A Barbeque Summer…at last!

It’s official!  The MET Office forecasters are predicting we are “odds on for a barbeque summer”. The long-term forecasters have said that temperatures are going to soar into the 30C’s at times and rainfall should be “near or below average”.

Ewen McCallum, Chief meteorologist at the Met Office, has commented that, “After two disappointingly wet summers the signs are much more promising this year. We can expect times when temperatures will be above 30C, something we hardly saw at all last year.”

Well, we certainly deserve it. After two summers which were dull wash-outs we need a bit of summer sun to put the colour back in our cheeks. However, if it all gets too hot for you (here’s hoping), here are a few suggestions about how to cope with it:

Get ‘em off - our clothes insulate us against heat loss so dig out those shorts from the back of the drawer or get yourself down Top Shop for a new tankini. Alternatively if you want to go the full monty, find a local nudey beach near you here.

Get sweaty & breathe deeply – evaporation of our sweat accounts for 20-30% of our body’s heat loss in temperate conditions. About two thirds of this happens from our skin and the remaining third from our lungs and airways.

Get wet – have a water fight, take a shower, go for a swim. Water conducts heat away from the body 240 times more than the air does.

Get an ice lolly – mine’s a Fab.

Get the beers in – breaking out the glassware and drinking plenty of fluid is a good thing in hot conditions as it keeps you hydrated. Beer isn’t actually very good as it will make you pee and dehydrate you. However, you could go to the Ice Bar in London for a beer as it’s always cold there.

Mums go to Iceland – located off the coast of Greenland, this place is really chilly. It gets down to about -5C in the winter and about 13C in the summer. Alternatively go to the frozen food shop or any supermarket’s frozen food section as they’re all pretty cold.

And if all this isn’t enough then there are always air conditioners, fans and evaporative coolers to help you take the edge of the pending scorcher.