Tuesday 24 July 2018

Weather

This heat wave, which seems to stretch throughout the Northern Hemisphere, has really become quite scary.   Greece is the place now to succumb to the terrible forest fires, which seem to have spread so quickly and with such ferocity that no-one escaped the flames - some jumping into the sea carrying their small children just to get out of the path.

We have had a couple of sharp showers - an hour's worth yesterday morning and a shorter one this morning, but just enough to moisten the atmosphere.  I didn't think it necessary to water my courgettes and when I came back from my visit to my Physiotherapist they were very droopy but with a drink revived quickly.

It's awful to even think about such things but wouldn't a week of inclement weather be lovely?
My son rang from London this morning saying it was very hot down there.   Driving back from the Physio this afternoon  it was 26 degrees here even though there is a sharp wind blowing.   Was there really a Summer like this in 1976?   If so I certainly don't remember it - how quickly these things fade from one's memory.

Keep cool in whatever way you can.   It will all end before too long (says she hopefully).



 

22 comments:

Rachel Phillips said...

Most people I know remember the Summer of 1976. It was hotter and longer than this one. I lived in the North East at the time and suddenly it became like the south of France and everybody on the beaches in the evenings and all weekends. Unheard of. Meantime, my mother was writing to me from Norfolk fearing fires, and the crops burning, and I was feeling guilty about enjoying myself. I am surprised you don't remember it.

Wanda said...

I remember it well. It was marvellous to wake up day after day to sunshine and blue skies.
As for the current hot spell, it certainly hasn’t reached this corner of the UK. I’ve lit the fire tonight, to take the chill off.....

Heather said...

More and more people are beginning to wish for cooler conditions. I think we all feel a bit guilty about complaining when most years we are longer for some warmth and sunshine. The situation in Greece must be terrifying. I can remember 1976 and it was scorching. My youngest daughter was a year old and we travelled by coach from Bristol to Worthing to visit my parents. I was lucky to have a double seat to myself so could lie my daughter down as it was so warm having her on my lap. When we were on the move it was lovely but when we had to stop everyone visibly wilted. If the next one doesn't happen for another 42 years I don't think it will bother me!

Penhill said...

I remember 1976, going on a trip with work friends down to London and lying on the grass in Regent's Park under the lawn sprinklers getting soaked and trying to get into Harrods past the door men!

Sue in Suffolk said...

I remember 1976 very well and there were were also a couple of hot summers in maybe 1982/3? and the year we moved to the smallholding 1992.

Bonnie said...

We have been having an unusually hot summer here in the states as well. Most days it is in the upper 90's F. We study the weather reports each week trying to decide what day is the least hot for cutting the grass. It is very hard to work outside in this weather and I only do the most necessary chores. We have been fortunate to not have fires here in Missouri but I know California, Colorado and many other places have not been so fortunate.

Joan (Devon) said...

I remember 1976 as that was the year I sat on Centre court at Wimbledon watching the mens tennis finals. We were high up in the stands and the heat was incredible. I also remember seeing the lakes and reservoirs being dry and the 'beds' having wide cracks. I believe that was the year there were emergency water carriers on streets, but I can't remember there being one on ours.

Are you allowing Anonymous comments now Pat?

justjill said...

Possibly past heat waves passed me by as I would have been able to cope better. Now with COPD I find it very difficult.

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

I was walking the Pennine Way in '76. We just got through some of the moorland areas before they closed them because of the fire risk. I'm feeling a bit like your courgettes - rather droopy at the moment but I'll soon be revived by a drink!

jinxxxygirl said...

A week of rainy weather... You know i can remember weeks like that when i was a kid.. But none in recent memory.. Its hard to even get a rainy day... Not much we can do about the weather though except ride it out best we can.. Stay cool dear Pat.. Hugs! deb

Bovey Belle said...

I know it was 90 deg. F in 1976, as we had a thermometer at the office I worked in and were hoping it got higher and then we could go home!! In fact it got to 95 deg. but we still had to stay put! I think So'ton was the hottest place in Britain at one point.

It was very hot early on - the grass was brown by mid-June and we had to start feeding hay to the ponies then.

There were standpipes on the streets in some places - I don't remember them in So'ton though.

Derek Faulkner said...

At least you're getting a few showers Pat. I'm also surprised that you can't recall the 1976 event, boy was it hot and long. On a lot of roads, if you braked too hard you left a trail of gouged up tar and gravel that had melted. We had standpipes in the streets.

angryparsnip said...

It is hot here but only 104 today. Some cooler weather late on with some rain maybe ?
So many wildfires here in Arizona and California.

cheers, parsnip

Jan said...

Here in North Texas, we have had temperatures of 112, 115 but has "cooled off" today to 100 which is closer to normal July temperatures. We desperately need rain, but none in sight.
'

Hildred said...

We are not as hot as North Texas or Arizona and California, but today the thermometer hit 38C, and that is quite enough, thank you. I went out in the cool of the early morning on the scooter, with a wide straw hat, - had a lovely visit with the neighbour who was out gardening. By ten o'clock one is ready to retreat to the house, closing doors and windows reluctantly and turning on the air conditioning. I have just opened the house to the evening breeze, at 8 o'clock, and it is so nice to breath AIR!!! Of course we will all complain when November comes!!!

Cro Magnon said...

We had a similar summer last year! It makes having a pool an essential; NOT a luxury.

Gwil W said...

I remember 1976 and the drought and a farmer somewhere near Kirkby Lonsdale, over Hutton Roof way I think, committing suicide because he had no water for his cows. And he wasn't the only one to do it. It was a very unusual year. They had to bring drinking water from Scotland to parts of Yorkshire in tankers. That's why they built the Kielder Reservoir, to prevent such a water shortage happening again.

Librarian said...

In 1976, I was 8 years old, and I can not remember whehter it was a particularly hot summer here in Germany. But I remember well the summer of 2003, when some of our smaller lakes dried up completely, and we did not see a single drop of rain (not even a shower from a thunderstorm) for 6 weeks.
It was the year I started to walk home from work instead of taking the train, as I could not face the sweaty smells and airless heat in a confined space with so many other people. I have kept the habit out of pleasure whenever I have enough time for the hour it takes me.
Last night on the main news, they said that our farmers have harvested more than a billion (!) tonnes of wheat less than last year. If the government won't step in with financial help, many of the farms will close down.

Ivy said...

I was 18 back in 1976, so I must be able to remember, but I don't. There were other, more important things in my life then, I presume ;-)

These fires are horrible, aren't they? Ever so horrible is the fact that it's arson very often.

Take care of yourself and lovely Tess.

https://ruraltownliving.blogspot.com

Chris said...

Yes it was this hot in 1976, we sowed a lawn in March and it came up in September. 26C sounds lovely it is 32 here and we have only had a small shower once in tne last 9 weeks, the garden is dead. They forcast a thunderstorm onFriday but I won’t hold my breath.

Jayview said...

I’m writing from a Melbourne winter where we seem to alternate wind storms, and still, sunny days after cold nights. it is sunny this morning and will be 14C after 8C overnight. But I remember the summer of 1976 in the UK. We were Australians studying in the north who got quite homesick when the fields turned golden. The temperatures were not as high as we were used to, but went on the same everyday for weeks, whereas we were used to having brief intense heatwaves of a few days followed by a cool change. England didn’t seem designed to cope with heat so lots got sunburnt, road surfaces began to melt, shops were not air conditioned and chocolate biscuits stuck together.

Rachel Phillips said...

Weaver was too busy marking books I reckon to notice that hot summer of 1976.