How to keep cool in the hot weather

[12th Monkey]

Apparently so.....

Why a 40C day in the UK is deadlier than a 40C day in other countries

Britain is less able to deal with high temperatures than many other countries, according to global heat mortality data.

news.sky.com

I might not have been clear - I'm sure 40° does cause an increase in deaths, but I doubt a temperature of 17° or thereabouts does.

EDIT: On the plus side, I have just learned that ALT0176 inserts the degree symbol. Bonus.

 

[Tinman1952]

I might not have been clear - I'm sure 40° does cause an increase in deaths, but I doubt a temperature of 17° or thereabouts does.

You haven't read the article...it's about Minimum Mortality Temperature 🙂
Plus you know statistics never lie.....😉

 

[12th Monkey]

Reading the article*, that's not exactly what it says - Minimum Mean Temperature is that at which the fewest people die, so you could just as easily flip it on its head and say that below 17° more people will die too. I won't be panicking myself, and I am certain that this means it is behaviour-driven, not that people in this country drop like flies at so low a temperature!

I suspect a part of how this works in terms of cold (probably only a very small part) would be that we don't mandate winter tyres, so in very cold conditions we probably have more car crashes and therefore more deaths on the road during such conditions.

Similarly in terms of very hot weather, air con/ceiling fans are largely absent in UK buildings, and we are geared towards keeping heat in our buildings, not out.

*Started typing this after you posted!

The bottom line is that the shape of the curve would tell a lot - I suspect that either side of 17° the gradient is almost invisible - it would be interesting to know where it properly begins to steepen.

 

[Tinman1952]

Similarly, air con/ceiling fans are largely absent in UK buildings, and we are geared towards keeping heat in our buildings, not out.

Exactly..l think that's the main problem. 🙂

 

[12th Monkey]

Exactly..l think that's the main problem. 🙂

Thinking about it, a country with a higher average temperature will almost certainly have a higher MMT all other things being equal - so I think there's something circular in comparing our MMT with other countries, particularly those with higher average temps. I think your eye-wink emoji about stats is the correct attitude!

 

[Tinman1952]

so I think there's something circular in comparing our MMT with other countries, particularly those with higher average temps.

Well far from being a circular argument it clearly demonstrates your previous point that we have historically not prepared our infrastructure to cope with such high temperatures. Hence people start dying more at a much lower temperature than other countries globally. 🙂

 

[12th Monkey]

Well far from being a circular argument it clearly demonstrates your previous point that we have historically not prepared our infrastructure to cope with such high temperatures. Hence people start dying more at a much lower rate than other countries globally. 🙂

I'm sure that applies when it really does start to get hot - but I doubt it has much effect either immediate side of 17°. That the MMT in Spain is (IIRC) around 20° probably just tells us it's warmer there - which does seem circular to me.

It's all about the gradient of the bell curve and subtleties get lost in relying on a single metric, wouldn't you think?


EDIT: Looking at it again, there's a pretty solid relationship between MMT and latitude, so it's probably a little harsh to say we start dying more at a given temperature than other countries - we're about where we'd expect to be, based upon latitude. Now The Netherlands...!

 

[Tinman1952]

It's all about the gradient of the bell curve and subtleties get lost in relying on a single metric, wouldn't you think?

I think it's a probably a J curve but I get your point. I think we can agree that we need to do better as a country to prepare for what appears to be the 'new normal'. 🙂

 

[12th Monkey]

Hey, scroll back to include the last ice age and I'll bet it becomes a bell curve!

 

[12th Monkey]

Interesting how we get an increase in temperature and we go from clapping for the NHS to my sister-in-law (who manages operating theatres at a local hospital) getting verbal and physical abuse from people because the heatwave means theatre air con fails and operations get cancelled....

 

[nopiano]

I'm sure that applies when it really does start to get hot - but I doubt it has much effect either immediate side of 17°. That the MMT in Spain is (IIRC) around 20° probably just tells us it's warmer there - which does seem circular to me.

It's all about the gradient of the bell curve and subtleties get lost in relying on a single metric, wouldn't you think?


EDIT: Looking at it again, there's a pretty solid relationship between MMT and latitude, so it's probably a little harsh to say we start dying more at a given temperature than other countries - we're about where we'd expect to be, based upon latitude. Now The Netherlands...!

I wonder if we can infer that one acclimatises? After a few warm/hot days, walking today at about 20C outside with cloudy skies felt almost chilly. But in the winter, I reckon above 10C feels warm!

 

[Gray]

Interesting how we get an increase in temperature and we go from clapping for the NHS to my sister-in-law (who manages operating theatres at a local hospital) getting verbal and physical abuse from people because the heatwave means theatre air con fails and operations get cancelled....

It's a shame that CCTV and / or security staff can't enforce punishment of physical abusers.
If up to me, treatment would be permanently withheld from such people - but no way this country would do that.
If we must be lenient, put them at the back of any waiting list - In which case they should consider themselves to have got off lightly.

 

[12th Monkey]

It's a shame that CCTV and / or security staff can't enforce punishment of physical abusers.
If up to me, treatment would be permanently withheld from such people - but no way this country would do that.
If we must be lenient, put them at the back of any waiting list - In which case they should consider themselves to have got off lightly.

She's a very robust and laid-back Scot, and didn't want to press charges. Apparently it's within a trust's remit to be able to deny treatment, meaning that whomever crosses the abuse line would end up having to travel to another area to get treatment.

 

[plastic penguin]

Hope you didn't dive in.....
We were out yesterday for a case of Cold Water Shock.... the man was lucky

No. My mankini shrunk in the wash.😋😁

 

[plastic penguin]

I work permanent late-shift and a rain shower hit here about 00:30, I stripped down to my underpants and ran round the garden... thought about going naked but that was probably a bit too far. I put my antics down to heat induced insanity...

I use that excuse to go to the pub.

Truth is us Brits can't adapt to extreme weather. 2 flakes of snow & the country grinds to a halt. Extreme heat and we're all going to die.

Mrs P. has a friend who comes from Sri Lanka. It regularly goes over 55 degrees.

 

[12th Monkey]

I was reading a piece in Science Focus today which suggests the highest temperature recently was just under 52° in India. A quick Google (in other words, I'm not saying this is definitely right!) suggests the highest temp ever in Sri Lanka was 39.5°.

Climate details in Sri Lanka (worlddata.info)

I looked as the article in SF suggests that 50° is borderline for human survival.

 

[plastic penguin]

I was reading a piece in Science Focus today which suggests the highest temperature recently was just under 52° in India. A quick Google (in other words, I'm not saying this is definitely right!) suggests the highest temp ever in Sri Lanka was 39.5°.

Climate details in Sri Lanka (worlddata.info)

I looked as the article in SF suggests that 50° is borderline for human survival.

Google is one thing, reality can be different.

Mrs. Ps friend went back to Sri Lanka for a months holiday in June, and over that period it was well over 45 degrees. It varies from week to week, as it does in this country. But the average highest temperature is far higher than a couple of days ago in the UK.

 

[WayneKerr]

Thinking on this I have experienced similar temperatures to last Monday/Tuesday whilst on vacation in Egypt in the 80's. Visited Abu Simbel to see the temples, at midday the temperature was in the 40's. It was el scorchio but it was in no way as debilitating as the heat we had here; humidity plays a major role in our ability to endure such temps.

On the same trip we took in Cairo, Luxor and Aswan, the further south we travelled the hotter it got but the humidity decreased too... Cairo wasn't pleasant at all. Loved the country so much went back 2 years later and just stayed in Luxor for 2 weeks... wonderful memories

As an aside does anyone know of somewhere reputable to get 35mm film negatives converted to digital copies?