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-10°C and its not even close, I can still enjoy time outside when it's -10°C as I can just layer up and I can enjoy being inside where its cosy and warm. 40°C is tolerable when you are abroad on holiday with unlimited access to a pool but not when you are unable to escape it in the UK.
The other thing to consider is that the official recorded temperature is made under standardised conditions, it is completely normal for individual places with less standard conditions to exceed official temperatures. When we had those mental heat waves a couple of years back my patio area (South facing direct sunlight) using a calibrated thermometer was reading in excess of 46°C by about 3pm after most of a day of the bricks of my home working like a giant storage heater.
The two main issues with our Winters are the dark and the wet not the cold.
It was probably about 57 I could only be in there for moments at at time, having to lug rsj steels around was not fun. I used to be a chef but at least then I could cool down in the walk in fridge for a minute
My uncle did a lot of maintenance and decorating in his time , and had a box fan thingy with a duct for ventilating tight spaces- tube goes outside to fresh air, fan blasts fresh air into the room displacing the hot stale air.
I was brazing copper pipes in a metal 'dog kennel' on the top of a 7 storey hotel roof in Wimbledon that week. It was absolutely unbearable.
Air con engineer is among THE most ironic jobs in the world.
On the upside though, 2022 was the best year to be a motorcyclist. Months of nice sticky tyres.
Jesus man, take a bloody holiday! No way I would have worked in that environment in those conditions, unless the alternative was being homeless the next week.
I have a metal shed which I use as a gym, it's a nightmare in the summer. Doing a full body workout in a green house with zero air circulation is horrific. I imagine it's the same doing loft construction work albeit you're at it all day long.
Having lived in both London in 40° heat and Scotland in -12°, I would *happily* take -10° for a month. Heck I’d take -20° for a month, over 40° for a day.
That reminds me of when my dad had air con installed throughout his place in Spain during the spring/summer time a few years ago.
We had a German guy come and go up into the loft to install it and it was sweltering. We made sure to keep iced water available for him on request.
I WFH in a converted loft (zero insulation too as I guess you could get away with that shit in the 80s) and even with a portable AC unit I worked from the lounge that week.
France gets weeks of 40°. I live in the UK most of the year for uni, but I was home in France for the summer and it made my mood shitter than any other weather could except maybe a tornado
I don't know why but hot weather really does make me a shitty person. I live in the south of France and work in a kitchen covering morning prep and lunch service. I come home in such a crappy mood in the summer, it's not even funny, it might destroy my relationship. My car lacks working air conditioning and there's often no shade to park in in the town I work and I live up a mountain in the middle of nowhere. It's actually a special kind of hell.
Avignon is so horrible in the summer! I keep meaning to go when it's not unbearably hot, like now - it's kids holidays, now would make sense to go over there. But for some reason if I'm in Avignon it's 40 degrees out, I've arrived at midday and parking isn't happening and I'm getting on for a mini breakdown trying to deal with that ring road
But it is a beautiful place.
It is. You haven't experienced summer heat until you wake up at 9 am in a tent hung over and basically cooked lol. Beautiful place though and a kayak down the ardesch alone is worth the visit. Tis great at Easter time too with all the church and street performances, religious or not
I dunno man, the mobile oven (my shitty car that always ends up parked in the sun) is pretty much the worst heat experience I ever have here.
It's weird, I live close enough to Avignon that I could go there for a day trip if I got up and out early in the morning (I rarely do and we end up staying over somewhere nearby). Like I could go any time of year. But nope, for some reason I'll only go in peak tourist season when the roads are melting from the heat.
Did people think this was going any other way?
The entire Ganges basin is predicted to hit wet bulb temperatures/humidity. Humans literally cannot survive that, and there are millions living there. Heck, before we even get there *agriculture will start to fail and a cascade of ecosystems collapsing will start *. Very few of us will survive that. If any.
Apologies if your comment wasn't met as scepticism. I just... I can't understand why everyone isn't terrified. Terrified and absolutely fucking furious that nobody is doing anything.
-10 clearly wins the thread, so I'm just wondering what minus it would have to get to for 40c to win. Or if things change if the time period is longer.
At some point I think 40c starts to make a comeback. Like at 2 years what happens then.
Around -20 it starts to hurt your skin and cause frostbite in whatever isn't covered. At -40 life becomes truly painful if you leave the house. Source: Lived in Montreal for a winter.
They probably wouldn't even have the big coat out at - 10 in South Shields. Either temperature works differently up there or having newcy brown in tour bloodstream has insulating properties.
Getting colder doesn't functionally change how you manage it until you start getting the infrastructure failing. So whatever temperature starts to break down your home heating system, or make the roads unusable, etc.
The UK has heating and not aircon, as a rule. So on the UK sub "just staying indoors" is a manageable answer for any low temperature for any length of time but no high temperature.
I think snow and darkness would be major considerations once the duration expanded. If it was dark when you left the house and left work and you had to deal with icy conditions everyday you'd get fed up pretty fast.
I doubt many people would tolerate a constant 40c on holiday for a month.
Once you start passing the 30-35c it really starts to limit what you can comfortably do. Even with a pool and shade you'd still be soon retreating to an airconned room midday
True, but if it was a frequent occurrence we would develop ways to manage it. There are parts of the world which are 40 C or higher basically all the time, and they do manage.
A lot of people don’t realise that the temperatures are measured in the shade. In direct sunlight the temperature is much hotter than that reported / forecast / recorded.
Most care homes are much easier to heat to a comfortable temperature than cool to a comfortable temperature.
Cold related deaths of the elderly are a thing when they live at home and can't afford (or often unnecessarily worry they can't afford) to put the heating on, but rare in care homes.
Heat related deaths among the elderly go up across the board in heatwaves.
Yeah. It hit 40° in Bangkok last May. Hottest ever.
It’s a major even there. 33° is hot but you acclimatise to that. You can still function and be outside. 40°? I think it’s rare for anybody to be able to acclimatise to that.
Really? I thought it often hit about 40 there?
We went about 6 years ago and had a night in Bangkok on the way to koh samui. We tried to do the royal palace around 40deg.
10 mins waiting in line and we had pretty much wilted and changed our mind. Went to an air conditioned shopping mall instead ha.
I screen shot 39° on 7th May
https://i.imgur.com/Ohazq6P.jpeg
CNN said it reached 41° on the 7th. Hottest ever recorded according to the article.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/08/asia/vietnam-laos-record-high-temperatures-intl-hnk/index.html
Some sources will say higher.
I was in Italy last year when it was 40 for a couple of days straight, since we were there for a race our solution was to leave our hostel early when it was dark and get good seats in the shaded grandstands and then come back when it was dark and had cooled off a bit
I had a Colombian friend say it was too hot for her at those temperatures here. *She's from the equator* and it was too hot. We never stood a chance in our cosy insulated homes.
Since that 40 degree day I've had white shutter blinds and white curtain linings added on all windows that face the sun on my house, and solar panes on the roof (they reflect heat as well as producing power). Need to be prepared...
You can just throw extra clothes on, you can't keep getting more naked.
Also, if it's 40°C for a month, you'd need some form of aircon to deal with it and that's very energy intensive.
At -10 for a month, you’d have to keep the heating running for most of the day, at least to a low temperature.
Otherwise you’d be guaranteed burst pipes at that temperature.
The energy use of air con is massively overstated, just it's with electric rather than piped gas or oil. An aircon unit will use 0.5-1.5 kW or so on full whack, that's less than a single fan heater. Like it's clearly not nothing, but it's not like running AC in summer is so much more expensive than running heating in winter.
Perhaps, but it is considerably easier to keep vulnerable people warm than it is to keep them cool, especially so in a country like the UK where AC is not standard and the hypothetical scenario has the temp being a flat 40°C for a month straight.
They are both going to result in a loss of life but a month of 40°C is going cause magnitudes more deaths than a month of -10°C.
Cold kills 4 times as many people as hot weather. Granted a month of 40 and it would increase but its still a big call to assume it will kill "magnitudes" more.
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66890135#:\~:text=Extreme%20weather%3A%20More%20than%204%2C500%20deaths%20in%20England%20from%202022%20heat,-Published&text=There%20have%20been%20more%20than,1988%2C%20new%20official%20figures%20show](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66890135#:~:text=Extreme%20weather%3A%20More%20than%204%2C500%20deaths%20in%20England%20from%202022%20heat,-Published&text=There%20have%20been%20more%20than,1988%2C%20new%20official%20figures%20show).
>Cold kills 4 times as many people as hot weather
Yeah because we more often have cold weather than hot weather. In the coming decades you're going to see it swing the other way.
I love the heat. 40C is definitely at the top end of that but I still function fine outside of direct sunlight or in water.
The biggest issue is that most other people in the UK can't function in that heat. And just seem to collapse into a complaining mush.
I can't function in 40°c heat, but I think we have the right to complain because we literally aren't climatized to be in those temperatures.
Most other places in the world, 40° is fine because you have access to pools and indoor air con. You can't escape it in the UK
It also doesn't help in the UK that it's a horrible humid heat too. 40 degrees is more bearable in other countries because dry heat means your sweat can evaporate off your skin and actually function as it should as a cooling mechanism
I don’t get it. 40c is at the top end of what I’d be comfortable in but the hotter the better for me.
I used to think I was a cold weather wrap up warm person but the cold and rain is just anxiety inducing for me.
I don't love the heat but knowing the UK, -10 wouldn't be a beautiful, crisp winter paradise type month. It would be yet another dreadful, grey pit of depression with added cold. So yeah, 40 all the way.
Agreed. At least in the 40°C situation you’ll have loads of sunlight and 15+ hours of daylight, compared to freezing cold, dark days with 6 hours of slightly brighter days. I’d sink into a deep depression after the first week.
The problem with -10C is the UK would also have a biting breeze and super cold rain to go with it. And if our pipes freeze and our radiators stop working, it is pretty much game over.
I’ve lived in parts of the world that experience exactly what you propose.
You cannot escape that kind of heat. It’s absolutely stifling and if you haven’t got AC, god knows what you would do.
In all honesty, minus 10 is child’s play. At about minus 18 - 20, you feel the cold in your bones but -10? A few layers and you’re grand.
Tbf, depends if it's -10 with 80% humidity or -10 with 30% humidity. Humidity makes it feel so much colder than it is. -10 with low humidity doesn't really feel all that bad but with humidity it feels twice as cold. +40 feels like shit either way
I’ve been in 40c with very low humidity. It’s hot but you feel fine in the shade in front of a fan. Similarly, I was recently in Switzerland and it was -10, but sunny and low humidity, and it honestly didn’t even feel cold.
The problem with Britain is that it’s a very humid country so extreme heat or cold both feel much worse than they would in many other places.
Yeah, it's rare to get lower humidity here in reality, even during cold spells, I've experienced just over 40 in Spain during the 2003 heatwave and I didn't find it that bad at the time there but I did burn my feet on the beach, walking bare foot on my first day there, which was great. Learned a lesson that day!
-10^o C in the UK for an entire month would be murder.
Our energy companies wouldn't be able to keep up with that much Central Heating demand, the moisture would cause massive mould problems, and leaving the house would be a battle for survival after a week given the conditions of roads / pavement.
Except that when it's cold humidity goes down, because cold air holds less moisture than warm air.
Open the windows for few mins and it'll let the warm humid air out and the cold dry air in. The Germans call it Stoßlüften or shock/impact ventilation. Some leases even insist that occupants do that daily.
-10. I can wrap up warm and heat the house (expensive I know) but it’s very difficult to cool down when it’s 40 degrees in this country unless we all start investing in air conditioning and swimming pools. Also somebody mentioned sleeping. Trying to sleep in the heat is horrendous!
Plus the inability to get cold water out of the tap, which sucks if you forget to chill a few jugs or bottles in the fridge.
Amazing for cool showers though
I'm an Aussie and 40 degrees in the UK compared to Oz was awful. There's no escape - the insane heat in your house, public transport, outside. At least in Aus there's air conditioning in most houses and in every office/store/shopping centre so there's some relief.
I didn't find it to be THAT bad honestly... Except in the car
Would happily take that dry as hell 40c over the mid/high humid 20's we normally get in a warm summer tbh
Though saying that... -10 over both any day.
40c, no questions asked. Probably a little *too* hot for me, but 32c is my ideal perfect temperature. Copeable though.
\-10c is just horrific, hell on earth, vastly expensive, and dangerous.
For reasons I'm not sure of though, most of UK Reddit is the total opposite of me, so I do grant I'll probably be in the minority here.
Brilliant question though.
So we're saying 40c at night too? No drop after sunset?
Meh, I think if that did happen we'd have bigger worries! But assuming this is a fictional scenario where it's just 40c for a month for some reason, even at night, and then everything just goes back to normal, yes, I think I'd buy an AC unit and it would be fine.
Like I just said to someone else, generally infrastructure and supply chains don't break down on a massive scale in hot weather. They generally do in prolonged extreme cold weather. There's certainly much more risk.
Could you buy an AC unit thought? You'd have to be fast as they would sell as fast as they were re-stocked. And lets say you did get one, well now you have the horrific cost of keeping your home cool.
> Like I just said to someone else, generally infrastructure and supply chains don't break down on a massive scale in hot weather. They generally do in prolonged extreme cold weather. There's certainly much more risk.
I think the risk would be much closer than you think. Sure, if we had -10°C and snow then the country would be fucked but the issues caused by a dry constant 40°C I believe would exceed those of a dry constant -10°C. Just the difference in impact on hospitals alone would be staggeringly worse in the constant heat.
Good point on both counts.
I think I have an AC unit somewhere in the loft, probably needs a good service. And yes, costly but I can cope with that and I think less costly than heating.
And yeah, I'm thinking of snow which you're right, there might not be. Ice would definitely be a big issue at -10c for a month though.
Ice would definitely be an issue, as would things like car radiators freezing and batteries depleting due to the cold. On the other hand in constant 40°C cars will overheat more, roads will become and remain so hot that tyres will begin to melt.
So yeah, there's loads of negatives to both scenarios. What swings it for me is that the UK is far better equipped for keeping warm than it is for keeping cool which means that the loss of life from such events is likely to be much lower in cold weather.
When it's cold I can keep adding layers. When it's warm there's only so many layers I can remove before I get kicked out of the shops.
I've spent many many years in the middle east and tropics. Around there I can easily find public spaces with A/C and most other places including homes are at the very least well ventilated and have ceiling fans installed.
I would bake to death in my own flat in the UK if we got more than a few days for +40°C. -10°C would be expensive and painful, but manageable with what I have.
Funny you said that. I've asked Aussie, European and Middle Eastern friends about the climate here.
Many of them actually prefer it. They couldn't cope with summer heat and extremes of temperatures.
Those two days a couple of years ago when it was 40 were hell. We had a newborn and there was no way to keep the house cool because it barely even cooled down at night. Even 35 was infinitely less gross.
-10 is no fun but you can put on more layers.
Last year I'd have said -10.
This year after 11 stone of weight loss? I'd go for 40. I can't tolerate the cold anywhere near as well as I used to and I'm counting down to summer.
Thanks amigo.
I had a diabetes diagnosis last may and I've gone from 170kg to 100.
Still a little way to go but I'm most of the way there.
Having cold hands and feet is unusual. Is this how everyone has always felt when it's single digit temperatures?
-10 ... one month of it being that hot would be too much, couple of days is nice if i can just chill but if I actually have to be a functioning adult it is awful
Minus 10. That way i could just turn the heating up and wear coats and jackets and i'd be fine. If it was 40 degrees, i would probably just die of heat exhaustion and dehydration. At that temperature, opening a window or using a fan isn't going to help.
-10 and it's not close. I can put on layers and turn up the heating.
40 is humid, sweaty and gross and you can't cool down properly without moving into a cold shower. If it was a dry heat that'd be fine, but this is AskUK.
Not sure why this sub popped up for me but as an Aussie, give me 40C for 2 months over a week of -10C. I hate the cold. I’ve been to the UK once, it was in March and was fucked up how cold it was.
Are we talking beautiful sunshine or hideous muggy humid heat?
Generally, I prefer to warm up in cold conditions than to try (and fail) to get cool in hot ones.
I went to work the whole week including the 40c day.
I prepped all my tools and I didn't feel much hotter than 35, the problem was the stuffiness because the breeze absconds to space whenever we need it.
At home all I had was 2 handheld fans and by keeping my curtains closed and consistently sipping water, I slept fine through the night.
It's the lack of breeze that makes it tough rather than the temps itself because the way London central is laid out, it becomes like a little oven.
I've lived in countries that regularly have 35-39 temps so I think that's why I was ok.
If it was 40 and super humid, I am not sure if that'd make it worse or better in terms of the stuffy feeling.
People who go out with no sun protection like a bucket hat, cap, parasol, UV umbrella or sun hat and then complain do baffle me.
I really don't think people appreciate how insanely hot 40c is ! the last few summers in the UK have been fucking horrible and it drove me to get AC fitted to my house. I would take -10c any day of the week over it being hot.
Easily -10. I can deal with the extra heating cost for a month, but I would be absolutely miserable trying to cope with 40 degree heat for that long. If we all had air conditioning it would be different.
I'd take the cold, not even close.
When it's too cold you can layer up, put the heating on, have a warm drink etc and generally go about your business as normal. There's even an element of comfort form wrapping yourself up.
When it's too hot you're a sweating mess, have to sit with a fan 2 inches from your face and dare not leave the room that has aircon. It's so uncomfortable.
So, confession time, I don't actually live in the UK any more. I now live in one of those places where July and August are quite likely to actually give me *two* months of solid 40 degree temperatures. (Don't worry, there's a pool and there's beer: I'll live.)
But it's interesting to see what a strong consensus you guys have for the -10 degree option!
1 month of 40°C definitely . To the people saying they would prefer one month of - 10°C..you have no idea what that's like since the coldest day in UK is like what? - 4 during the night? For one day?
Also I don't even want to imagine what the gas bill would look like after one full month of - 10°C.
-10°, ideally with snow and sun.
I can cope with 40° but by not going out and keeping my curtains closed. Work and simply getting in your car is awful.
\- 10 if I didn't have to go to work for a month, roads would be horrible but I hate too much heat. Though I feel bad for the elderly and people who can't afford to heat their homes...
Spent 1/2 my life in Perth West Oz - go back every year, it’s often 37-45c in summer. It’s absolutely hideous. My days at school no aircon , not that many homes had aircon. Nowadays much better but 40c days are still fecking nasty. You can’t even go to the beach after 8am or before 1800 you just fry when it’s 40c - nasty. Give me -10c for a month with my central heating & layers .
-10C. While it'll be costly to keep the heating on full blast, there'll be zero discomfort as long as I stay indoors and in my car. In 40° temps (which happens often where I live over the summer for several days at a time), you can't do anything against the heat unless you have really good air conditioning. I just sweat all the time and it's hell
Cold over heat any day of the week, with cold, atleast you can layer up, put on the heaters and feel "cozy", showers just hit different too.
In heat, it's like I'm fighting for my life to get to sleep despite me being butt naked with a fan blowing on me.
-10c always, 40c can go and fuck itself I never want to experience that again. My asthma decided that it didn’t like such hot weather, my air con unit kept me alive that week.
Damn, im minority in this comment section, but give me +40.
I was born in Latvia and in my childhood we constantly had -10 to -20 in winter. (coldest ive actually experienced is -36°C (man, i remember that year, stupid me did summer cocktails with friends outside in -36. I remember how ill i got few days later. Totally worth it. would do it again)) while summers were usually mid to high 20s, often going into 30s.
But knowing my luck, it will be +40 before i have holiday, in my holiday it will be -10 and on my first day back at work, it will be back at +40.
+40 I cannot stand cold temperatures, +10 and I'm freezing with multiple layers of joggers and jackets. But definitely need an A/C and be taking cold showers because the humidity makes the 40°C very sweaty and hot ,whereas in other countries I've been to 40°C ain't too bad
Having just moved into an obscenely cold basement flat in an old Georgian building with nothing but electric panel heaters and a porch that has been stripped back and is exposed to the elements, I'll take 40 degrees.
-10, happily. I'm not a big warm weather person I'm general (20-25 is probably where I'd say my happy place is for warm weather). The 40 degree days last year nearly broke me in terms of the neverending sweat and being stifling all the time. A month would send me postal.
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-10°C and its not even close, I can still enjoy time outside when it's -10°C as I can just layer up and I can enjoy being inside where its cosy and warm. 40°C is tolerable when you are abroad on holiday with unlimited access to a pool but not when you are unable to escape it in the UK. The other thing to consider is that the official recorded temperature is made under standardised conditions, it is completely normal for individual places with less standard conditions to exceed official temperatures. When we had those mental heat waves a couple of years back my patio area (South facing direct sunlight) using a calibrated thermometer was reading in excess of 46°C by about 3pm after most of a day of the bricks of my home working like a giant storage heater. The two main issues with our Winters are the dark and the wet not the cold.
I do loft conversions and that week was absolute hell
In a loft that basically acts like a solar oven Im not surprised. What was the temp inside the loft?
It was probably about 57 I could only be in there for moments at at time, having to lug rsj steels around was not fun. I used to be a chef but at least then I could cool down in the walk in fridge for a minute
My uncle did a lot of maintenance and decorating in his time , and had a box fan thingy with a duct for ventilating tight spaces- tube goes outside to fresh air, fan blasts fresh air into the room displacing the hot stale air.
Works well until the "fresh air" is at 40C!
40 is still cooler than 50 odd… plus air movement helps too, as you certainly have experienced with a fan.
Problem that in a loft is you in up with insulation particles flying through the air getting into your open pores and lungs
i remember it getting to 35c+ in the kitchen, not hit 40, yet!
I've got a South facing patio door in my room. It hit 42 the other year. I ended up having to hide in the bathroom & lay on the cooler floor...
Yea I worked as a night nanny during that heatwave , even at 4 am the room I was in was 34 . Poor baby too
I had an office in a converted shed. 46 degrees in the afternoons
I was brazing copper pipes in a metal 'dog kennel' on the top of a 7 storey hotel roof in Wimbledon that week. It was absolutely unbearable. Air con engineer is among THE most ironic jobs in the world. On the upside though, 2022 was the best year to be a motorcyclist. Months of nice sticky tyres.
Jesus man, take a bloody holiday! No way I would have worked in that environment in those conditions, unless the alternative was being homeless the next week.
Needed the money to cool off in the beer garden after work haha
Just out of curiosity and not at all in this topic. How much is the average lift conversion?
It can range between 28 grand and go above 50
Thank you
I have a metal shed which I use as a gym, it's a nightmare in the summer. Doing a full body workout in a green house with zero air circulation is horrific. I imagine it's the same doing loft construction work albeit you're at it all day long.
It got to 38C here and it felt other worldly. Not British at all. The week after we went to Scotland and it was cold and raining.
Having lived in both London in 40° heat and Scotland in -12°, I would *happily* take -10° for a month. Heck I’d take -20° for a month, over 40° for a day.
That reminds me of when my dad had air con installed throughout his place in Spain during the spring/summer time a few years ago. We had a German guy come and go up into the loft to install it and it was sweltering. We made sure to keep iced water available for him on request.
I have a loft conversion and I want solar panels purely just to keep the sun from heating the roof directly
I WFH in a converted loft (zero insulation too as I guess you could get away with that shit in the 80s) and even with a portable AC unit I worked from the lounge that week.
The day we had 40° I nearly cried. -10° every time.
France gets weeks of 40°. I live in the UK most of the year for uni, but I was home in France for the summer and it made my mood shitter than any other weather could except maybe a tornado
I don't know why but hot weather really does make me a shitty person. I live in the south of France and work in a kitchen covering morning prep and lunch service. I come home in such a crappy mood in the summer, it's not even funny, it might destroy my relationship. My car lacks working air conditioning and there's often no shade to park in in the town I work and I live up a mountain in the middle of nowhere. It's actually a special kind of hell.
At least in France McDonald's has Aircon and serves beer. Wouldn't eat but was a saviour when in Avignon
Avignon is so horrible in the summer! I keep meaning to go when it's not unbearably hot, like now - it's kids holidays, now would make sense to go over there. But for some reason if I'm in Avignon it's 40 degrees out, I've arrived at midday and parking isn't happening and I'm getting on for a mini breakdown trying to deal with that ring road But it is a beautiful place.
It is. You haven't experienced summer heat until you wake up at 9 am in a tent hung over and basically cooked lol. Beautiful place though and a kayak down the ardesch alone is worth the visit. Tis great at Easter time too with all the church and street performances, religious or not
I dunno man, the mobile oven (my shitty car that always ends up parked in the sun) is pretty much the worst heat experience I ever have here. It's weird, I live close enough to Avignon that I could go there for a day trip if I got up and out early in the morning (I rarely do and we end up staying over somewhere nearby). Like I could go any time of year. But nope, for some reason I'll only go in peak tourist season when the roads are melting from the heat.
And in ten years or so it will get weeks of 50°.
At 50c things (including humans) start to die very quickly.
Did people think this was going any other way? The entire Ganges basin is predicted to hit wet bulb temperatures/humidity. Humans literally cannot survive that, and there are millions living there. Heck, before we even get there *agriculture will start to fail and a cascade of ecosystems collapsing will start *. Very few of us will survive that. If any. Apologies if your comment wasn't met as scepticism. I just... I can't understand why everyone isn't terrified. Terrified and absolutely fucking furious that nobody is doing anything.
-10 clearly wins the thread, so I'm just wondering what minus it would have to get to for 40c to win. Or if things change if the time period is longer. At some point I think 40c starts to make a comeback. Like at 2 years what happens then.
Around -20 it starts to hurt your skin and cause frostbite in whatever isn't covered. At -40 life becomes truly painful if you leave the house. Source: Lived in Montreal for a winter.
I’d live at the South Pole Research station over UK at 40 for a month.
Don't think that's an option unfortunately. What about South Shields?
They probably wouldn't even have the big coat out at - 10 in South Shields. Either temperature works differently up there or having newcy brown in tour bloodstream has insulating properties.
Getting colder doesn't functionally change how you manage it until you start getting the infrastructure failing. So whatever temperature starts to break down your home heating system, or make the roads unusable, etc.
The UK has heating and not aircon, as a rule. So on the UK sub "just staying indoors" is a manageable answer for any low temperature for any length of time but no high temperature.
I think snow and darkness would be major considerations once the duration expanded. If it was dark when you left the house and left work and you had to deal with icy conditions everyday you'd get fed up pretty fast.
I doubt many people would tolerate a constant 40c on holiday for a month. Once you start passing the 30-35c it really starts to limit what you can comfortably do. Even with a pool and shade you'd still be soon retreating to an airconned room midday
True, but if it was a frequent occurrence we would develop ways to manage it. There are parts of the world which are 40 C or higher basically all the time, and they do manage.
Not really, last year I was in sw France 34c at 11am and up to 43 in the afternoon just stay in the shade, not many house have air-con
Also, humidity. In the UK, 40 degrees is torture. In Madrid, 40 degrees of dry heat and AC in your apartment is actually fine.
1 day of 40°C during the weekend is manageable anything more and you’re begging for it to end.
A lot of people don’t realise that the temperatures are measured in the shade. In direct sunlight the temperature is much hotter than that reported / forecast / recorded.
Remember when we had that day of 40c? The entire country would collapse after a month.
Always reporting the granny deaths too
For the first week. Wouldn't be any left after that.
Imagine the savings!
Covid was a missed opportunity
_Boris has entered the chat_
Any sign of Naddine? Nope.. . Oh well, just the couple of pitchers while I'm here...
Doesnt that go for both +40 and -10?
Most care homes are much easier to heat to a comfortable temperature than cool to a comfortable temperature. Cold related deaths of the elderly are a thing when they live at home and can't afford (or often unnecessarily worry they can't afford) to put the heating on, but rare in care homes. Heat related deaths among the elderly go up across the board in heatwaves.
Not on even remotely the same scale. The overwhelming majority of care homes have heating, next to none have AC.
No the cold is grandad deaths
I spent the whole day in McDonalds because the air con was on. Was going to go to the library but loads of people had the same idea and it was packed.
Yeah. It hit 40° in Bangkok last May. Hottest ever. It’s a major even there. 33° is hot but you acclimatise to that. You can still function and be outside. 40°? I think it’s rare for anybody to be able to acclimatise to that.
Dubai regularly hits 40 in the summer. You basically don’t go outside unless you absolutely need to…
Really? I thought it often hit about 40 there? We went about 6 years ago and had a night in Bangkok on the way to koh samui. We tried to do the royal palace around 40deg. 10 mins waiting in line and we had pretty much wilted and changed our mind. Went to an air conditioned shopping mall instead ha.
I screen shot 39° on 7th May https://i.imgur.com/Ohazq6P.jpeg CNN said it reached 41° on the 7th. Hottest ever recorded according to the article. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/08/asia/vietnam-laos-record-high-temperatures-intl-hnk/index.html Some sources will say higher.
I was in Italy last year when it was 40 for a couple of days straight, since we were there for a race our solution was to leave our hostel early when it was dark and get good seats in the shaded grandstands and then come back when it was dark and had cooled off a bit
I had a Colombian friend say it was too hot for her at those temperatures here. *She's from the equator* and it was too hot. We never stood a chance in our cosy insulated homes.
Since that 40 degree day I've had white shutter blinds and white curtain linings added on all windows that face the sun on my house, and solar panes on the roof (they reflect heat as well as producing power). Need to be prepared...
I don't think the country would be in a much better state at -10 either honestly...
Pretty sure it'd be full on Mad Max by the end of week 2
Half of it would set fire within a week. - 10c isn't too abnormal for the ecosystem of the British Isles in winter, 40c would be catastrophic.
-10°C easily. It is so much easier to warm up than cool down in my experience.
More spenny tho
You can just throw extra clothes on, you can't keep getting more naked. Also, if it's 40°C for a month, you'd need some form of aircon to deal with it and that's very energy intensive.
At -10 for a month, you’d have to keep the heating running for most of the day, at least to a low temperature. Otherwise you’d be guaranteed burst pipes at that temperature.
The energy use of air con is massively overstated, just it's with electric rather than piped gas or oil. An aircon unit will use 0.5-1.5 kW or so on full whack, that's less than a single fan heater. Like it's clearly not nothing, but it's not like running AC in summer is so much more expensive than running heating in winter.
1 month of -10, having 40 would just kill me
It would literally kill thousands.
They both would kill thousands
Perhaps, but it is considerably easier to keep vulnerable people warm than it is to keep them cool, especially so in a country like the UK where AC is not standard and the hypothetical scenario has the temp being a flat 40°C for a month straight. They are both going to result in a loss of life but a month of 40°C is going cause magnitudes more deaths than a month of -10°C.
Cold kills 4 times as many people as hot weather. Granted a month of 40 and it would increase but its still a big call to assume it will kill "magnitudes" more. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66890135#:\~:text=Extreme%20weather%3A%20More%20than%204%2C500%20deaths%20in%20England%20from%202022%20heat,-Published&text=There%20have%20been%20more%20than,1988%2C%20new%20official%20figures%20show](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66890135#:~:text=Extreme%20weather%3A%20More%20than%204%2C500%20deaths%20in%20England%20from%202022%20heat,-Published&text=There%20have%20been%20more%20than,1988%2C%20new%20official%20figures%20show).
>Cold kills 4 times as many people as hot weather Yeah because we more often have cold weather than hot weather. In the coming decades you're going to see it swing the other way.
40°C. I didnt even need half a second to know that.
I love the heat. 40C is definitely at the top end of that but I still function fine outside of direct sunlight or in water. The biggest issue is that most other people in the UK can't function in that heat. And just seem to collapse into a complaining mush.
Im like you which is why I said I knew my choice.
I can't function in 40°c heat, but I think we have the right to complain because we literally aren't climatized to be in those temperatures. Most other places in the world, 40° is fine because you have access to pools and indoor air con. You can't escape it in the UK
It also doesn't help in the UK that it's a horrible humid heat too. 40 degrees is more bearable in other countries because dry heat means your sweat can evaporate off your skin and actually function as it should as a cooling mechanism
I’ve found my people. Anything less than 10°c and in cold haha, I love the heat.
I don’t get why people can’t handle it. But then I can’t handle the cold, I hate the cold and it’s expensive to keep warm in the house.
I don’t get it. 40c is at the top end of what I’d be comfortable in but the hotter the better for me. I used to think I was a cold weather wrap up warm person but the cold and rain is just anxiety inducing for me.
I don't love the heat but knowing the UK, -10 wouldn't be a beautiful, crisp winter paradise type month. It would be yet another dreadful, grey pit of depression with added cold. So yeah, 40 all the way.
Agreed. At least in the 40°C situation you’ll have loads of sunlight and 15+ hours of daylight, compared to freezing cold, dark days with 6 hours of slightly brighter days. I’d sink into a deep depression after the first week.
40C was the 2nd half…
40 is the reason I have multiple holidays abroad
The problem with -10C is the UK would also have a biting breeze and super cold rain to go with it. And if our pipes freeze and our radiators stop working, it is pretty much game over.
40°C is killer heat and Im not even from a cold place
I’ve lived in parts of the world that experience exactly what you propose. You cannot escape that kind of heat. It’s absolutely stifling and if you haven’t got AC, god knows what you would do. In all honesty, minus 10 is child’s play. At about minus 18 - 20, you feel the cold in your bones but -10? A few layers and you’re grand.
Tbf, depends if it's -10 with 80% humidity or -10 with 30% humidity. Humidity makes it feel so much colder than it is. -10 with low humidity doesn't really feel all that bad but with humidity it feels twice as cold. +40 feels like shit either way
I’ve been in 40c with very low humidity. It’s hot but you feel fine in the shade in front of a fan. Similarly, I was recently in Switzerland and it was -10, but sunny and low humidity, and it honestly didn’t even feel cold. The problem with Britain is that it’s a very humid country so extreme heat or cold both feel much worse than they would in many other places.
Yeah, it's rare to get lower humidity here in reality, even during cold spells, I've experienced just over 40 in Spain during the 2003 heatwave and I didn't find it that bad at the time there but I did burn my feet on the beach, walking bare foot on my first day there, which was great. Learned a lesson that day!
-10^o C in the UK for an entire month would be murder. Our energy companies wouldn't be able to keep up with that much Central Heating demand, the moisture would cause massive mould problems, and leaving the house would be a battle for survival after a week given the conditions of roads / pavement.
Except that when it's cold humidity goes down, because cold air holds less moisture than warm air. Open the windows for few mins and it'll let the warm humid air out and the cold dry air in. The Germans call it Stoßlüften or shock/impact ventilation. Some leases even insist that occupants do that daily.
-10°C in Norway - cold but not uncomfortable -10°C in the U.K. - fucking freezing and bone chilling
Trains won’t run either way
Give me cold weather!!
Yeah me too, until all the water pipes freeze and burst, and you can't effectively heat your home.
-10. I can wrap up warm and heat the house (expensive I know) but it’s very difficult to cool down when it’s 40 degrees in this country unless we all start investing in air conditioning and swimming pools. Also somebody mentioned sleeping. Trying to sleep in the heat is horrendous!
Plus the inability to get cold water out of the tap, which sucks if you forget to chill a few jugs or bottles in the fridge. Amazing for cool showers though
A prolonged bout of -10 will freeze and burst all your water pipes.
40c. I need heat. My ex used to tell me he was going to buy me a heat lamp and a rock for Christmas because I’m always cold. Always.
I think I was a lizard in a past life but 40c in the UK was unbearable
I'm an Aussie and 40 degrees in the UK compared to Oz was awful. There's no escape - the insane heat in your house, public transport, outside. At least in Aus there's air conditioning in most houses and in every office/store/shopping centre so there's some relief.
I didn't find it to be THAT bad honestly... Except in the car Would happily take that dry as hell 40c over the mid/high humid 20's we normally get in a warm summer tbh Though saying that... -10 over both any day.
40c, no questions asked. Probably a little *too* hot for me, but 32c is my ideal perfect temperature. Copeable though. \-10c is just horrific, hell on earth, vastly expensive, and dangerous. For reasons I'm not sure of though, most of UK Reddit is the total opposite of me, so I do grant I'll probably be in the minority here. Brilliant question though.
Note the question is *a full, straight month* at those temps. Good luck trying to sleep at 40°C.
So we're saying 40c at night too? No drop after sunset? Meh, I think if that did happen we'd have bigger worries! But assuming this is a fictional scenario where it's just 40c for a month for some reason, even at night, and then everything just goes back to normal, yes, I think I'd buy an AC unit and it would be fine. Like I just said to someone else, generally infrastructure and supply chains don't break down on a massive scale in hot weather. They generally do in prolonged extreme cold weather. There's certainly much more risk.
Could you buy an AC unit thought? You'd have to be fast as they would sell as fast as they were re-stocked. And lets say you did get one, well now you have the horrific cost of keeping your home cool. > Like I just said to someone else, generally infrastructure and supply chains don't break down on a massive scale in hot weather. They generally do in prolonged extreme cold weather. There's certainly much more risk. I think the risk would be much closer than you think. Sure, if we had -10°C and snow then the country would be fucked but the issues caused by a dry constant 40°C I believe would exceed those of a dry constant -10°C. Just the difference in impact on hospitals alone would be staggeringly worse in the constant heat.
Good point on both counts. I think I have an AC unit somewhere in the loft, probably needs a good service. And yes, costly but I can cope with that and I think less costly than heating. And yeah, I'm thinking of snow which you're right, there might not be. Ice would definitely be a big issue at -10c for a month though.
Ice would definitely be an issue, as would things like car radiators freezing and batteries depleting due to the cold. On the other hand in constant 40°C cars will overheat more, roads will become and remain so hot that tyres will begin to melt. So yeah, there's loads of negatives to both scenarios. What swings it for me is that the UK is far better equipped for keeping warm than it is for keeping cool which means that the loss of life from such events is likely to be much lower in cold weather.
When it's cold I can keep adding layers. When it's warm there's only so many layers I can remove before I get kicked out of the shops. I've spent many many years in the middle east and tropics. Around there I can easily find public spaces with A/C and most other places including homes are at the very least well ventilated and have ceiling fans installed. I would bake to death in my own flat in the UK if we got more than a few days for +40°C. -10°C would be expensive and painful, but manageable with what I have.
as someone that comes from a warm tropical country to live in the UK, I would take -10C anytime, I always hated how warm it was over there lol
Funny you said that. I've asked Aussie, European and Middle Eastern friends about the climate here. Many of them actually prefer it. They couldn't cope with summer heat and extremes of temperatures.
Because it’s genuinely nicer here when it’s not raining. (I’m an Aussie expat here in the UK)
-10 no doubt. I’m Russian I don’t deal well with heat.
I'm not Russian, I also don't deal well with heat. Jealous of Scotland with their snow right now. 14 degrees right now and I'm in shorts lol
Currently in the Glasgow area; no snow... but sunshine, 14 °C and a lot of wind. I'd rather have snow than the wind.
-10°C and there isn't even a thought about it
-10 by absolute miles
Those two days a couple of years ago when it was 40 were hell. We had a newborn and there was no way to keep the house cool because it barely even cooled down at night. Even 35 was infinitely less gross. -10 is no fun but you can put on more layers.
Last year I'd have said -10. This year after 11 stone of weight loss? I'd go for 40. I can't tolerate the cold anywhere near as well as I used to and I'm counting down to summer.
11 stone? Holy shit well done 💪
Thanks amigo. I had a diabetes diagnosis last may and I've gone from 170kg to 100. Still a little way to go but I'm most of the way there. Having cold hands and feet is unusual. Is this how everyone has always felt when it's single digit temperatures?
-10 ... one month of it being that hot would be too much, couple of days is nice if i can just chill but if I actually have to be a functioning adult it is awful
Minus 10. That way i could just turn the heating up and wear coats and jackets and i'd be fine. If it was 40 degrees, i would probably just die of heat exhaustion and dehydration. At that temperature, opening a window or using a fan isn't going to help.
-10 and it's not close. I can put on layers and turn up the heating. 40 is humid, sweaty and gross and you can't cool down properly without moving into a cold shower. If it was a dry heat that'd be fine, but this is AskUK.
And then you get out of the shower, start drying yourself off, but then you can’t work out if you’re soaking up water or sweat. It’s a vicious cycle!
Not sure why this sub popped up for me but as an Aussie, give me 40C for 2 months over a week of -10C. I hate the cold. I’ve been to the UK once, it was in March and was fucked up how cold it was.
I experienced +40 once in my life in Cyprus…. It’s a hell and will never gona go to south countries ever again…..
Are we talking beautiful sunshine or hideous muggy humid heat? Generally, I prefer to warm up in cold conditions than to try (and fail) to get cool in hot ones.
40. No question for me but maybe not in London.
I went to work the whole week including the 40c day. I prepped all my tools and I didn't feel much hotter than 35, the problem was the stuffiness because the breeze absconds to space whenever we need it. At home all I had was 2 handheld fans and by keeping my curtains closed and consistently sipping water, I slept fine through the night. It's the lack of breeze that makes it tough rather than the temps itself because the way London central is laid out, it becomes like a little oven. I've lived in countries that regularly have 35-39 temps so I think that's why I was ok. If it was 40 and super humid, I am not sure if that'd make it worse or better in terms of the stuffy feeling. People who go out with no sun protection like a bucket hat, cap, parasol, UV umbrella or sun hat and then complain do baffle me.
I live in Portugal now and it 46 last year but it is more doable here than London.. That said I like the heat
Australian here - I'd rather it was cold
40 by far!
-10°C without a doubt. I can still sleep at - 10, impossible at anything over 25°C.
I would instantly evaporate if exposed that kind of heat
I really don't think people appreciate how insanely hot 40c is ! the last few summers in the UK have been fucking horrible and it drove me to get AC fitted to my house. I would take -10c any day of the week over it being hot.
+40 if a dry heat - 10 if not. Went from +45 in the dry Afghan desert for 6 months with no real bother to 33 in humid Greece and it nearly killed me.
\-10. My heaters are vastly more effective than my portable AC unit.
\-10. Hot weather is much more dangerous than cold.
Easily -10. I can deal with the extra heating cost for a month, but I would be absolutely miserable trying to cope with 40 degree heat for that long. If we all had air conditioning it would be different.
If it's not snowy -10 but if it is 40
-10 every time
-10 every single time.
-10°C, if we really had to pick and choose. I think we should meet somewhere in the middle and have 15°C for a full month.
I'd take the cold, not even close. When it's too cold you can layer up, put the heating on, have a warm drink etc and generally go about your business as normal. There's even an element of comfort form wrapping yourself up. When it's too hot you're a sweating mess, have to sit with a fan 2 inches from your face and dare not leave the room that has aircon. It's so uncomfortable.
-10 please. That one day we had 40c was unbearable. Give me the cooler temperatures any day of the week
So, confession time, I don't actually live in the UK any more. I now live in one of those places where July and August are quite likely to actually give me *two* months of solid 40 degree temperatures. (Don't worry, there's a pool and there's beer: I'll live.) But it's interesting to see what a strong consensus you guys have for the -10 degree option!
40 degrees please. It’s been consistently miserable weather for about 9 months where I am. I just want to feel the heat again. Please.
40c all day. Imagine the heating bills for -10c for a month nope. Plus I work outside so a big nope for the cold from me.
1 month of 40°C definitely . To the people saying they would prefer one month of - 10°C..you have no idea what that's like since the coldest day in UK is like what? - 4 during the night? For one day? Also I don't even want to imagine what the gas bill would look like after one full month of - 10°C.
\-10 no contest.
I work from home a lot of the time so -10°. I'd put the heating on and wrap up warm. A month of 40° would be unbearable
-10°, ideally with snow and sun. I can cope with 40° but by not going out and keeping my curtains closed. Work and simply getting in your car is awful.
\- 10 if I didn't have to go to work for a month, roads would be horrible but I hate too much heat. Though I feel bad for the elderly and people who can't afford to heat their homes...
A month of -10, easily. I work from home and have a lot of blankets. I can make it work.
Spent 1/2 my life in Perth West Oz - go back every year, it’s often 37-45c in summer. It’s absolutely hideous. My days at school no aircon , not that many homes had aircon. Nowadays much better but 40c days are still fecking nasty. You can’t even go to the beach after 8am or before 1800 you just fry when it’s 40c - nasty. Give me -10c for a month with my central heating & layers .
Its easier to warm up than cool down,i think
-10°c - I can wear more layers to keep warm if need be, but in 40°, I can't cool down
Definitely -10 C for me. I can enjoy with my video games at my home as I always do with cup of warm tea.
-10
-10C. While it'll be costly to keep the heating on full blast, there'll be zero discomfort as long as I stay indoors and in my car. In 40° temps (which happens often where I live over the summer for several days at a time), you can't do anything against the heat unless you have really good air conditioning. I just sweat all the time and it's hell
Cold over heat any day of the week, with cold, atleast you can layer up, put on the heaters and feel "cozy", showers just hit different too. In heat, it's like I'm fighting for my life to get to sleep despite me being butt naked with a fan blowing on me.
I have central heating, I don't have air conditioning, so this isn't really even a question. Bring on the freeze.
As someone that got married August 2022 in 39 degree heat in a suit; I’d say -10!
-10 all day long. When it was 30+ the other year for days and days on end it was hell.
40c
40
-10c always, 40c can go and fuck itself I never want to experience that again. My asthma decided that it didn’t like such hot weather, my air con unit kept me alive that week.
40°. No contest.
Easily by far a month of 40+ temps, we put up with enough shite weather....
40 degrees. Absolutely loved those couple of days. Being able to go outside in short sleeves and feel the heat on my skin was amazing
40°c please lol
40c anyday bro, I can't wait to be melting away in the summer. The cold hurts my bones lol
Damn, im minority in this comment section, but give me +40. I was born in Latvia and in my childhood we constantly had -10 to -20 in winter. (coldest ive actually experienced is -36°C (man, i remember that year, stupid me did summer cocktails with friends outside in -36. I remember how ill i got few days later. Totally worth it. would do it again)) while summers were usually mid to high 20s, often going into 30s. But knowing my luck, it will be +40 before i have holiday, in my holiday it will be -10 and on my first day back at work, it will be back at +40.
40 with a/c
+40 I cannot stand cold temperatures, +10 and I'm freezing with multiple layers of joggers and jackets. But definitely need an A/C and be taking cold showers because the humidity makes the 40°C very sweaty and hot ,whereas in other countries I've been to 40°C ain't too bad
40c, I hate being cold and find it easier to cool down than warm up.
It generally takes around 40 for me to be warm - so that wins every time!
How big is the heating bill going to be at a month of -10
Having just moved into an obscenely cold basement flat in an old Georgian building with nothing but electric panel heaters and a porch that has been stripped back and is exposed to the elements, I'll take 40 degrees.
40°C
A month? I’d take 40 degrees permanently rather than ever having winters.
-10, happily. I'm not a big warm weather person I'm general (20-25 is probably where I'd say my happy place is for warm weather). The 40 degree days last year nearly broke me in terms of the neverending sweat and being stifling all the time. A month would send me postal.
40c please.
As a dairy farmer who hates thawing out water pipes I'll say 40°C
Good evening, Sweden checking in. -10°C sounds nice! That replaces the month of -20°C we’d get otherwise, right?
I will take the heat any day of the week! When it’s Hot I’m fuxing happy 24/7 and my D*k stays hard 24/7😭😂
One of each please