EXTREME WEATHER WARNING

I’m just carrying on as normal with minor modifications. Curtains closed when the sun is on the windows, doing the minimum of housework and staying out ofthe sun. Obviously drinking plenty. I’ve just been out shopping and will pick up my GC from school. Look after the vulnerable and the pets. Otherwise it’s a lot of fuss about something we can’t change.

That's what I'm doing Stardreamer, but I'm dressed in light cotton. I'm freely moving around, but do have my water bottle by the bed. Tips on Radio 4 yesterday included putting cold water into a hot water bottle, and running cold water over your wrists.

I've got the curtains closed, windows open front and back of the bungalow, and the fan on in the hallway with a wet towel on the bathroom stand alone towel rail. My dog is really suffering, that's mainly for him, the hot air is so dry.

No housework today, just Netflix!

karmalady

just a reminder that you don`t have to be out in the sun to get heat exhaustion, inside can also be hot and very humid and perspiration needs to evaporate or the body will not cool, put up with sweaty armpits for now. These few days have been a trial run for friday onwards

Thank you.

So can you add some guidance of things to do and things not to do if one is inside one's house please?

For example, if it gets really really hot as predicted, would lying on one's bed in one's underwear most of all day be a good idea, or would that be a bad idea? "Most" being because of the need to eat and to drink fluids and to go to the bathroom.

just a reminder that you don`t have to be out in the sun to get heat exhaustion, inside can also be hot and very humid and perspiration needs to evaporate or the body will not cool, put up with sweaty armpits for now. These few days have been a trial run for friday onwards

Or even
I guess if one were indoors in a cooler environment, one would/could be etc….

> I guess if you’re indoors in a cooler environment, you would be less dehydrated (I don’t mean you personally!)

Another way to write that is as follows.

~> I guess if one is indoors in a cooler environment, one would be less dehydrated.

StarDreamer

karmalady wrote Bear in mind that as we age, we do not get thirsty until we are very dehydrated ...

I did not know that. Thank you for posting that information. As a result I have just now had a drink of about 250 millilitres of water even though I am not feeling thirsty.

I guess if you’re indoors in a cooler environment, you would be less dehydrated (I don’t mean you personally!)

I often go into the kitchen from the garden and think, I’d better have a drink of water while I’m in here even though I don’t feel thirsty.

As soon as I take the first sip I realise I am thirsty and finish the glass.

I used to have hard time persuading my mother to drink water, whatever the weather and she was plagued by UTIs so does the urge to quench thirst diminish as we get older?

At the moment my fridge is well stocked with tap water in a filter jug and sugar free Sprite.

Somewhere in the back of my ‘cupboard of doom’ is my ice lolly kit but digging it out will mean I have to tidy the cupboard. ?

In places like Australia we mostly have aircon so it is a bit different. Many of us, including me, have had skin cancers. The trouble with the cancers is that they take many years to develop so if you got severely burnt when you were young it can come back and bite you, so to speak, when you are in your 60 s and 70s. My husband actually got the dreaded melanoma on his face but very luckily it was caught early enough to save his life. My mum, who lived in England all her life, got 2 skin cancers on her eyelids through lifting her head up to the sun in a London backyard.

AGAA4

Nobody needs to panic just be aware that heat can cause problems.
2500 people died from heatstroke last year - BBC news.
If you follow the advice you will be fine. Pets too need to be looked after in hot weather. I see people walking their dogs at the hottest part of the day. Madness.

It may have escaped your notice that there was a disease circulating in 2021; one that killed people in large numbers.
A publication by the government said that excess deaths from all causes in 2021 were approximately 1,634. ALL causes! BBC? Typical!

www.gov.uk/government/publications/heat-mortality-monitoring-reports/heat-mortality-monitoring-report-2021

My daughter was in Cambodia with a very fair friend, who succumbed to heat exhaustion. They had been careful and stayed in the shade as much as possible, but her friend had to stay in the hostel for three days to recover.

Good point about hydrating, my aunt has difficulty 'remembering' to drink. I think I'll phone and remind her now.

karmalady wrote Bear in mind that as we age, we do not get thirsty until we are very dehydrated ...

I did not know that. Thank you for posting that information. As a result I have just now had a drink of about 250 millilitres of water even though I am not feeling thirsty.

It is a very reasonable headline, heat exhaustion/heatstroke can kill. People in the uk have not been able to adapt to an extremely hot temperature because our weather is mostly moderate and not hot

Be aware of the symptoms, some of which are losing appetite. pale clammy skin, headache. There are more symptoms

Bear in mind that as we age, we do not get thirsty until we are very dehydrated and by then the blood is thick, cannot flow freely and clots are more likely to happen

It is important to cool the inner temperature, drink enough, move slowly etc

On monday my dd had to deal with someone with heat exhaustion and yesterday with someone who had a stroke. Heat exhaustion should not be taken lightly, or flippantly even though it is july

Lucca

Seriously though isn’t all the advice common sense. .? Specially at the age most of us are.

It seems we don't exercise common sense. The number of older people collapsing this week is huge. Generally because they refuse to alter their routines so go out shopping in the hottest time of day, wearing layers and not drinking much. Collapsing at bus stops seems to be a favourite and I've lost count of the number of cardigans I've peeled off people this week to get to an arm for a blood pressure. Combine that with a cosy jumper and a vest and for men a nice warm tweed cap. That may indeed keep the sun off but it also stops any heat escaping.

Well, if the so-called "Nanny State" by its information campaigns saves lives, both in the immediate situation and in the long term health impacts, then well done "Nanny State".

Can I give some advice from the heart of Italy? We've had and are going to have again 40C plus temperatures.

I bought myself some fabulous kaftans online and I drift around in them with nothing underneath! Bliss.

I was tut tutted on a thread earlier in the year where I spoke of trying to drink two litres of water per day. I still do that as well.

I walk round and round the outside of my house for fifteen minutes at five thirty in the morning. That is when I check my potplants for their water needs. All windows closed by 7:30 and we live in the northeast facing side of the house all day.

We have a totally silent Rowenta ventilator/fan that keeps air moving. That seems to be more important than air cooling.

I turn on the ventilator over the oven when I'm in the kitchen area of the house and that keeps air moving as well.

If anybody feels the “Nanny State” overstates the case or perhaps is needed to give us instructions for how to behave in hot weather, Blower in the DT has it summed up

My post was for Shandy57.

Hopefully the fire brigade caught it in time

Yes, thankfully, although it may well be an issue for the stability of the ground as a house on the top of the cliff collapsed and fell a few years ago. I live a few minutes' walk from where this fire happened and it can be easily viewed from Babbacombe Downs.

That is so sad Whiff, my sincere sympathies. My FIL also died of Melanoma and I agree we knew nothing about the dangers of UV rays and over exposure to sunshine in our early years. I am glad to see all the younger parents among my children’s friends, taking enormous care to apply strong sun protection to their little ones. You still see older people though with wrinkled leathery skin from over exposure to the sun, and I am sorry to see that very few men protect their heads (particularly those losing their hair!) Malignant patches are so often removed from the top of old mens heads. My DH wore a Panama hat every day in summer and a wide brimmed “Indiana Jones” in winter, which became a sort of “trademark” .
We do know better now (I hope) Sensible concern about very hot weather should help us to adopt sensible behaviour in the same way that treacherous winter conditions encourage us to stay indoors and out of harm’s way.

I am very sun aware my husband died from a grade 4 malignant melanoma which which gave him 6 secondary tumours. His encologist said he reckoned it was set down in childhood and activated in adulthood as the melanoma appear overnight. My husband sent hours on the beach as a child no suntan cream it was oil in those days . We where both born in the late 1950's. Once we had his diagnosis was told he had 5 years ,he lived 3 and was 47 when he died. At the time 2,000 people a month died from skin cancer in 2004 in this country. The figures are higher nowadays.

Factor 50 for me and my family,long sleeves ,sunglasses and hats.

I would hate for any family go through what my husband did. He died in agony fighting for every breathe.

Stay out of the sun and drink plenty of non alcoholic fluids…..so basically the opposite of what most Brits do on holiday?????.

a lot of people are short on common sense.....they may well be clever with exams to prove it but common sense lacking!! it has been known!

StarDreamer

Lucca

Seriously though isn’t all the advice common sense. .? Specially at the age most of us are.

I don't know.

I always take the view that it is always better to know twice than not at all.

I am very definitely not the type of person who gets indignant and stroppy if they are told something they already know.

It is not my nature - and anyway I don't need to!

I don’t get stroppy either. It’s just my opinion.

“Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring! “
m.youtube.com/watch?v=nR0lOtdvqyg&autoplay=1