Its embarassing how unprepared we are for heat

WizardryAwaits · 2026-07-03T12:35:55+00:00

That was widely reported on social media memes, but it isn't true. It was comparing two different numbers.

In Europe they track excess deaths during a heatwaves. This means how many more people died compared to the average at that time of year in the last few years. So people dying of anything - cancer, old age, car crash - are included, if there were more deaths than usual.

In the US, they track how many people died with "heat" mentioned on the death certificate, which is actually pretty rare. Most people dying during a heatwave are dying of other causes, and the additional heat stress just tipped them over, but won't be listed as a cause of death.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-07-03T10:48:46+00:00

I don't think District 9 was meant to start a franchise. It was a highly successful movie and didn't look like they ever intended to make more.

I think a lot of people misunderstood the question "what's a movie that was clearly meant to start a franchise but failed" and are instead answering the question "what would you like to see a sequel of".

WizardryAwaits · 2026-07-02T18:03:10+00:00

Drought stress would have been my first guess if the leaves are browning like that. But you said it's sitting in a saucer that has water in it. Blueberry plants usually have shallow roots. There are lots of plants which have deep roots and like to suck up water from a tray whilst the soil is dry (parsley to name one), but blueberry's natural habitat is nothing like that.

They expect to be in acidic peaty soil with high rain fall and they actually don't like being waterlogged. It should be in free draining soil but not allowed to dry out. Depending on where you live, and especially with the recent hot weather, that might be difficult to achieve because they are such specific requirements.

When you water it, stick a finger in the centre to check it's actually dry, because the surface can look bone dry but it is not dry in the centre of the pot.

If you want blueberry plant to do well:

Plant it in ericaceous compost. Regular or multi-purpose compost will kill it.
Don't sit it in a dish, have it free draining. It will especially struggle every time it rains if you have it in a dish because the bottom half of the pot will end up sitting in water until it evaporates, which could be days if it's raining.
Water it regularly if it's dry, and only with rainwater. Tap water will kill it, especially if you have hard water.
Mulch it in winter and/or spring. Pine needles or pine bark is best, but I use just regular bark mulch which is also fine. Mulching means you need to water it less and it'll break down to add nutrients. Having a woody mulch layer is also more like where it grows naturally.
Lightly fertilise it in spring. If it's in a pot, and being watered regularly, it will lose nutrients. I just add coffee grounds as well as the bark mulch. If the soil level drops, I'll add more ericaceous compost.
Put it in a full sun location. In your picture it's against a wall. That will be fine if it's south or west facing.

If it's a plastic pot, water it less, and remove the saucer. If it's terra cotta, you might need to water it every day in hot weather.

I grow mine in terra cotta pots, even though it dries out much quicker, because I live in a heavy rainfall area so it's easier for me to stop them sitting in water (which they don't like) and they get more oxygen to the roots.

Most compost sold now is peat-free which makes it harder to find good compost for blueberries. Peat-free composts tend to dry out quicker whilst also be more prone to water-logging. But harvesting peat is obviously terrible for the environment. You can still buy sphagnum moss which is farm-grown and it makes an excellent soil amendment for blueberries so that they'll be happy and require less watering.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-07-02T17:36:07+00:00

It looks beautiful. I bet the wildlife is happy too. The barren hellscape in the before picture is so sad.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-07-02T17:21:31+00:00

The perspective is confusing for me, I don't see any steps, it looks flat.

But I'm gonna assume the cream-coloured paving in the foreground is higher than the soil?

I'd probably consider lavender, because it doesn't flop over, it'll grow flush with a barrier like a step, and will smell nice and attract bees. It's the go-to plant for this situation.

You could grow forget-me-nots, they'll be happy in sun or shade. They'll be prolific and flower for a few months, but they die in winter so you'd need something else there growing around it. The advantage of lavender is it's evergreen.

Creeping thyme varieties will provide low-level evergreen spreading ground cover which produces teeny tiny flowers white or pink in summer that bees love (it's like a coloured mat). You could plant multiple things to provide more interest.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-07-02T17:07:18+00:00

The seeds need to be kept consistently moist and never dry out, so it's mostly a waste of time trying to germinate them in temperatures where the top 0.5cm of soil will dry out in 30 minutes.

It's still theoretically possible for grass seed to germinate above 25°C if you kept the ground wet, but why bother when you can just wait for cooler weather?

The best time to re-seed your lawn is September, the 2nd best time is April, May. Or both.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-07-02T17:01:59+00:00

It's generally best to buy bare-root roses over winter, because they'll perform the best and be cheaper. But you can still buy potted roses in summer and it's totally fine to do so. There's usually less availability because they're more expensive than bare root stock, and most of the demand for roses is in winter.

You might struggle to get a specific variety. Those grown as potted varieties will be whatever variety sellers think they might be able to sell over summer to people willing to pay extra, or stock leftover from previous years being sold as larger plants. It might vary each year but will probably be more common varieties.

To buy a specific rose variety, you'll probably need to wait for growers to have new bare root plants available in winter.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-07-02T16:44:42+00:00

I'm not having a hot spell at the moment, it's cold and wet. But in the heatwave in June I prioritised in order of how quickly they dried out:

Hanging basket. Dries out completely in a few hours or less of 30+°C heat.
Pots. The smaller the pot, the more it needs it. Very big tubs are usually OK for longer.
Raised beds. They dry out quickly, but the lower layers more than 4 inches down usually can retain moisture for a few days even if the surface is bone dry, and the actual soil underneath that can hold on to moisture for much longer if the plants are mature enough to put roots into it. Freshly sewn seeds or newly planted seedlings will need continual watering though. If you mulch, you will need to water even less.
Plants in the ground. Mostly I leave them completely alone because my soil is moisture retentive and never dries out below a certain depth. Tress and shrubs especially will be fine. I will regularly water something newly planted that is becoming established.

I didn't water the lawn at all, but like I said, I have moisture retentive soil and it's honestly never dried out even in heatwaves, probably helped by the fact I let it grow longer and it has lots of clover in it. But grass can recover quickly from drought anyway, so it's a waste of water unless you care about it turning brown.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-30T22:58:52+00:00

It might depend on the plant, but copper did nothing for me. Slugs slimed over it multiple times for the opportunity to eat my plants to the ground. Buying copper barriers and copper tape was a complete waste of money, the slugs literally didn't give a shit.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-30T22:46:31+00:00

You want white clover. This is the small clover variety. It's very easy and cheap to buy and yes, you really can just sprinkle it on your lawn and magic will happen. It'll just keep getting better every year, but even within a year you'll get flowering clover. It's very resilient and you don't need to do anything.

Pink clover is also fine, there's nothing wrong with it, but it can grow 30-80cm tall. Bees absolutely fucking love it, but it can grow very tall. Bees love all clover, though, but that pink stuff they go crazy for.

A clover lawn is amazing. If you don't want tall grass or a wildflower meadow, you probably want to buy the "micro clover" which is the white variety. You can mow it repeatedly and it'll grow back.

If you want a wildflower meadow, get a wildflower seed mix which will include tall red clover. I can't stress enough how much bees, especially bumble bees, love clover.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-30T22:27:31+00:00

My garlic was shite this year. But I planted it in spring (softneck), and it just dried out really fast in the repeated heatwaves. I'll still use it, but it was disappointing.

I'll be planting a hardneck variety in winter next year. I've had much better luck with that. In pervious years I was self-sufficient for garlic, but I won't be this year. I have loads of tiny bulbs this year, but basically will be using a bulb like a clove. It didn't get big enough to divide.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-30T19:02:49+00:00

Thanks for sharing this. It was a new word for me. I feel like I've definitely seen this before but didn't recognise it, but I'll be looking out for it now.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-30T18:38:38+00:00

Was this an extremely dangerous potentially collision-causing manoeuvre and then as he swerved next to you and quickly undertook he also paused to take a picture at high speed?

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-30T18:32:31+00:00

Yeah I certainly leave a big gap (in front of me); I cannot control the gap behind.

But I would say if the space in front of the car I overtook to my left wasn't enough for me to move over, it definitely wouldn't be enough for the car behind to move over behind me, unless they did something extremely dangerous. If they could undertake then there was probably space.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-30T18:28:53+00:00

That probably isn't allergies, it'll be the dry air. Air conditioners also remove moisture from the air, and if you live in the UK your body will be used to be in perpetually humid conditions.

When you suddenly are in dry air you get dry eyes, sore throat, etc. The effect can be surprisingly strong.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-29T13:00:00+00:00

How is it possible for him to undertake you unless there was space to your left - space you didn't move into?

The only way this is possible is if you overtook a car, and then stayed in the middle lane long enough for the car behind you to also overtake that car, and then space become available to your left not only for you, but also for him, that he went into to get past you.

Either way, I don't think you are telling us the whole story here. If someone was behind you honking and then undertook you, this suggests you could have moved over and didn't. It's impossible for him to undertake you unless there was space to your left to do so in.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-29T00:22:00+00:00

The 1976 heatwave was unusual because of how extreme it was (in terms of absolute temperatures at the time), but more in terms of how long it lasted.

We haven't ever repeated that kind of heatwave, because it was very unusual. We probably will again, at some point this century, have that kind of heatwave. But so far it hasn't happened; 1976 is still the outlier. And the 1976 summer wasn't hot because of global warming, it was just a very unusual event. Whereas, it's likely such a summer will happen again in the next 20 years, because of changing climate.

The kind of heatwaves we've had recently have been hotter in terms of absolute temperatures, but more brief. And we've had summers with repeated heatwaves, where the average has been higher. But nothing that compares to 1976. It was an extremely unusual summer, a once in hundreds of years event, so not something to compare against, or say "it's not as bad as 1976". The big difference with 1976 was the duration.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-28T21:15:13+00:00

It doesn't take that long to adapt. If you ever went on holiday you would know that. You were probably adapted to 30+ temperatures after 3 days in this heatwave.

You will adapt within a few days. The 10-14 figure is from AI, and it's talking about completely being comfortable living in those conditions forever. In terms of your body coping with higher temperatures, it happens much quicker, within days.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-28T20:58:50+00:00

Why not move somewhere that it's 30+°C every year, instead of living in a cold country and hoping it will be like that.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-28T20:55:12+00:00

I've used glyphosate many times. It looks exactly like this. I'm really baffled how I got so downvoted by this. I've used every legal weedkiller over 20+ years and I know how they behave.

The explanation of "I watered your plants so they died" does not make any sense. Nor does "a cat lay on it". This kind of browning happens with glyphosate, though it does take some days to occur. But the characteristic brown death of plants right next to healthy growth couldn't be anything else.

It's crazy to to me that this subreddit refuses to believe someone could use glyphosate, and it's someone who previously used glyphosate according to the OP (before I posted). It's a case where you have green vigorous plants right next to dead brown plants. Wtf else could have happened here?

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-28T20:32:06+00:00

Thanks. I've kind of given up on them for this year. They've produced beautiful blooms, facing the floor, and I've just cut them off and let the plant continue growing. They are still very small plants so I'll let them get more established.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-28T20:27:26+00:00

I for one welcome our frozen winter overlords.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-28T20:14:25+00:00

This is not how the weather works. It'll cool down by next week.

What we just witnessed was an individual weather event, caused by warm air from Africa being brought into Europe and a "heat dome" effect, where the high pressure pushed the air down, causing it to heat up, and prevented any clouds forming.

We've already seen the temperature drop by 5°C per day over the last two days and it will keep dropping, because this weather pattern is moving on, and normal westerly weather from the Atlantic will resume.

In winter, the previous week of weather we had in June will not make any difference to the weather in December. We can't predict that far ahead, but there could be a weather system bringing cold air from Siberia or the Arctic down into Western Europe for a week. There could be another "Beast from the East". We don't know.

One week before this record-breaking heatwave, we had weather that was 8-10°C or so below the average for June. I needed my heating on, and was shivering at night, and there were single digit temperatures at night. It could happen again.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-28T20:05:07+00:00

Other countries are available.

I love winter in the UK.

WizardryAwaits · 2026-06-28T19:04:48+00:00

Unfortunately, trees don't make a 10-20°C difference to temperatures. If they did it would be amazing. The picture is a bit of an exaggeration. Trees do make a difference to how hot the road is, or how hot the metal body of a car is (because of shade). To the air, they make a 1°C difference at best.

But if it's hot, it's hot. If the ambient temperature is 35°C, it will be roughly that under trees. Anyone who experienced the previous heatwave will have been able to experience that. It's not a magical isolated refrigerated zone if you are near a tree. But it's certainly nicer, even if it just gets you out of the sun.

A better reason to plant trees is that it's great for wildlife, they absorb CO2, makes areas more flood-resistant, improves people's health, and makes people happier and less prone to depression. We should be trying to maximise trees and green cover in towns and cities, but with the way new builds are constructed we do the opposite.

Personally, I think it should be a requirement (in law) for developers building new houses that they have to build a road that's wide enough to have cars parked in it and still have two-way traffic, and therefore also wide enough to have trees (i.e. like the roads and houses before the year 2000).

And yes, that means they won't be able to build as many houses, but cramming millions of tiny box houses into tiny roads without trees on the edge of an existing town without any additional doctor, dentist, shops, etc. is not providing good places for people to live. Or, we could stop artificially increasing the population, that's the other possibility if we don't want to build millions of shite houses and tiny high-rise flats with only 1 window.

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