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Post by katlady on Jul 3, 2025 6:16:09 GMT
I saw a video where a British gal was saying that British heat is the worst in the world. It was 20°C and humid. Of course, the video was made fun of by another social media person in Texas because 68°F is winter weather in Texas. So, my question, was this British girl just making a silly video or is 20°C really considered hot over there? What do you consider is your range of “hot”?
I know we all get acclimated to different temperatures. 20°C would be nice weather to me. Getting over 27°C (80°F) is starting to get too hot for me.
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suzyuk111
Junior Member
Posts: 67 
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Post by suzyuk111 on Jul 3, 2025 6:57:05 GMT
Hi
I'm in the south east of England. For the past week temperatures have been very hot (around 30'c) and on Tuesday it reached 33'C (91f). Our summers tend to be humid rather than a dry heat. It depends where that person lives because if they live in Scotland or the very north of England 20'c could be very hot for them. Unfortunately very few homes in our country have air conditioning so we've been wilting! Temps have dropped slightly which is lovely but we're expecting a week of rain from Friday!
Safe summer everyone x
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wellway
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,203
Jun 25, 2014 20:50:09 GMT
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Post by wellway on Jul 3, 2025 7:02:06 GMT
The heat hits different here, the humidity is high.
We have just had our second heatwave and it just drains you. Our houses are built to retain heat, the walls are two layers of brick with insulation. Very few places have air conditioning. It just feels like you're slowly baking.
I would say 20 is okay but our temps have been hitting the high twenties recently. 33.6 was recorded in Kent at the beginning of the week.
I've seen videos by Americans living here atm and they are all commenting about the heat being nothing like they've experienced before.
Unfortunately, the heat in Europe this week has been crazy, reaching over 44 in Spain and Portugal. It has resulted in a number of deaths, including a ten year old American girl visiting the Palace of Versailles.
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Post by gar on Jul 3, 2025 7:41:47 GMT
No, 20 isn't considered hot by anyone I know  |
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Post by Zee on Jul 3, 2025 7:58:07 GMT
I feel like the only people bred to know the hardship of climate, weather, and temperature extremes are Midwesterners, full stop, fight me. 🤣
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Post by AussieMeg on Jul 3, 2025 8:43:59 GMT
No, 20 isn't considered hot by anyone I know True haha! Every time I see this kind of discussion on Facebook, I cringe when I see smart arse Aussies comment on how 30C isn't really hot. What they don't understand is that a lot of (most?) houses do not have air conditioning. And like wellway said, the houses there are built to retain heat. I personally think 30C is lovely weather, but that's with air conditioning and a pool nearby - I sure as hell wouldn't want days on end of 30+ with no air-con! |
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Post by jennyap on Jul 3, 2025 9:38:29 GMT
20 isn't hot, but above 25 is getting uncomfortable, above 27 definitely hot.
One of the things that make us less able to deal with higher temperatures - as well as the high humidity - is how quickly temperatures can change here. It means we have very little time to acclimatise, so we don't!
Something else a lot of people don't take into account when they compare our temperature and humidity to their own country is our latitude - we are a long way north so we have more daylight hours, ie longer days to heat up and shorter nights for cooling down. Our longest day is about 17.5 hours, the longest in Australia is about 14 hours and similar in Florida which I've often seen as a comparator. That's a big difference!
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Post by melanell on Jul 3, 2025 10:29:10 GMT
Well, I'm here to say that humidity sucks. We've been in a pattern where the temps climb up to 85-96 during the afternoon, but the hotter it gets, the lower the humidity drops. Sometimes as far down as only 40 some percent, which is incredibly low for our area. It's amazing! But then at night, when you really want it to be nice and comfortable, the temps start heading back down to about 70, 69, 68, which sounds great, but the humidity soars, often right up to 94, 95, 95%, and it feels awful. Absolutely awful. It's heavy, oppressive, and you feel like you have this weight on you. Your body looks to recover at night and you just can't. So, if it's 68 in the UK, but that humidity is up in the 90s, then I can totally understand it being a lot to deal with day after day. Signed, an American living in an old house, without air conditioning.  |
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Jul 3, 2025 14:09:42 GMT
I’m looking at london’s weather right now and it’s 74 with humidity in the 30’s. That doesn’t seem high to me. I’m not a meteorologist so I could be missing something….its 9:00 am here in MN and it’s 75 with 86% humidity.
We didn’t have AC in our house growing up in Iowa and it was horrible in July and August. That house did not have good ventilation (my mom’s current house is over 100 years old and they just got central air, but their house had much better design to cool things off in the summer). I don’t envy people without AC. I’m finding that these days I don’t really like the hot weather.
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Post by katlady on Jul 3, 2025 14:59:24 GMT
Thanks for all the insight. I live in an arid region, so any humidity to me sucks. I didn’t know there was a heatwave going on in the region right now. Stay cool and safe!
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sueg
Prolific Pea
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Apr 12, 2016 12:51:01 GMT
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Post by sueg on Jul 3, 2025 15:10:38 GMT
I’m looking at london’s weather right now and it’s 74 with humidity in the 30’s. That doesn’t seem high to me. I’m not a meteorologist so I could be missing something….its 9:00 am here in MN and it’s 75 with 86% humidity. We didn’t have AC in our house growing up in Iowa and it was horrible in July and August. That house did not have good ventilation (my mom’s current house is over 100 years old and they just got central air, but their house had much better design to cool things off in the summer). I don’t envy people without AC. I’m finding that these days I don’t really like the hot weather. Your second paragraph is the answer to why the UK (and much of the rest of Europe) summer is hitting so hard. Most of us are living in your childhood house! This year is shaping up to be a brutal summer over here. Even before the end of June, there were parts of Spain and Portugal that hit 46C - that’s about 115F. I have heard of at least 10 deaths from heat related causes. And that’s before the ‘peak’ of summer hits - that’s usually late July - mid August. |
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milocat
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Location: 55 degrees north in Alberta, Canada
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Post by milocat on Jul 3, 2025 15:18:42 GMT
Not British but a semi northern Canadian here. Anything above 22C is hot. 30C at the beach with a cool drink and ocean breeeze, sure! But abive 22 at home when you're trying to do things, gross. It's dry here, summer or winter. But as soon as we get a bit of humidity it's so much worse.
A few days ago it was 32C here with 33% humidity and a dewpoint of 13C and that's way to hot. Almost everyone has a window AC, to at least cool off oart of their home. Central air is getting more popular.
DD worked at the grocery store and said people complained wayyyy more about the heat than the cold.
We also get to -40 and colder so we have so much swing in temperature to deal with. I was walking last winter when it was -40 plus windchill, I'm not walking now that it is in the mid 20s, too hot and sweaty. Sun doesn't go down until after 11 pm, so you're walking in the beating sun. I could live with +22 to -22, go beyond that and it starts to get uncomfortable.
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Post by Merge on Jul 3, 2025 15:27:25 GMT
Yeah, the dew point in London right now is in the 40s. That’s not even starting to be humid. By contrast, the dew point in Houston at the moment is 76 with 78% humidity.
But y’all can roll your eyes at us when we’re freezing to death at 50F or the whole city shuts down for an inch of snow. 😂
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Post by busy on Jul 3, 2025 15:42:59 GMT
I feel like the only people bred to know the hardship of climate, weather, and temperature extremes are Midwesterners, full stop, fight me. 🤣 I get your point and also… I went to college in Minnesota and I’ll take sub-zero windchill (with proper gear, of course) over 20F in the PNW any day. There’s so much moisture in the air here in the winter chills me to the bone at much higher temps. I was never as cold in MN as I get here when it’s in the teens or 20s. But generally speaking, midwesterners do handle the extremes on both ends better than most. |
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Post by JustCallMeMommy on Jul 3, 2025 19:03:34 GMT
I remember when we visited a few years ago, everyone was apologizing that we came during a heat wave. It really was nice weather, but the lack of air conditioning was hard on some in our group.
My DD is going to Exeter to do a choral "residency" week after next, so I'll make sure she is watching the weather and packs appropriately!
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Post by jennyap on Jul 3, 2025 20:40:31 GMT
Yeah, the dew point in London right now is in the 40s. That’s not even starting to be humid. By contrast, the dew point in Houston at the moment is 76 with 78% humidity. But y’all can roll your eyes at us when we’re freezing to death at 50F or the whole city shuts down for an inch of snow. 😂 Yeah today was a beautiful and dry day, perfect summer weather. Our annual average humidity is something like 80% so not the norm 😂 no rolling of eyes here |
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Post by Basket1lady on Jul 3, 2025 21:43:42 GMT
20 isn't hot, but above 25 is getting uncomfortable, above 27 definitely hot. One of the things that make us less able to deal with higher temperatures - as well as the high humidity - is how quickly temperatures can change here. It means we have very little time to acclimatise, so we don't! Something else a lot of people don't take into account when they compare our temperature and humidity to their own country is our latitude - we are a long way north so we have more daylight hours, ie longer days to heat up and shorter nights for cooling down. Our longest day is about 17.5 hours, the longest in Australia is about 14 hours and similar in Florida which I've often seen as a comparator. That's a big difference! I agree with this! We lived in Belgium for 3 years, which is about the latitude of Winnipeg, Canada. This time of year, it’s light out by 4:30am and you can still walk around without a flashlight at 11:30 at night. Obviously the UK is even farther north. We lived in an old cottage that was nice and cosy most of the year. It had nice high ceilings and good cross ventilation. Most nights were 50-60 in the summer, so everything cooled off. MOST of the time! But we had 4 Vellux windows in the roof (like skylights that open) across the west side of the house. And the front of the house (east side) faced the road without a speck of shade in the front. So the front baked all morning and by 10-11am, the sun was coming in the Vellux windows. But they were lovely in the winter and let in a lot of light on those gloomy days when it was only daylight for about 6 hours. Add to that the rarity of the heatwaves. In the 3 summers that we lived there, we had about 2 heatwaves each summer that were less than a week long and months apart. So there was never a chance to get used to the heat. Three of four days of 90 degree temps twice a summer just doesn’t acclimate you to the heat. Our lab would sleep about 6 inches from the fan, facing it and with it gently flapping her ears in the breeze. |
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by iowgirl on Jul 3, 2025 23:01:46 GMT
The heat hits different here, the humidity is high. Ugh - humidity is THE factor! Whew.. I grew up in a more arid, but hot climate. It could be terrible hot, but if you could be in the shade in a breeze, it was tolerable. But here, its hot and humid and even a breeze doesn't help much. I feel like the only people bred to know the hardship of climate, weather, and temperature extremes are Midwesterners, full stop, fight me. 🤣 I agree! LOL I have gone places ;ole DC and down south Louisiana and people say "Your'e going to hate the heat & humidity, and I feel like it is exactly the same in Iowa ... but I know Louisiana has it for a longer period of time for sure! We didn’t have AC in our house growing up in Iowa and it was horrible in July and August. That house did not have good ventilation (my mom’s current house is over 100 years old and they just got central air, but their house had much better design to cool things off in the summer). I don’t envy people without AC. I’m finding that these days I don’t really like the hot weather. I didn't have AC the first 5 years here. UGH! No window ac or anything. But my house was built for that. If it cooled off at night, I could cool my house. I opened the attic and all the windows in the other 2 floors. If there wasn't a strong breeze - I would put a fan in one window to pull air in and one in the opposite side to pull the hot out. I would get up before 6 to start closing windows and shades. If the humidity wasn't brutal - the house was very pleasant. I also used the fan on my furnace to bring air from the basement up into the rest of the house. This helped circulate air in the basement too. I run 2 to 3 de-humidifiers in my basement all summer long. But let me tell you, having central AC is the best dang thing ever. I remember days when it was 100+ degrees inside my house. I had 2 little ones and we struggled to get through the days... luckily that type of heat wasn't a long time thing. This spring/summer we have had some really hot weather. Also some really cool weather. LOL Currently at 6 pm it is 87º with 57 percent humidity. Doesn't feel great, but last week the humidity was in the 80-90 percent. That sucked. |
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Post by melanell on Jul 3, 2025 23:30:37 GMT
I've lived my entire life in an area with high humidity and a large range of temperatures. Negative temps in the winter (before wind chill is worked in) and right up to 98, 99, 100 in the summer, and yet I have always sucked at anything above 80 (before the humidity is factored in) and I still do.
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Post by librarylady on Jul 4, 2025 3:00:22 GMT
This discussion reminds me of a conversation with my seat mate during a particularly hot period in Dallas.
It was summer and he was from NYC and was coming here for a couple of months to train for his new career.
I told him that he would probably suffer most with the heat of summer. (Think about 103F with high humidity)
He assured me that he knew heat, NYC had hot summers. He was very cocky.
We were ready to deplane and when we entered the "tunnel" that connects the plane to the terminal --(I can't remember the correct name)--The heat just slapped us in the face. He began to gasp and say, "What is this, What is this?"
I smugly replied, "It is our heat."
I wanted to give a taunt of, "I thought you knew heat.
I wonder how he managed for the next 2 months. I also bet he never doubted Dallas heat again.
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RedSquirrelUK
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,077
Location: The UK's beautiful West Country
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Post by RedSquirrelUK on Jul 4, 2025 8:17:35 GMT
Yes, our buildings are designed to retain the heat rather than keeping it out. And yes, our houses, smaller/older offices and buildings mostly don't have air-con, although the larger newer buildings such as supermarkets do. I think a lot of the difference in the UK is that the weather is so changeable all year round that we don't really get the chance to acclimatise to it. So the 30*+ heat last week came after a weekend of grey skies, rain and chilly east winds. We go back to work wearing jeans, then while we're at work, the temperature and humidity shoot up, the wind drops and we're stuck with no air-con, sitting on plastic chairs in little rooms filled with lots of hot people and computers for 8 hours. We have that for 3 days, we just start getting used to it, and it changes again and we're "shivering" at 18*. Even when the temperature is high, the rain is cold. I've lived in tropical Singapore which has year-round temperatures of 28-34*C and very high humidity. I've lived in desert/coastal Western Australia, where the night-time temperature didn't drop below 30* for the whole of March. We had the chance to get used to it, so it was relatively easy. By comparison, the UK's hot weather/humidity spikes are very difficult to deal with. I found this little reel which explains British weather really well. www.facebook.com/reel/1331196211291830 |
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