If you've moved to the UK from somewhere genuinely hot, you might assume a British heatwave is nothing to worry about. You'd be wrong, and it's worth saying so clearly before the next one arrives.
The UK is built for cold, not heat. Houses are designed to trap warmth, not release it. Public transport wasn't built with air conditioning in mind. And the humidity here, even at relatively modest temperatures, can make 28°C in Britain feel a lot more punishing than 35°C somewhere drier. With more hot weather on the way, here's how to actually get through it, not just complain about it.
Why it feels worse than the number suggests
This is the bit that catches people out. If you've come from a hot, dry climate, you're used to heat that you can manage, the air is dry, evenings cool down, buildings are designed to cope. British heat is a different animal. The UK sits in a temperate, often humid climate, and a "hot" day here frequently comes with high humidity, especially after rain. Humidity stops your sweat from evaporating properly, which is how your body cools itself down. The result is that a 27°C day in Britain can feel stickier and more draining than a much hotter, drier day elsewhere.
Add to that the fact that British buildings, homes, offices, trains, are built to hold heat in for the other ten months of the year, and you've got a recipe for genuinely uncomfortable conditions during the two or three weeks a year it actually gets hot.
Sort your house out first
Most homes here have no air conditioning, so the way you manage your windows, curtains, and blinds matters more than people realise.
During the day, keep curtains and blinds closed on any window that gets direct sun, particularly south and west-facing ones. Light-coloured or reflective blinds work best, since they bounce heat back out rather than absorbing it. It feels counterintuitive to shut a room you're sitting in, but a closed, shaded room will stay several degrees cooler than one with the sun streaming in.
Windows are a bit more nuanced. Close windows and curtains on the side of the house the sun is hitting, but open windows on the shaded side to create a through-draught if you can. Early morning, before the heat builds, is the best time to open everything up and let cooler air in, then shut it all down again once the temperature outside starts climbing past the temperature inside. In the evening, once it's cooler outdoors than in, open up again.
If you live in a flat or a newer build, you may find it holds heat for longer into the evening than an older, draughtier house would. Don't assume your home will cool down once the sun goes in. Often it doesn't, not properly, until well into the night.
Should you buy air conditioning?
This comes up every single summer, and the honest answer is: it depends on how often you'll use it. Air con units in the UK tend to be portable rather than built-in, since most homes weren't designed with the ducting for anything else. A decent portable unit will genuinely help, but it's worth knowing they're not cheap to run, they're noisy, and a lot of them need a hose out of a window, which slightly defeats the point of keeping hot air out.
For most people, a few decent fans, a portable unit if you've got the budget and the patience, and proper use of curtains and ventilation will get you through the handful of genuinely hot weeks the UK gets each year. If you're buying a fan, look for one with a timer and oscillation, and consider a cooling gel pad or a bowl of ice in front of it on the worst nights, it's an old trick, but it works.
If you're renting, check with your landlord before fitting anything permanent, and don't assume your workplace has air conditioning either. Plenty of UK offices don't, particularly older buildings, so it's worth asking your employer what their heat policy is if temperatures are forecast to climb.
Cars turn into ovens fast
British cars are not built with the same heat tolerance in mind as cars from hotter climates, and UK car parks rarely offer much shade. A car left in direct sun for even twenty minutes can become genuinely dangerous inside, easily reaching temperatures well above the outside air.
Before you get in, open the doors and let it air out for a minute or two rather than climbing straight in. A sun shade across the windscreen, even a basic cardboard one, makes a real difference if you're parking somewhere without shade for a few hours. Crack the windows slightly if you're leaving the car for any length of time, and never, under any circumstances, leave a child, a pet, or anything heat-sensitive inside a parked car, even for what feels like a quick errand. Every year there are warnings about this in the UK press, and every year it still happens.
Public transport in a heatwave
This is the part that genuinely surprises a lot of newcomers. The London Underground, in particular, has no air conditioning on most of its older lines, and temperatures on the Tube during a heatwave can climb to levels that would be considered unsafe in a workplace. Trains and buses elsewhere in the UK vary, some have air con, some don't, and you won't always know until you're on board.
A few practical things help. Travel slightly outside peak times if your schedule allows it, carry water with you always, and dress for the platform as much as the office, layers you can remove make a real difference. If you start to feel genuinely unwell, dizzy, faint, overheated, get off at the next stop rather than pushing through to your destination. Staff at most stations are used to dealing with this during hot spells and will help.
Staying hydrated properly
This sounds obvious, but it's worth being specific about, because the advice that works in a hot, dry country doesn't always translate directly here. Carry water with you as a habit during a heatwave, not just when you remember to. Tap water in the UK is safe to drink everywhere, so there's no need to buy bottled water, refill as you go.
Alcohol and too much caffeine both work against you in heat, they're dehydrating, so it's worth easing off both during the worst of it, much as a cold pint in a beer garden is one of the great pleasures of British summer. Add a pinch of salt or an electrolyte tablet to your water if you're out and active for long periods, particularly if you're not used to sweating heavily, since people who've moved from cooler climates can take a little while to adjust to how much fluid they need to replace.
The supermarket problem
Here's a genuinely useful, slightly less obvious one. During sustained hot weather, supermarket fridges and freezers can struggle to keep up, particularly in smaller, older stores or ones without modern cooling systems. It's not unusual during a heatwave for chilled and frozen sections to run noticeably warmer than usual, or for certain lines to be pulled from shelves altogether as a precaution.
A few practical tips: shop earlier in the day if you can, before the heat builds and before stock has been sitting out for hours. Larger supermarkets with more modern refrigeration tend to cope better than smaller convenience stores. If you're buying anything frozen or chilled, check it's properly cold to the touch before you buy it, and get it home and into your own fridge or freezer as quickly as possible, ideally with a cool bag in the car if you've got a longer drive back. If something feels off, packaging that's gone soft, ice cream that's clearly partially melted and refrozen, it's not worth the risk, and most stores will happily refund it.
What to actually wear and eat
Loose, light-coloured, natural fabrics work better than anything synthetic, cotton and linen breathe in a way that polyester simply doesn't. A hat with a brim matters more than people expect, the UK sun isn't constant, but when it's out properly it's stronger than the temperature alone suggests, and sunburn catches a lot of newcomers off guard precisely because the heat doesn't feel as intense as it does elsewhere.
On food, lean lighter, salads, cold soups, fruit, anything that doesn't require standing over a hot oven. It's also, frankly, a very good excuse to lean into the British instinct to fire up the barbecue instead of cooking indoors, just make sure you're drinking water alongside whatever else is going.
Checking the forecast
The Met Office issues heat-health alerts during sustained hot spells, worth knowing about if you're particularly heat-sensitive, have young children, or are caring for anyone elderly or vulnerable. These alerts are taken seriously here and often come with practical advice for that specific spell of weather, so it's worth checking the Met Office app or website rather than relying on a general sense that it's "a bit warm out there."
A word for founders
A heatwave in the UK tends to slow everything down, meetings get rescheduled, offices without air con send people home early, and productivity dips across the board for a few days. This isn't laziness, it's a genuine response to working conditions that the country isn't built for. If you're running a team or relying on collaborators during a hot spell, build in a bit of flexibility. A quieter, slower few days isn't a crisis, it's just how Britain operates when the temperature climbs.
It's also, once you've got the basics sorted, genuinely lovely. Long evenings, beer gardens, the coast on a clear day, this is the British summer everyone secretly hopes for. You just need to manage the heat properly to actually enjoy it.
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