’90 feels like 120 here’: US expats react to ‘unbearable’ heatwave that makes UK ‘feel like a sauna’

Its the humidity and our housing not built to handle heat.

This time of year is when I’m glad to have a north-facing property. It means it’s cold and dark for much of the year, but right now, it’s a pretty comfortable temperature inside, even at night.

For a brief moment, I thought that title was referring to aging.

Anyway, here is an Austrailian video that goes into more detail about why relatively low termeratures seem to hit in the UK:

https://youtu.be/mMqkuAb-HYg?si=ZfKVQDBeOAlMFwb8

Americans crank the AC so high you need a sweatshirt to go grocery shopping in July.

Then they come here, get slapped by 90% humidity, and say, “Wow, it’s hot out!” as if nature’s the weird one.

Similarly I’ve seen Canadians say that -2 here feels like -20. As others have said I think it’s the humidity and housing.

Another quirk of British media, using Fahrenheit instead of Celsius… Just because the bigger number gets clicks 😂

meanwhile in norway its fucking freezing which is kinda absurd considering we are right next door

American living in UK for the past three years – yeah, the English summers are just *hot*.

It’s definitely lack of AC in most houses and, in my case, no car to blast AC in so I’ve got to walk in the heat to work. 

I think sometimes there’s very little transition to summertime here, as well. This year especially, it seems like we skipped spring entirely and just went to summer.

That being said, the US summers are wild as well. Southern states like Georgia and Texas experience temperatures so high that their plastic trash cans start melting and you can fry an egg on the pavement. My parents live on the east coast and sometimes shower thrice a day because they just *sweat* as soon as they step outside.

As an American in the UK I honestly think it’s the lack of respite. I’m from the Midwest and we had hot, humid summer days. The summer was longer and warmer than what we get on the southern edge of the Midlands, where I live now. But it didn’t feel as oppressive.

The problem is, in the UK, there is no escape. The houses don’t have AC and they are all brick and cinder block, so they don’t cool down enough at night. You get in your car and the AC doesn’t work nearly as well or as fast as it would in an American car. You go to work and it’s hot. You go to the shop and it’s hot. All those places would be climate controlled in the US.

When you don’t get a break from the heat, it makes it that much harder to deal with.

Using these past couple of days and calibrated airport measuring equipment to measure the temperature and dewpoint when at maximum temperature:

Location | Temperature | Dew Point | Relative Humidity
—|—|—-|—-
Heathrow | 28 | 11 | 35%
Manchester | 27 | 9 | 32%
Newcastle | 21 | 12 | 56%
Birmingham | 29 | 11 | 33%
Bournemouth | 26 | 13 | 45%
Bristol | 28 | 13 | 40%

It’s really not that humid.

I read other comments of people saying humidity reaches 90%. At high temperatures, it certainly does not.

Humidity in the UK is on par with most other European nations. It’s far from exceptional.

“expat”. The word is immigrants. Or is that word only used for non whites?

Edit: lmao, downvotes by white immigrants

I feel like we’re massively over exaggerating the heat, it’s hardly unbearable. I actually think it’s quite nice.

Ok, I will say it. Everybody says the same. It’s always the same “but we have it worst”.

I used to live in Spain, different cities. Every single time “but here the heat feels different, you know”.

In Alicante “here 30 degrees feels like 45 because the humidity”.
In Madrid “here 30 degrees feels like 45 because it’s dry and burns your skin”
In Edinburgh “here 30 degrees feels like 45 because the housing”

Conclusion, everywhere 30 degrees feels like 45.

Some people from US are very proud about handling incredibly high temps, but then forget that they live in places with AC running 24/7.

Funny, how when it’s Americans they are called expats instead of immigrants.