The heatwave that hit the UK in the summertime of 1976 was one of many longest in residing reminiscence – and, boy, does it dwell on.
On Tuesday, Britain shattered its document for highest temperature ever registered – 40.3C (104.5) – amid a heatwave that has battered massive swathes of Europe. However some have baulked on the Met Workplace’s “crimson warning”, the recommendation to not barbecue or go to the seashore, and trains being cancelled, thanks in no small half to recollections of that totemic Seventies summer time.
Local weather specialists are adamant 2022 is completely different, and that comparisons with 1976 will not be very helpful in any respect.
Who’s pushing the 1976 comparability?
Inevitably, the heatwave has been co-opted by tradition warriors.
Conservative MP John Hayes claimed that folks taking precautions in the course of the heatwave are “snowflakes” and “cowards”.
A former authorities minister on the local weather change division, Hayes informed the Telegraph: “This isn’t a courageous new world however a cowardly new world the place we dwell in a rustic the place we’re terrified of the warmth. It isn’t shocking that in snowflake Britain, the snowflakes are melting. Fortunately, most of us will not be snowflakes.
“The concept we clamour for decent climate for a lot of the 12 months after which shut down when it does warmth up is indicative of the state by which we now dwell.”
He went additional on the BBC – recalling how he simply received on with issues in 1976: “I keep in mind doing college exams. The one concession was being allowed to take our blazers and ties off. That was a very huge concession by the best way.”
In the meantime, the Day by day Mail roared about “Sunny day snowflake Britain had a meltdown” on its entrance web page this week.
A Day by day Telegraph opinion piece – headlined “This warmth wave hysteria epitomises the Tories’ deadly embrace of nanny statism” – alluded to the “lengthy, sizzling summer time of 1976”, and argued if it was repeated right now “ministers, Military chiefs and well being officers could be assembly in a everlasting disaster session”.
On social media, it was pervasive, with a whole lot of individuals sharing their experiences of the 1976 heatwave. The nation has “gone mad” was a recurring theme.
What was 1976 like?
The heatwave that blasted the UK in the summertime of 1976 triggered probably the most important drought for a minimum of the final 150 years.
In 1976, there have been 15 consecutive days when temperatures reached 32C (89.6F) or greater someplace within the UK, in keeping with the Met Workplace. Temperatures peaked at 35.6C (96.1F) in Southampton on June 28 after which 35.9C (96.6F) in Cheltenham on July 3.
The federal government ran a summer-long marketing campaign urging folks solely to make use of water that was completely obligatory – although the suggestion officers suggested bathing with a good friend has lengthy been dismissed as a fantasy.
PA Photos by way of Getty Photos
Isn’t this identical to 1976, then?
Consultants say no, mainly as a result of heatwaves are taking place extra typically and are extra intensive.
A take a look at temperatures alone recommend a comparability with 1976 could be deceptive. On Tuesday, the brand new provisional document excessive set in Coningsby in Lincolnshire of 40.3C is between 4C and 5C greater than the peaks in 1976. 9 of the UK’s 12 hottest days on document since 1884 have occurred throughout the final twenty years.
The 12 months 2014 at the moment holds the document for the best common most temperature – whereas 1976 ranks forty second.
Nigel Arnell, professor of local weather system science on the College of Studying, says it was sizzling in 1976, however not as “extraordinarily sizzling” as it’s at the moment.
He mentioned the impacts of that sizzling summer time have been forgotten, and added: “It was disruptive. And it wasn’t actually as excessive in temperature as what we’re experiencing in the mean time.”
Extra important, maybe, is how the heatwave right now is not only restricted to the UK.
Dr Friederike Otto, from Grantham Institute for Local weather Change, Imperial School London, and one of many scientists who’ve pioneered research that spell out the function of world warming in excessive climate occasions, says that there have been heatwaves prior to now – however that the distinction in 1976 was how the remainder of the world seemed.
“In 1976, there was a heatwave within the UK. In 2022, there are heatwaves all over the place on the planet. And so have been in 2021 and 2020 and 2019,” she mentioned.
Again on Twitter, meteorologist Scott Duncan additionally defined the false 1976 comparability with using two warmth graphs.
He mentioned: “We now have not seen something prefer it. We are able to’t examine this looming warmth emergency to summer time 1976.
“A hotter world, because of human induced local weather change, makes it virtually easy to interrupt excessive warmth thresholds. We proceed to see this throughout the planet – not simply in Europe.”
