# The Heat



## Kelvin12 (19 Jul 2022)

Hope everyone is staying safe and cool over there.  We are hearing news reports  here in AU of scrub fires and loosing houses. 40c is pretty hot even when you are used to it.  

Dirk


----------



## PARAGUAY (19 Jul 2022)

Quite a lott of devasting forest fires in Europe, people having to evacuate their homes and seeing on the news record temperatures in UK with fires breaking out. Hoping it's going cool down a bit soon


----------



## MirandaB (19 Jul 2022)

I've definitely been struggling with it as I work outside and my employer decided black uniform was the way to go 🥵
More worried about my fish as they're mostly temperate and on the cooler side of that,2 power cuts today did not help and one tank of gobies was at 31 degrees when I got home but thankfully no losses.


----------



## Kelvin12 (20 Jul 2022)

I drop in frozen water filled ice cream containers in larger tanks but it melts very quickly and really doesn't seem worth it as the temperature doesn't seem to change.   Maybe in smaller tanks it might help but controlling the drop......  A fan running flat out across the surface I think would be more beneficial or step up the air cond. if you have it.    

Dirk


----------



## LondonDragon (20 Jul 2022)

This was the temp in my kitchen window yesterday after lunch:






Lucky enough last year when my dog was very sick I purchased an aircon unit to protect the dog from the heat and helped again this summer, in the study where we were working from home and the dogs were,  managed to keep the temp at 23-25C so everyone was fine! 

I have this large 18 inch floor fan that I pointed at the tank on full blast and managed to keep the temps under 27C, did perform a water change in the morning over the last 3 days also to keep the temps down. So far so good! 

Lets hope this is not the new norm, I will need to move out of central London that is for sure and out of a block of flats!


----------



## mort (20 Jul 2022)

The first day I kept all the windows and curtains closed and it stayed at 25c inside but peaked at 38c outside. The next day I did the same and with all the accumulated heat it was hard to stay under 30c and I think the tanks are just under that now. I can count on one hand the number of days I haven't took my dog out for a walk in the seven years we have had her but she didn't go out yesterday.

I may be a wishful thinker but hopefully this kind of weather gives people the kick up the blahblahblahblah to do something. Before it was normally all so far away and seemingly out of our hands (been watching you poor guys and girls in oz suffer for a very long time) but with rails buckling, houses burning and droughts maybe people will at least concede we are having an effect on our climate and should mitigate the damage.


----------



## DeepMetropolis (20 Jul 2022)

Ooh yesterday here in the Netherlands it was the same 40c in the shade of my garden, but the tank water indoors was 28c so that was not so bad. I really don't like the climate change.. But I really love this hot weather. I even work outside


----------



## GraemeVW (20 Jul 2022)

I love the heat, but have to be careful. Very nearly lost my life to heatstroke when i was in my early 20s. Apparantly you can be more susceptible to it once you have had it.
Stupid dog just lays out in it. This was the peak of the heat on Tuesday 



Completely refuses to lay in the shade, even in 40°c 🙄
Have to keep bringing her back inside.
She is from Spain so doesn't seem to care.
Quite surprised I haven't heard reports of the moorland being on fire round here, seems to happen all the time in the summer. Normally idiots starting it though.


----------



## LondonDragon (20 Jul 2022)

GraemeVW said:


> Normally idiots starting it though.


A lot of the fires in Portugal are also started by idiots


----------



## GraemeVW (20 Jul 2022)

LondonDragon said:


> A lot of the fires in Portugal are also started by idiots


Intentionally?
Seems to be round here.


----------



## LondonDragon (20 Jul 2022)

GraemeVW said:


> Intentionally?
> Seems to be round here.


Yep, intentionally!


----------



## dw1305 (21 Jul 2022)

Hi all,
Various members of my extended family are trying to escape London (and the Home Counties) and flee to the cheaper, cooler North.


LondonDragon said:


> Lets hope this is not the new norm, I will need to move out of central London that is for sure and out of a block of flats!


I think we've been down <"this route before">?

<"Corsham"> is very nice, and when you sell your flat you will be able to buy <"Corsham Court"> and some change left over.

cheers Darrel


----------



## FrankR (21 Jul 2022)

I'm originally from Greece and I'm used to heatwaves (>40 °C), sunburns, etc and learned how to deal with them.
I must say though, this heatwave was a different beast. It felt like it was 50 °C, because of the humidity.
Keeping windows and curtains closed during the day and opening all windows after sunset helps to keep the house a bit cooler.
Looks like Albion is turning into a tropical island. I'm seriously thinking of installing window shutters and air con units.... and buying a surf board. In your face Hawaii! 😂


----------



## Garuf (21 Jul 2022)

There are lots of things that can be done to mitigate heat islands, temperatures rising and temperature deaths. The uk is unlikely to do any of them looking at governmental/political trends. No money to be made in providing public services or investing in infrastructure that isn’t easily profiteered from.
Adapting to climate change as nation of renters and profiteering landlords who already don’t do whats necessary, let alone what will be necessary for in 5 years…

I mean, I can go on. It doesn’t look promising. 

Plant more trees. Boycott, picket and protest companies and make them hurt if they don’t change. If voting doesn’t get the change you need and the investment needed to continue to live a dignified life on a habitable planet, go out and have a French Revolution. I see bread riots in the near future.


----------



## mort (21 Jul 2022)

Garuf said:


> Plant more trees.



Completely agree but with the caveat that we need to look after them until they establish. As an example we had several trees planted on our local pitch and putt course and we thought they were being sensible for once because they planted them near the sprinkler supplies. Unfortunately this was just a coincidence as they have neglected to water them even though they watered the greens, even in a downpour. We moved the sprinklers a few times but they have succumbed to our drought.
Elsewhere trees have popped up with these water bag surrounds and they have kept them filled but neglected to water the trees they planted last year that were next door.

Planted a million trees sounds amazing but not if most of them die.




The heatwave has also damaged some really important wildlife areas around us. For those that watch spring watch,  wild ken hill took a real battering from wild fires


----------



## Garuf (21 Jul 2022)

The job I couldn’t get was landscape architect. We were told if you want 1mil trees in 10 years then you need to plant 6mil to hit those numbers. 

Unfortunately most councils/building firms/landowners think that planting a tree is the only work they need to do. There needs to be better understanding of streetrees as utility and as more than a “dump one here” parsley on the mashed potato.


----------



## KirstyF (21 Jul 2022)

Where my Sister lives, they have just ripped out every beautiful mature tree on their street (must be 40 of them) regardless  of whether there were raised roots or not, then laid new tarmac pavements, and then re-planted trees that will take 15yrs to get even close to what they had before…..but hey, they planted trees right! 😡


----------



## Kelvin12 (21 Jul 2022)

That sounds like here.  Mad rush to remove all non native trees and re plant with native variety's.  WHY..... native gum trees here in AU are killers.  They drop branches for no  good reason and just shed a branch or two.  They also grow to monstrous heights and become dangerous to houses.   I know koalas need native gums but its a single variety they need only.   

Dirk


----------



## mort (23 Jul 2022)

My parents just got back from the new forest and one picture I saw looked like a Serengeti watering hole. It was so dried up and parched but with an odd mix of donkeys and ponies rather than wildebeest and antilope. Normally there is a missive pond in its place.


----------



## erwin123 (23 Jul 2022)

We love trees in my country... there's even a tree database:



			https://www.nparks.gov.sg/treessg


----------



## Jobiwan (25 Jul 2022)

I’m currently living in the Pacific Northwest in the US we’re hitting about 25° here I’m planning on relocating to the UK in a couple months I didn’t know I was gonna be moving someplace tropical


----------



## DeepMetropolis (26 Jul 2022)

KirstyF said:


> Where my Sister lives, they have just ripped out every beautiful mature tree on their street (must be 40 of them) regardless of whether there were raised roots or not, then laid new tarmac pavements, and then re-planted trees that will take 15yrs to get even close to what they had before…..but hey, they planted trees right!


Yeah they just did the same here, the was a tree in front of the sidegarden blocking the view from the neighbours in the other side of the street. And they had taken all optical connections with entangled with the roots, so no Internet for more then a week.. Now we are left with an empty street and apperently are going to plant different trees but on other spots. But people here have complained about their cars getting dirty from trees so I wonder if there come any at all..


----------



## FrankR (4 Aug 2022)

A very informative video...


----------



## mort (12 Aug 2022)

Not fun now. We have been saying St James hill, where I walk the dog nearly everyday, was primed to go up and unfortunately that's happened this afternoon.









						Smoke billows over Norwich as fire breaks out at Mousehold Heath
					

Smoke has been seen billowing over Norwich after a fire broke out at Mousehold Heath.




					www.eveningnews24.co.uk
				




Luckily I think the amazimg fire service got there quickly as my friend lives about 50 yards from where the pictures were taken and we are only a couple of hundred meters as the crow flies. Unfortunately most of the area has a similar combustible potential.


----------

