Hot weather warning for the UK - Member questions and heatwave feedback

47 in the shade now. Someone in town put a thermometer in the sun and it reached 51. Scary stuff.

Wiebke you're a literal life saver, the house is 20° cooler thanks to your tips.

I think that you now understand what I mean with a killing sun-heated breeze that can get right into the shade (or into the house through open windows) and why outdoors - thick shade or not - is not a place to be right now.

Official temperatures 'in the shade' are actually measuring the coolest possible outdoors temperature; it is much hotter than that in many places. Please be ever so careful tomorrow and air your home thoroughly, as much as you can first thing in the morning!
 
I put the tiles in. Only saw Toffee standing on one.

I’m thankful that the measures help keep the piggies well. Husband and youngest did check on them when they got in and said they were good. Tomorrow I must remember the wet towels! Snuggle pads and bottles back in the freezer.
 
If you can put them in the fridge first, they will be cooler a bit longer.
Ah okay. I’ve put the piggies to bed so don’t want to disturb them. Least I know for next time.

ETA the fridge is chock full (no idea why!) so couldn’t fit them in anyway.
 
Attempted to open the kitchen window to let some air in and the kitchen blind fell down 🤯. Spent half hour trying to get it up again and succeeded. It’s staying as is now I’m too old to be climbing. At least it’s down again to produce shade 😁. My boys are dubious of the fan but at least they’re cool. I’m melting. What part of my brain forgot to buy ice cream 🤪
 
I got to home to a coolish house, and happy piggies munching.
Husband was working in the dark!
24.7C by our front window that gets the late afternoon sun. 23.5C by the piggies. Loft room is 36C plus. Ugh. 🥵
Think we will be sleeping downstairs with the Guinea pigs tonight.
Walking home from work was not nice, not looking forward to tomorrow.
Was amazed at the amount of people with their windows wide open, and in full sun. Their homes must be like a sauna.
 
Debating whether to even open the windows later?
I'm thinking the same. The sun is still on the house. As soon as it does I'm going to figure out where to attach string so I can hang wet sheets outside the downstairs windows tomorrow. I probably won't be able to go out until 10pm. Don't really know what to do for the best 😞
 
Only open windows if temp outside lower than temp inside. Currently my indoor temp is 22-25 which is the same as the lowest predicted temps for 4-5am tomorrow morning- I may get up at 5am to let a bit of air in, but its still 29 degrees outside now!
 
I'm heading in on night duty before long, Aircon on max all night long 🥶🥶🥶😁
Aircon is the way to go! Piggy daddy went to the gym today for the first time in 3 years just so he could enjoy the aircon and 18 degree coolness, the gym was full of chubby middle aged blokes who had the same idea napping on the weight benches lol.
 
I fretted all day about Gloria and Astrid while I was at work today. I have a little wifi camera on the cage but whenever I logged onto the app I couldn't see either of them in their usual favourite spots so that worried me. When I got home the living room was reading 28.4 degrees but both piggies came straight out to see me and seem to be doing fine!
I'm having a similar dilemma regarding windows - the flat was lovely and cool this morning after having windows all open last night but looking at the hourly forecast, it's not going to get below 25 tonight so I don't think it will be worth it.
 
Only open windows if temp outside lower than temp inside. Currently my indoor temp is 22-25 which is the same as the lowest predicted temps for 4-5am tomorrow morning- I may get up at 5am to let a bit of air in, but its still 29 degrees outside now!
It will only be 1 degree lower which is why I was debating if it would be worth it
 
It’s cooled slightly now but OH has managed to lock the window in our bedroom and we can’t find a key 🙄I really can’t imagine how I am going to sleep in there tonight, it’s still very hot with no breeze coming in, my worst nightmare. All the pets seem fine though so that’s the main thing
 
Kevin and Perry have been in their temporary indoor setup today, a cage in the kitchen, instead of their hutch outside. I'm keeping them in until the outside temperature comes down, perhaps Wednesday. It's still 28 degrees in their shed even now at 11pm (it was 32 in the shed and 38 in the garden at 2pm, so I'm glad I had a backup plan), and it's been 25 degrees all day in the kitchen.

They seem quite happy and are getting on with carrot cottage demolition and ignoring the ice packs I put in for them. Yesterday (Sunday) they were indoors all day, out on the grass for a couple of hours in the evening then back in their hutch overnight, but it's been too hot for grass time tonight. I also wondered whether too much moving about would upset them too much as there was a bit of rumbling and re-establishing of the hierarchy when I first brought them in. All settled now though, back to their normal cheerful selves. They probably wonder what the fuss is about and why they had my company this afternoon - had to relocate myself to the kitchen as it was 29 degrees upstairs in my study with the curtains and windows closed. Not looking forward to tomorrow when we do it all again...

Thanks for the great advice in this thread, everyone. Hope you all manage to get some sleep 😴
 
So far everyone here is doing OK, I was going to put some sand in the fridge for the hamsters to have a nice cool sand bath tomorrow but I cant find it anywhere! But they're enjoying their baby food at least.

It's been incredibly sad to see just how many people have lost animals today, in the end I had to stay off Facebook. Luckily it seems its going to being cooling quite rapidly after 4pm tomorrow, so hopefully it won't be as bad as today, even if the temperature does peak a little higher.
 
not sure wether the girls should stay in tonight?! could it cause problems?

what did you do in the end?
what problems do you think it might cause ?

my boys move indoors during hot weather and only go back out when the shed is cool enough (sometimes they only need to be in during the day and can go back out at night, other times (such as now) it’s consistently too hot and they stay inside day and night and for an extended period)
 
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