The other day we were discussing heat and how it can affect your
vacation. Today, hot weather has been dominating the news on the eastern site of the Atlantic - Britain has been having its hottest July day ever. Temperatures in the south of the country, near London's Heathrow airport, busted through the hundred degree mark at lunchtime, exceeding the temperatures in warmer places such as the Mediterranean.
You might be used to dealing with hot weather at home, but if you're traveling to the UK you would do well to remember that British heat has a peculiarly unpleasant, sticky, humid quality to it, exacerbated by the country's normally damp climate and the high density of population - and, therefore, of motor vehicles. Central London will have been unbearable today. Even yesterday, which was a couple of degrees cooler, caused problems: nearly forty people were treated for heatstroke while attending a garden party thrown by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Her Majesty, of course, got to enjoy the shade of a parasol wielded by a footman - no standing around in the sun for Ma'am, oh no.
The British, for all the peculiarities of their climate, have a strange response to extremes of weather. If it's very hot or very cold, everyone talks about it, schools close, and the weather dominates the news. All this may seem like an overreaction to outsiders, but it all becomes understandable when you grasp one simple fact: Brits love a crisis. Whether it's Dunkirk, the Charge of the Light Brigade or another bashing on the cricket pitch at the hands of Pakistan, they simply don't enjoy themselves when things are going well. Moaning about the weather is a great source of enjoyment for them, and they should be left to savor their pleasures.
In all of this there is a salutary lesson for the traveler: don't believe climate myths. It can be red hot in the UK and bitterly cold in North Africa; Russian summers are among the hottest in Europe and the Caribbean has quite a high percentage of cloudy days. Before you travel to a destination equipped only with sunscreen and shorts or with thick jerseys, make sure you check out the real facts about climate so you don't get caught out.