Why do heatwaves ‘hit different’ in the UK?
People love to complain about the weather, and recently, for good reason, after enduring the UK’s record-breaking heatwaves.
People love to complain about the weather, and recently, for good reason, after enduring the UK’s record-breaking heatwaves.
The blistering weather has been on everyone’s lips, and if it hasn’t, it probably means you have been lucky enough to escape the nearly 40C temperatures and humidity.
June’s hottest record was officially set in Santon Downham, Suffolk, with 37.3C after three consecutive warmest days as the country baked under the rare extreme heat warning.
The list of disruptions to life this week is long – hundreds of schools were shut, train and Tube services axed and delayed, and homes turned into heat traps that won’t cool down during tropical nights.
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The extreme heat even forced the cancellation of a talk on extreme heat during the London Climate Action Week, and iconic attractions like Tower Bridge and Cutty Sark closed due to the weather, while London pavements and station platforms clocked almost 60C.
One X user pointed out: ‘I’ve lived in the US for the last two summers, and it regularly reached 35, it was NEVER as unbearable as the last two days here have been. UK heat is genuinely the worst. People don’t understand.’
Another added: ‘We finally reached that time of year where ppl from the UK complain about the heat, then ppl from hotter countries say we’re being dramatic, then ppl who r visiting the UK admit that the heat is unbearable.’
So why does the UK feel hotter than other countries when temperatures get like this? We take a look below.
Quite rightly, people are wondering why the temperatures always feel sweltering when it gets to this time of the year.
Met Office spokesperson Stephen Dixon has a few answers and told Metro: ‘Meteorologically, the UK air tends to be more humid compared to that in continental Europe.