Bloody hell, it’s hot! Hard to imagine that back in June the Daily Mail – and all the other main comics – was telling us (following a séance run by the Met Office, I believe) there’d be no summers for the next decade. Even The Guardian was at it.
The fact is that what ever happens for the rest of the year, the recent hot weather has already gone on for long enough for this year to be genuinely cast as a “barbecue summer”. In fact, it looks like we’re set for it to stay like this until the end of July, if the non-Met Office jet stream predictions hold up. So much for the prediction of 10 summerless summers!
Personally, I hate the hot weather. I always have, ever since I was about 11 on holiday in Skegness and got sunstroke (my back peeled less than 4 hours after exposure). I keep out of the sun as a result – just in case! But the humidity is what really gets to me. I hate sweating when I’m working on something, and on lessons I have to use the aircon. I don’t mind that too much (apart from the extra fuel cost, which is noticeable), but it does dehydrate you even more, which means drinking more water, which means having to find somewhere to take a leak several times a day.
And don’t get me started on summer holidays. My idea of heaven is going skiing in the depths of winter. I much prefer the cold weather, although snow in the UK no longer makes me as happy as it used to do because of the adverse effects it has on this job.
Going back to that jet stream a moment, a few days ago the forecast was for it to drop into Europe around 23rd July. The forecast now is for it to drop around 27th or 28th July. So it’s already changed, which just goes to show how forecasts can never be relied upon. But looking at the current forecast, if the jet stream does drop as far south as is predicted at the end of the month we’d better get ready for some seriously Biblical (as in “Genesis”) weather.
(Edit: I wrote all that on 16th July. As of 19th July it looks like things might break again around the 23rd/24th July).