Is the heatwave hotter than the summer of 1976?

Figures show that 2018 was hotter than 1976. Personally I was never bothered by the heat in 1976 but nowadays I struggle to cope.

This in 1975!

Me and pal went to Torquay for 2 weeks ( wakes weeks!) In July/August and 2nd week SO hot I got sunburned so dark it stayed until end sept and I went to doctor thinking I'd turned permanently brown!!! Everyone thought we'd been to Carribbean! I've never been so tanned-even when I did go! And the sunscreen I used? Johnson's baby oil!!!!

OMG! yes I forgot the ladybirds, got bitten terribly walking through a cloud of them before I realized what they were!!

I married#1 H in 1976 and nope! It's not hotter or dryer. It didn't rain for about 6/7weeks the WHOLE country we a. Town frazzled mess Andi remember the banking on side of M way going to Watford spontaneously combusted whilst we sat in a jam, and the tarmac melting with lorries getting stuck in gummy roads!! I know I slept ok as I was usually sozzled (19)! Or only neede about 5 hours max!! I married on 9.10.76 ........ The first drizzly wet dull day for months!!( Should've taken the hint!!!)

No the earlier one was much hotter. I had a new baby & keeping him cool was really difficult. I absolutely love the hot weather & I am brown as a Berry right now.

Hotter, but much shorter. 1976, the heatwave was months long.

I am old enough to remember my first heatwave. It was 1947, the summer after one of the longest, coldest winters on record. My aunt and uncle, home on leave from Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), bought a huge inflatable rubber dingy and set it up on my granny's croquet lawn. We three and our cousins, all girls, had a wonderful time splashing about and the dads got in on the act. It was the first time I'd seem my dad in swimming trunks; he had, until then, worn a bathing costume of a kind that has never been seen since! I don't remember how long it lasted or how high the temperature went, after all I was only 6, but a lovely summer like that was a wonderful treat for us and our parents.

grannyrebel7

I can remember that when it did finally rain my friends and I went outside and danced in it. Happy days! I don't remember it being hotter than this heatwave though.

I remember doing this too. It was so wonderful to have the rain!!

We got married in June 1976....it rained. The next day the heatwave started. DH and I will never forget that year!!!

The summer of ‘76 was BOILING! This is nothing like it. We had the ladybird plague then too, remember? As you sat on the beach or anywhere in the open they would land on you. People thought they were going to be bitten, but it turned out the ladybirds were just as hot as the rest of us and were thirsty - they were attracted to drink sweat!

It was as hot and lasted for weeks. We had just moved into a new build and laid a lawn in April as had other residents in the small enclave. Our lawns stayed green and others thought we were watering madly. It turned out that this development had been built over an underground stream!

My son was 18 months old and at the end of May we spent a week in Bath with my in laws, it was cold and wet. We then spent the next week at my aunt's house in Sidmouth. The heatwave started on the Sunday and we had the most wonderful week by the sea.

We came home to Suffolk and it just went on and on. I didn't mind it at first but got pregnant at the end of July and immediately started morning sickness. I just remember really grim hot days with a toddler feeling like death. I was persuaded to go to visit my ex husbands grandparents in Blackpool. It was a horrendous drive ending up with a puncture on the M6 at midnight. FiL drove to get myself and son and took us to Blackpool, husband arrived at 3am after the AA came to his rescue.

I will never go to Blackpool again. All I remember is interminable heat, the smell of raw sewage littering the beach and fish and chips. Coming home I drove in tandem with my in laws. Passing through Staffordshire on the M6 the whole road was covered in smoke from the many fires in that area. And a horrible accident. I arrived in the Cotswolds to stay with friends feeling a total wreck and very sick. The next day the weather broke, I think it was August bank holiday.

On arriving home I learnt that one of my friend's twins had died a cot death while I was away. She told me that the day of her funeral in Suffolk in early June it has snowed!

So that summer started really well and then became a nightmare I remember to this day!

Now that I am older I do not cope with hot weather very well. When I was younger I could lie in the sun for hours but I always look for a shady spot when I'm out in the sun now. The heatwave of 1976 lasted for many weeks and was very hot, we have only had a few hot days so far this year.

I do remember it starting at the end of May right through to 29 August with cracking thunderstorms and flash flooding. There was a fifteen day span of consistent 32 degrees because I was a student nurse and we made big jugs of lime and saline, handing them out to porters, cleaners, visitors.
And the famous Knebworth fair was very warm and sultry well into the night.

Maybe because the 1976 Summer lasted longer, we became acclimatised to it, so could tolerate it better. We didn’t have any fans at home if I remember correctly. I do remember the roads melting, and one of the main concerns was whether the pubs ran out of draught beer. My ex husband was dismayed that he woul have to drink “that bottled muck”
It does make me smile though every time I hear the term heatwave as if it’s happened in a freak month. I always think of Peter Kay, “yes it’s called Summer.......”

I remember it seemed to go on for ages in '76 or at least it seemed that way , didn't we have a good summer in 75 as well seem to remember going to the beach after work both years.

I do remember 1976, but does anyone else remember the summer of 2003? I was working in a front line role in a prefab type building with no insulation and it was absolutely stinking hot for weeks on end - and no rain.

I started taking a spray bottle of water to work - we would spray each other to try to keep cool.
The only way to get any air through was to keep the door and opposite windows open, but because of something her father had said ages ago, our manager refused to have any windows open, even though the sun wasn’t on them. (There were no blinds or curtains.)

In the end I said that if she wouldn’t have the windows open, so that at least there was a current of air, I was going home. And I meant it. She gave in.
I still remember the bliss of the late afternoon when - finally - there was a thunderstorm - lovely big splatty drops of cooling rain.

In Derby England I remember stand pipes for people to fetch water there was a drought I was 15

Looking out of my window it appears our mini heatwave is over here in the south east.

Missiseff

Grannyboots - why on earth would you wear tights in Summer????

I don’t know about grannyboots but women in my office were expected to be ‘dressed’ even though they didn’t meet the public, men wore long sleeved shirts. People didn’t slop about in leisure wear.
In fact, it has been rather warm in the last week but now I have to wear strong elastic medical tights (don’t like hold ups) uncomfortable they are but if I don’t I would have a lot of problems.

1976 was a traumatic year for me as my husband had a brain haemorrhage in March on my first mothers’ day. For some reason we decided to holiday in Menorca with our son. It was actually cooler there thanks to the constant breeze.

Calendargirl

DS born in August 1976. No, it was hotter and as others have said, started late May I think.

Govt advised sharing baths to save water. I remember watering the garden with washing up water daily, we were told the soapy water would kill the weeds.

Yes it started late May. We went on holiday for the half term, the weekend and bank holiday Monday were cold and wet. As most people packed up to go home on the Tuesday the sun came out and I think it was 3 months before I saw rain.

A red sky tonight but a thunderstorm is forecast.

I can remember that when it did finally rain my friends and I went outside and danced in it. Happy days! I don't remember it being hotter than this heatwave though.

I remember the heatwave of 1976 very well. I think this one’s hotter and brighter, but I seem to remember that the 1976 one lasted for several weeks without a break.