“It is hot in London”, a phrase we’re always looking forward to writing, but half-regretting in the moment. With yesterday recording the hottest temperatures in London for the year so far, reaching 28.2°C in Kew Gardens, today is making that seem positively Arctic. With temperatures breaking through into the 30’s, we certainly got what we asked for when we complained that summer was taking too long to arrive!
This is usually where we’d start to describe what the heat is like. Where we’d compare the weather to somewhere else where it should be even hotter than London. Jamaica perhaps, Greece, Tenerife even. But unfortunately we’re just too damn hot right now to do that. It now takes too much effort to type. The sweat glistens on the keyboards and we can hardly see through the heat haze that separates us from the screen upon which we type these articles. We’ve taken to dictating everything and hoping the speech to text function doesn’t pick up our loud sighs and grumbles in between words.
If you’re looking to cool down, grab a frozen cocktail, or head to the nearest lido. Alternatively, just grab a couple of bags of ice from the nearest off-licence and use them as beanbag chairs. If you’re definitely intending to make the most of the heat and sun, however, check out your local park or grab a pint in the sun at a beer garden near you. At the very least, it’s the day for chucking ice in your mid-afternoon coffee before taking a sweltering, sweaty nap.
Whatever you do, though, stay hydrated. And keep your friends hydrated. And no, the water in the beer or the iced coffee doesn’t count. Stay safe London. We’ll see you this weekend when it’s set to drop back down to the mid- and sub-20’s. It’s even supposed to rain. That’s much more like it.