please empty your brain below

Interesting that 2018 didn’t go over 35c even though it had three heatwaves. It may have been because I was living in a flat with just a small balcony onto a busy road and night bus route but that definitely felt the hottest summer of recent years.
I don't think the tourist industry in Devon and Cornwall would want people to know they are officially in the coldest part of the country.
I am interested that unlike just about everywhere else in the world they have set no minimum.

Having lived in places where it gets properly hot, I have found that the daily max temperature is just stunt statistics, and what really matters is minimum temperature.

Here in France a heatwave is 3 or more days where the minimum doesn't go under 20c. Even though the past few days have been in the mid and high 30s and the forecast for the next 4 days is similar they have just issued a temperature warning, not a heatwave warning because the overnights have been a relatively cool 18 or 19c.

Yesterday at 8 pm it was 39 here. That's proper weather
Interesting the Heatwave Threshold map uses pre-1996 local authority boundaries. Especially noticeable looking at Wales or the Humber area. I wonder how up-to-date the map itself is?

dg writes: It's my map, rather than use the (Crown Copyright) Met Office version.
I had air condition installed 2 years ago in anticipation of UK getting warmer. Good investment. They heat in the winter too just set the temperature to what you find pleasant and it does the rest.
To me, 25C is optimum temperature!!

Having spent most of my childhood staying in the sea because it was too cold to get out, I can agree that Cornwall is cooler than most!
In June 2018 when London was basking in one of it heatwaves, I was shivering down there in 17-19C!
Very interesting post DG. As Simon said in his post France has a minimum temperature of 20 degrees at night to determine the severity of a heatwave. The thinking being that it is more serious if there is no respite at night to allow people and buildingd to cool down a little.
The Met Office's heatwave research paper (linked) considered using overnight temperature, but decided against "particularly as elevated minimums can lag the maximum."
Cornwall: also more rain and no more sunshine each year than the southeast (but better than west Wales, Cumbria and west Scotland). Perhaps I should be looking at just July and August rather than annual figures.
As I understand things, older people have more trouble regulating their body temperatures, and its the hot nights that puts them into difficulty, because they can't cool down, if you've got an elderly relative - especially one that's bed bound and can't move around the house, if you can afford it, get air-con, it removes a cause of distress, both for the relative and the person caring for them.
"if you can afford it, get air-con..." An indication that global warming will increase the health disparity between rich and poor.
Either Notts or Lincs seems to have an anomalous climate relative to its neighbours. Could it be because Lincolnshire's population is concentrated in the north of the county and the stats are somehow weighted to take that into account?

So it appears that you can avoid a heatwave simply by crossing the River Trent!

dg writes: The research paper explains.
This bears out my recollection of the last two years over that of some of my friends. 2018 was the year of what seemed to be relentless hot weather for weeks on end (three heatwaves), whereas 2019 had one very hot record breaking day but otherwise it wasn't quite as warm overall. Mind you it's all still a lot warmer than summers used to be.
9 dates since 1976 gives an average of about one every 5 years as predicted. Averages do not mean exactly every 5 years, they could come close together as at present and not for ages as at the beginning of the period.
Better too to look across a longer period of time than just living memory.

My thermometer is registering 88 at the moment, cooler than yesterday but way too hot for me!
I lived in Epping, Essex, from 1976-2013 and ran a weather station therefrom 1979-2013. So, heatwave data for Epping according to UKMO criteria.

- No heatwaves 1979-82, 1985-86, 1988, 1991-1993, 2000, 2007.
- All other years 1979-2013 at least 1 heatwave.

The following years had 2 or 3 heatwaves - 1983 (2), 1990 (2), 1996 (3), 1999 (2), 2003 (2), 2005 (2), 2006 (3), 2010 (2) and 2012 (2).

The longest heatwaves were 14 days in August 1997, 13 days in July 2006 and 11 days in August 2003.

My present location since 2014, southern edge of Edinburgh, no heatwaves at all.
Surprisingly, nobody has mentioned 1975.
Unlike DG, the MetOffice isn’t using pre-1996 counties, as they show an outline for Rutland. The use of the so-called preserved counties in Wales and the distinctive outlines in Scotland suggest that the “counties” are the current lord-lieutenant areas, including Bristol’s peculiar extension into the Severn estuary; save that the City of London is incorporated into Greater London, Northern Ireland is not subdivided and an area is marked for the Isle of Man (though the Channel Islands, like the European continent, are not shown at all).
Many years ago, I visited the Highlands in May where it stayed above 20C for most of the week (it never went above 22). The locals declared this to be a "Heat Wave" and put their shorts on.
The UK's ten hottest days

38.7°C - 25 July 2019
38.5°C - 10 Aug 2003
37.8°C – 31 July 2020
37.1°C - 3 Aug 1990
36.7°C - 1 Jul 2015
36.7°C - 9 Aug 1911
36.6°C - 2 Aug 1990
36.5°C - 19 Jul 2006
36.4°C - 7 Aug 2020
36.4°C - 6 Aug 2003
London's heatwave lasted seven days.
[map]
Beaten this century only by 2003.
Two years later the Met Office has increased heatwave thresholds in eight counties...

• from 27°C to 28°C in Surrey, Berks, Bucks, Beds, Herts and Cambs.
• from 26°C to 27°C in Lincolnshire
• from 25°C to 26°C in East Yorkshire










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