. The problem is that it is very hard to expel the excess heat overnight, so a long series of merely moderately hot days can quickly render homes unbearable to live in.

idiotsecant 4y ago
You seem confused about U.S. building practices, the US is quite large and has varied climates and building codes on account of covering a good portion of a continent. The UK latitude would be most equivalent to US building code zone 6 or 7, which has building codes well exceeding the UK in terms of insulation and airtightness.
- ben_w 4y ago
  The UK latitude mostly doesn't overlap with the USA, with only Scotland just about lining up with the southern tip of Alaska and everything else only overlapping with Canada. The UK climate is more like Seattle. Is this map right? If so, that would be a zone 4? https://www.ecohome.net/guides/3521/climate-zones-map-usa-canada-construction/ https://www.ecohome.net/guides/3521/climate-zones-map-usa-ca... I have no idea if that makes any difference to your core point.

throwaway378037 4y ago

Thinking about checking into a hotel for 3 nights and staying indoors with the AC on

Proven 4y ago

donkarma 4y ago

I bought an air conditioner earlier this year because I anticipated this, but you'd have to consider if it's worth 300 for just one month.