General Chat

There were months of hot weather but I don’t remember any flash flooding, was there any anywhere in England then or in the 1950s and 1960s?

Yes, but we didn't have the internet bringing the latest news to our armchairs then.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-35033714

https://www.britishpathe.com/workspaces/8180a8725f728c45aaafb3ad3c112c08/PfZQgWrQ

1976 summer was hot, but also very dry and, when the rain did come, it wasn't torrential as I remember (certainly not where we were). There's always been flash (and other) floods, but they seem to be more common, but it's true that this may be because of 'immediate' news! Due to increased building on land that would, years ago, have been left as flood plain, the problem has got worse. Due to global warming, higher average temperatures mean more rain as warmer air holds more moisture.

There were lots of flash floods in the 1940s and early 50s but the victims were usually just expected to get on with it. After all the blitz was still a recent memory.

And then came Lynmouth in 1952.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0VMIRRA6PY
and the East Coast floods Jan 1953

which moved the goalposts quite a bit.

After the long hot dry summer of 1976 - which was far worse than 2020 because there was a long drought before the heat built up from the end of June. The heat collapsed in September to be followed by incessant heavy rain all over the country and flash floods, The heatwave did not extend into Scotland. In Winchester temp topped out around 30 C.

Very few cars had ac and it was also uncommon in buildings.

If 2020 follows the same pattern then houses built on flood plains ar adjacent to grouse moors or in places such as York could be in for a very bad time with the insurers taking a hammering. It is already difficult and expenive to get insurance in some of these areas.

The farmers took quite a knock both from the drought and the ensuing floods. The UK was able easily to make up the food deficit from the EU .Whether patching the food supply ( which was not JIT in 1976 ) would be as easy in post brexit Britain is hard to say. For sure there would be a sharp rise in the cost of living which at least half of the country would find difficult to manage.

The horsement riding by ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9K7fueW4Bk

I was working under glass in 1976.

It was hot remember it well my youngest son was born 14th August 1976 we had a holiday in the lake district I was 7months pregnant but it was great so glad whem 14th 08 came round certainly a year i wont forget no rain dont think .not like it is now Barbara

Sharron - that sounds horrific :-S

I was living in Shetland in 1976. However, my niece was born, in Southampton in May that year, so I came down to see her.
Carrying just a rucksack, I caught the St Claire ferry from Lerwick, docking at Aberdeen at 06:00.
Spent a few hours sleeping on a park bench in Aberdee, then caught a train to Glasgow.
Caught the midnight train from Glasgow, and arrived at Euston at about 05:30.

I had arranged to see my mum on the way down. She lived in Surrey, but both she and her husband worked at Harrods.
Caught the tube - got off a station too soon, so had to walk from Kensington to Knightsbridge.
I had my jeans rolled up, and flip flops on. By the time I got to Harrods,(it was no later than 07:30) my sweaty legs were covered in dirt!
Went round the back (mum's husband worked in the maintenance department), was searched by security - I had half a bottle of milk on me - they wouldn't let me in, in case it was a bomb. I drank the milk, and was allowed in :-D

Saw my mum - then continued down to Southampton. I stayed about a week - and couldn't wait to get back to an equally warm, but less humid, and with a constant cooling breeze, that was Shetland!

OMG Sharron......under glass!! :-0 In 1976 I remember the canal drying up here and the reservoirs were really low. Big windows with no curtains where I worked and tiny squares of window you could only tilt open a little way.

My elder son was born in August 1961 (in London) and the temperature in the hospital was kept at 80F for the benefit of the babies.

I remember my mother coming to visit and saying how nice it was to be somewhere cool!!

I also remember, after a long dry summer in the late 60's, going on holiday on the Broads. East Anglia is very flat and the ground was baked hard. On the way home it started raining, the ground wasn't absorbing it and all the roads were flooded.

My youngest son was born in June 1976. I was enormous with very swollen hands and feet.

When I brought him out of hospital instead of being well wrapped up as normal he came out in just a sleeveless body suit. Taking him out in his pram he usually just had the same with a cotton sheet over him. I can't tell you how relieved I was not to be pregnant any more.

Don't remember any floods round here.

Kath. x

I recall how dried up the grass was....we'd moved up to cambridgeshire,'75 and had grassed our new lawn.....which had promptly dried up and was a dead mess....

I don't remember myself but think I was told by my dad or seen old film some where that london flooded in the 50s I remember 1976 rivers drying up crops failing government telling us to bath or shower together and to save water whenever we could and then at the end of the summer when it still not rained the pm installed a monster of rain I've forgotten his name but the day after the heavens opened and it rained and rained :-D :-D

Our son was born in September '76

We were living in Cleethorpes an we took him for a walk in his pram at a park in Lincolnshire. A tractor hauling a very large trailer of potatoes passed us and potatoes were falling all over the road.

We just carried on with our stroll pausing only to pick up the falling potatoes and sticking them in the pram with the baby.

At the time there was a shortage of potatoes and we must have snaffled a good ten pounds of the things before we beat a hasty retreat :-D :-D

Our daughter was born in 1976 and we were living in Hampshire. I remember putting her outside in her pram in the mornings, before the hot weather came in and then this was no longer sensible.
As the weather heated,a neighbour's young child got bad sunburn across her shoulders, so much that it blistered.
News reports contained pictures of low water levels in reservoirs and of cracked baked earth.

It seemed very hot, but then later in the year, we went to live in Cyprus, where it was even hotter.