How really bad is the summer weather here? Please help.

Posted by iam_selc@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 29 comments

I know this question may be asked like a million times already, but I haven't found a thread that can fully answer based on my experiences 😭. For context, I live in a tropical country with average temps around 40 degrees during the summer and during non-summer, it feels like 30 degrees due to the humidity. I've seen so many videos of "foreigners being humbled" by the UK weather, but most of them from what I've seen are from the US (and even I find it cold to my standards, California is very breezy and nice when I visited there, and basically any other major state I've visited, even Nevada, the temperature/humidity low there is already considered cold in my country), so I want to if the UK summers are *actually* bad-bad even people who are living in already tropical countries? Please help, I'll be visiting next year summer and this is my first country in Europe 😅

29 Comments

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SomeHSomeE@reddit

Having live in a couple of tropical climates I can tell you that 'it's so humid here in UK!' is actually pretty bullshit compared. Yes it can get sticky and humid but it's absolutely nothing compared to the humidity you get in tropical climates. Even non tropical climates like e.g. Washington DC are far more humid in summer than here.

iam_selc@reddit (OP)

Thanks!

Heathy-Heatherson@reddit

For the vast majority of the summer, temperatures max out at around 20 or 21 degrees C daily and its often cloudy. We have 3 or 4 heatwaves in a summer when temperatures shoot up to 30 to 35 degrees C daily and everything melts because we aren't used to the heat.

Oh thats good to know 😅 here it is just constant 35 degrees so our heatwaves are around 40-50C

palpatineforever@reddit

the average highs are normally about 24/25 not counting heat waves. even includin night time temps you are looking at averages about 18c across a day. 20c would be a very very cold summer unless you are in the very far north.

I live on the south coast.

Suspicious_Tax8577@reddit

I've had flatmates from india who were absolutely floored by the heatwave in 2023. The temperature will be nowt for OP, but it might be the humidity that surprises them.

CrossCityLine@reddit

If you’re coming from somewhere tropical you’ll be fine as you’re used to humidity. If you’re from somewhere with dry heat like the SW of the USA or certain parts of Australia then there’s a good chance you’ll struggle despite it being “hotter” where you’re from. Our homes and buildings are designed to keep heat in, AC is not ubiquitous and escaping the warmth can be difficult.

Oh I see, so it’s the infrastructure that is the problem? In my country most residential have AC’s or if not, many of them have lots of fans. It has something to do with the bricks, right?

escapingfromelba@reddit

Plenty of weather information online including historical temps.

Master-Trick2850@reddit

If youre used to hot humid weather with little to no air con in most places including public transport youll be fine If not, itll be uncomfortable

Mendel247@reddit

I spent a decade living in the south of Spain. It wasn't a tropical region by any standards, rather a desert, with temperatures of 40°c+ being normal, and upwards of 45°c not being uncommon. We also had incredibly low humidity. Compared to that, I'm in the UK now and today is a pretty comfortable day, but not at all hot. On the other hand, the only time I've ever had heat stroke was here in the UK on a 27°c day with very high humidity.

HighlightTheRoad@reddit

Honestly a lot of British people are weak when it comes to warm weather. It is absolutely glorious out today, and with a bit of breeze depending where you are. If it weren’t for the ruinous effects on the vegetation, I would love this weather (30 degrees) everyday in the summer. You will handle it just fine, that is a promise.

DameKumquat@reddit

It's the rapid changes that make it more tricky. Last week there was a sudden hailstorm and a cold night and I had to pull my extra blanket back out. This week it's 32 degrees. Or as a worker at the Globe Theatre said,.last week she was giving out blankets to the audience, today it was fans and water. Having one day 25 degrees C different from the next makes it tricky to acclimatise - 30 degrees in late summer would be OK.

BlackberryNice1270@reddit

I'm in the north east and its 29 degrees today. We're usually about 2-3 degrees lower than the south east. This is pretty much as hot as we get. The sky is clear which makes it much more bearable. We can be at 22 degrees though and the sky be overcast and that is when it becomes difficult, I get migraines and I have mild COPD and it really makes it bad. Bearing in mind, all of our buildings are designed to hold heat, and we don't have AC in most places. Having said that, my sister in law is Brazilian, and she complains about our sun that has no heat! I think today though she would find it warm enough to shed her coat.

amberallday@reddit

It’s very variable. There’s a reason British people are known to talk about the weather a lot. You cannot accurately predict at 8am what the weather will be like at 10pm the same day. We might get sunshine, rain, warmth, cold all in the same day. Leaving the house in the morning with umbrella, warm jumper, waterproof coat, SPF 30 cream & sunglasses is not that unusual. We are getting heatwave weeks in the last few years, but they last 4-5 days and happen once (maybe twice) a year. You are much more likely to get the typical “UK is a small island” variable weather. Plan for that.

nemmalur@reddit

It’s weirdly humid sometimes, most older homes and buildings aren’t designed to let heat out so it gets stuffy quickly and AC is not very common. On the other hand it’s also very variable so you could have blazing hot sun followed by sudden intense ice cold rain showers.

ResplendentBear@reddit

Our weather is very variable. The actual met office forecast for where I live is 34c tomorrow and 19c on Wednesday. That's the kind of shit we have to deal with. And we're never prepared for any of it because it's not consistent. Continental Europe is far hotter and colder consistently.

romeo__golf@reddit

There are two factors at play. 1. We like to moan. It's just a cultural thing that we like to talk about the weather. It's too hot, too cold, or too wet. Always. 2. Our infrastructure is built for a climate from 50+ years ago and extreme heat, while it's becoming more regular, is still a once-a-year issue for the most part meaning changing that doesn't have any real urgency (yet). Our buildings are largely designed to stay warm, not cool, so have little sun protection and don't have air conditioning. While AC is certainly not rare, and many commercial spaces have it, it's not at all common in private residences and many smaller stores or restaurants won't have AC. Public transport also doesn't have AC here. This means that while the temperature itself may be comparable to those experienced in warmer climates, there's no respite when you're in a building. Your bus ride or train journey will be uncomfortable, your home will be stuffy, if you go out for a drink the pub won't have cooling...

UnrivalledPG@reddit

As a greek living in the north - west , I don't find it hot at all. It depends on where you are too.

Kind-County9767@reddit

It's really not. People moan about "but the humidity" even though if you pick a 30c day here and a 30c day in eg portugal or Spain the humidities are pretty similar. In reality we just have so few hot days and consistent spells. Which means people don't acclimate to it before it's gone.

Proper_Emu_2296@reddit

In the UK, cold weather lasts for about 6 months whereas we have maybe 7 truly hot days a year. So we invest our money in winter preparation, not summer preparation. Many places don’t have AC (almost unheard of in private homes), and our houses are insulated against the cold. You can guess how that goes for us on these days haha

youshouldbeelsweyr@reddit

Russians find Scotland too cold xD I remember a few months ago seeing a Russian man talking about how cold he finds Scotland and how surprised he was about it so he researched why etc. Was very interesting to hear what he had to say considering I'm so used to it.

PinkandTwinkly@reddit

I don't know what you mean by "bad" It'll be a fair bit cooler than you're used to - us that bad, or not bad? What a lot of americans struggle with here, is aircon isn't as common here as there

TapeDeckSlick@reddit

Nah, we moan and I will moan but it's just the nights that bother me really, its very humid and our houses are built to keep the heat in so just a bit uncomfortable

ClaphamOmnibusDriver@reddit

It's not as extreme as many other countries, but air conditioning (especially domestically) is very rare, and hence you need to actually deal with the heat directly. Things like the London Underground are extremely hot, unlike (e.g.) Tokyo's metro lines, there is no A/C for most lines.

grimaces111111@reddit

If you can handle high humidity 30°C with little to no AC you'll be fine

Disastrous-Place-846@reddit

You'll probably find it cold unless you get lucky or unlucky for that occasional week we have a bit of a heatwave

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