So THAT’s Why UK Heatwaves Feel So Much Worse Than Other Countries

By Amy Glover

Every time it gets hot in the UK, I rush to social media to find the one tool that can soothe me: people from roasting climates, like Australia and the southern US, learn that we’re really not exaggerating about the heat here.

“UK heat hits different,” a Californian living in the UK admitted in a TikTok video recently. “I got a fan pushing hot, sticky air around – gotta go to a grocery store if you want a little bit of relief,” she added.

But why does the UK feel so much hotter than countries with the same, or higher, temperatures?

We literally are not built for this heat

Speaking to HuffPost UK, Max Dugan-Knight, a climate data scientist at Deep Sky, said that if you think the heat really is different here, “your intuition is correct”.

Not only does he say that “heatwaves are getting more common, hotter, longer, and generally more dangerous,” due to climate change, but the expert added: “They’re particularly uncomfortable in the UK.”

One reason for that is the “inadequate infrastructure for very hot temperatures” we have here, Dugan-Knight told us.

“There are places that regularly get temperatures that high – in the tropics, for instance, or the US Southwest – but almost everyone has access to air conditioning, shade is prioritised in building design, and in some cases, daily schedules adapt to avoid being outside during the hottest times of the day.”

The UK, in comparison, “is not prepared for heat like this”, from our train infrastructure to our homes.

Richard Millard, senior sustainability consultant at Building Energy Experts, added: “House are designed to keep heat in with large amounts of insulation and dense materials such as brick and stone, that can work to overheat in summer due to solar gains and activity in the house during the day and our buildings lack design to prevent solar gain effectively such as shutters, overhangs and awnings and light colour exteriors and roofs that reflect away heat.”

Then, there’s our environment and climate

Another issue is the humidity of the UK, which prevents sweat from wicking away, Johan Jaques, chief meteorologist at environmental solutions company KISTERS, said.

“That’s why you feel hotter and stickier… This difference is why 35°C in a dry climate can feel more comfortable than 30°C with high relative humidity.”

Then, there are our cities, which Miller said are likely to get hotter than rural spots.

“The UK has a very dense urban environment, which means our towns and cities have a large urban heat island effect due to the amount of concrete, asphalt and such that absorbs heat and releases it slowly, making cities and towns feel hotter,” he explained.

These heatwaves, sadly, are likely to get longer, hotter, and “generally more dangerous”, Dugan-Knight ended.

“It is distressing, there’s no way around that. In the short term we need to invest in better infrastructure to be able to withstand heatwaves like pervasive air conditioning.

“In the long term, we must address the underlying forces of climate change.”

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