Advice and best wishes from "Down Under" to those in the EU and UK heatwaves

pware

Trainz Veteran
Advice and best wishes from "Down Under" to those in the EU and UK heatwaves

Stay cool (literally, not just figuratively) is the best advice that we can give to our northern fellow Trainzers in their current summer heatwaves.

From our long experiences with 40C and above heatwaves:-
- Stay out of the sun.
- Stay inside with the blinds closed.
- Drink plenty of water.

If you can, escape to anywhere that has good air conditioning. When the summer heat strikes and becomes unbearable here, and if we don't have good aircon at home, then we flock to shopping malls, cinemas, indoor ice rinks (yes we do have them) and similar places - even pubs but they have other "hazards". Those of us with good sense stay away from hot places with little or no shade, like beaches. The news videos you sometimes see of Bondi Beach covered with sun worshippers developing their melonomia spots on days of extreme heat are mostly of tourists from colder climates. If the air temperature is 40C then the sand temperature will be 45C or higher, perfect for blistering bare skin.

My thoughts.
 
Further to this thread, a bit of research revealed that the longest heatwave on record in my state (NSW) was the summer of 2016-17 when the town of Moree in the states North West experienced 41 consecutive days with the daytime temperature exceeding 35C (95F) with many of those days over 40C. The previous record was 17 days over 35C in the summer of 1981-82.

During that long hot spell the town became a virtual "ghost town" with residents staying inside and businesses not opening during the day because it was too hot and there were few, if any, customers. At night, when the temperature dropped, people came out and businesses opened. The town, in effect, turned nocturnal.
 
Just gonna add, Texas has been experiencing heatwaves too. Yesterday’s high was 42C (108F), and it’ll likely be hotter today. Normally Texas gets about 35-40C (95-100F) summers, but this year is exceptional. ERCOT (Texas power grid manager) says we have enough power, but we need to conserve it for later in the summer.

Run that AC full blast, turn on fans, stay inside, drink lots of water. Stay safe everyone!
 
Temperature more or less back for normal, quite a bit of fire damage from grass fires some still burning in various places across the Country and as the ground is very dry they are expecting more fires. The worst one on the Edge of London which has nearly destroyed a village appears to have been caused by a compost heap bursting into flames not something you'd expect over here! Somewhat of a wakeup call and it's even worse in Europe.
Living in a flat an Old Victorian terrace is an advantage as it's easy to keep the heat out close curtains and shutting doors and windows kept it down to 24°C inside, the walls are pretty thick, so OK here despite it reaching 39°C in the shade outside at one point.
Temperature are due to rise again at the weekend though.
 
Heat yesterday in South London was greater than anything I've ever felt before - my thermometer said 43 degrees outside in the street at 15.00. It was only tolerable for about 5 mins before I had to go back in. We're not used to these temperatures in Britain!

Paul
 
We're not used to these temperatures in Britain!

On our 2 trips to the UK and Ireland over the last 7 years we noticed the lack of air conditioning in businesses, homes, in the B&Bs and even in some of the hotels where we stayed. While not all places here in Oz have aircon, other cooling methods such as ceiling mounted fans, heat reflective blinds (inside and outside), evaporative coolers (which are not good in high humidity areas such as Sydney) are common.

My last home had no aircon but I installed ceiling fans in the bedroom, study, dining and living room and heat blocking blinds on all the windows. They made a significant difference in keeping the place cool in summer, especially on the hottest of days.
 
Back
Top