The weathermen have spoken: this summer is set to be our hottest for a hundred years. And yes, we know they sometimes get it wrong, but this time it might just be true… apparently a blistering ‘heat surge’ will be winging its way over from the continent to bring us heatwaves and scorching sunshine…huzzah!
As the summer holidays approach, we are looking at which week to book our British seaside holidays. But choosing which week is a risky business with our unpredictable British summers. However help is at hand! Outdoor heating specialists, Glowing-Embers.co.uk, has pinpointed which day of the year is statistically the hottest: after painstakingly going back through 30 years of average temperatures, they’ve found it’s a sizzling 28°C on 15 July, which this year falls on a Friday – the perfect day to pack up your bucket and spade and head out to the British Coast for a few days!
Regionally, the date on which the hottest day of the year falls, and the actual mercury reading you’ll get, varies slightly around the UK. Those lucky Brightoners in the South East will bask in 31°C, on their hottest day (17 July), while those in Newquay, Blackpool and Scarborough come a close second, experiencing 28°C. Northern Ireland-ers holidaying in Portstewart are positively shivering with in the 25°C heat on 12 July, in comparison!
Glowing-Embers.co.uk also surveyed 1,000 men and women to find out how optimistic we Brits really are about the weather; and, perhaps unsurprisingly, 60.8% of us said we didn’t believe there was going to be good summer weather ahead. We’ve basically been let down far too many times: who among us hasn’t shivered their way through a clouded-over BBQ, which started off with blue skies but ended in rain (and tears)?
And, strangely, it seems we’re actually content with not being like the continent. When asked if we wanted our summers to be hotter, over two thirds of us said “no”! Considering the number of people who come into the office after a sunny weekend with sunburn and heatstroke, it seems we just don’t know how to handle it. Those from the frozen north, however (well, Northern Ireland and Scotland), who see far less sun every year, were understandably a bit keener to have a hotter summer; nearly 50% of Scots, and 54.5% of Northern Irish, said they’d prefer it.
