20-06-2025
How the infamous heatwave of 1976 compares to temperatures these days
Temperatures are soaring across the UK as it braces for a heatwave, but how does it compare to the famous long hot summer of 1976?
Whenever there is a spell of hot weather, there is one year that always get mentioned, with those of a certain generation claiming, "This is nothing compared to the heat in 1976!"
Forty-nine years ago, hot air from the Mediterranean unleashed 10 weeks of blistering heat across the UK, sparking a summer heatwave that has since passed into legend, bringing the worst drought for 250 years.
At that year's Wimbledon tennis championships, umpires were allowed to remove their jackets for the first time ever, and when Bjorn Borg shot to victory on court, 400 spectators were treated for heat-related symptoms.
At its peak, the heatwave saw 15 consecutive days with temperatures over 32C somewhere in Britain - the hottest recorded temperature was 35.9C in Cheltenham.
Lasting from late June to late August, the prolonged lack of rain meant the heatwave's impact was keenly felt across Britain.
That summer is widely regarded as an anomaly, but many climate scientists have a different take on it these days. To them, what is even more concerning is that the temperatures that baked Britain five decades ago are no longer unusual.
'I have heard 1976 brought up frequently when discussing this year's temperatures," said Max Dugan-Knight, a climate data scientist at weather data specialists Deep Sky Research.
He told Yahoo News: "But compared to the past few years, 1976 does not look out of the ordinary.'
The prolonged heat and drought meant that Ladybower Reservoir in Derbyshire ran dry, revealing flooded villages unseen for years.
The weather dried out and killed off plants on which aphids depended - as a result, about 23.65 billion seven-spotted ladybirds swarmed the country.
Hosepipe bans were imposed and showers encouraged, while a popular T-shirt suggested: "Bathe with a friend." A lioness fainted at a circus near Norwich and people regularly dived into the fountains at Trafalgar Square in London to cool off. Parts of the south west of England went an astonishing 45 days without any rain.
The weeks without rain led then prime minister James Callaghan to consider importing water in tankers from Norway - and Birmingham MP Denis Howell was appointed the minister for drought.
However, the UK's drought wasn't caused by the 1976 heatwave alone. As the Met Office pointed out in 2018, the drought "came after a previous sunny summer of 1975 and also a very dry 12-month period".
Nonetheless, the 1976 heatwave still played a major part in the most significant period of drought - May 1975 to August 1976 - since Met Office records began.
Shortly afterwards, thunderstorms broke across the country, at a point where London had just 90 days of water supply left - and the two following months were very wet indeed.
"Looking back at the data, the summer of 1976 was much hotter in the UK than other years around it," said Dugan-Knight.
"But the UK is not the world. The summer of 1976 was anomalously hot in the UK but it was actually below average in most of Europe and the world."
In 1976, the highest temperature was set in Cheltenham on 3 July and was recorded as 35.9C, which was then a record until being surpassed in 2022, although it remains one of the hottest days on record. It was also the sunniest summer on record, with 669 hours of sunshine.
The 1976 heatwave was unusual (and memorable) because it was so dry and so sustained, but recent years have been hotter.
The UK is set to see its hottest day of the year so far this week, with the warm weather predicted to remain in place into the weekend, when a high of up to 33C is forecast on Saturday in the east of England.
Dugan-Knight said: 'July and August 2022 was hotter in the UK than 1976. Since then, temperatures have been slightly lower but still much higher than average temperatures in the 70s.'
The fact that Britain still harks back to a heatwave almost 50 years ago, even though temperatures are higher now, illustrates how people have "got used" to warmer conditions, said Dugan-Knight.
"Climate change does not mean that each year will be progressively warmer than the last. We have all become used to on average warmer temperatures due to the general trend. Younger people will just be accustomed to higher temperatures.'
According to Deep Sky Research, heatwaves are becoming more common and more dangerous.
Writing in The Guardian in July 2022 about the same issue, Dr Ella Gilbert, a climate scientist at the British Antarctic Survey, criticised those who hark back to the 1976 heatwave in an attempt to diminish the seriousness of climate change.
She said: "As a climate scientist, I'm tired of hearing about why it means we shouldn't take the climate crisis seriously. 1976 was undeniably a hot summer... but in many ways it was nothing like the heatwave we're enduring right now.
"In 1976, the UK was an anomalous red blob of unusual heat on a map of distinctly normal summer temperatures. Contrast that to July 2022, and there are few places on Earth where temperatures are not considerably above average.
"Climate breakdown is increasing the intensity, duration and frequency of extreme heat events."
New research published by the Met Office this week warned that the UK has a 50/50 chance of seeing temperatures soar to 40C and above in the next 12 years.
It also warned that far higher temperatures of 45C or more 'may be possible' in today's climate, while heatwaves could go on for a month or more.
Dr Nick Dunstone, Met Office science fellow and co-author of the study, said: 'The well-known hot summer of 1976 had more than a fortnight above 28°C, which is a key heatwave threshold in south-east England.
'Our study finds that in today's climate such conditions could persist for a month or more.
'These findings highlight the need to prepare and plan for the impacts of rising temperatures now, so we can better protect public health, infrastructure, and the environment from the growing threat of extreme heat.'
