Hot weather warning for the UK - Member questions and heatwave feedback

House has gone up to 24-25 depending where you are. Boo. But not bad. Going to take advantage of the overnight drop one last time and open the windows in a bit. I'll get up early to put up the defenses again. Doubling down tomorrow with plans. The heat shall not beat us!

Piggies seem quite content. They were doing zoomies earlier! Nutters.

Thank you @Wiebke for the advice.

And what a great job we're all doing to do the best we can for our furbabies. We aren't in control of the weather at all, but trying matters and makes a difference! Xx
 
Eriathwen said:
Feel better soon Wiebke!

Today was a success, the temperature in the piggy room stayed a good 6 degrees below what was going on outside with just the cardboard up on the windows. They were introduced to their granite chopping boards and seem to have decided they're safe, being a bit perplexed at first 😅 water bottles are all frozen ready to go tomorrow, and a new batch ready to go in the freezer as soon as those are out to serve their purpose.

From what I can see, I only have about 6 hours to worry about both days, with the rest of the day only being as warm as today. I may break my rule of not leaving windows open over night on Monday, as I doubt I'll be sleeping much anyway and 22c overnight is asking a bit much of the pigs after such a warm day.
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Only open the windows once outdoors is cooler than indoors (hopefully around 3-5 am or in an inner city maybe not possible at all). Monday night is going to horrible. We are in the red zone, too. :(
But I hope that having been able to try and test things you would have never considered beforehand gives you a bit more of a chance.

The other things that you may want to do for the nonstop heat:
- put all your snugglesafes in the fridge and use them as additional coolers in the marathon. They are cool, not cold and will last only 2-3 hours but they can help with topping and fill gaps. They are also gentler for oldies; just one out and the other in the fridge.

- Any extra cooling elements (like from cool boxes) can go in the freezer. Make sure that you can set up a 'relay' of cooling elements so you always have something out and something freezing/cooling down and ready to replace any warmed elements, which can then go back too cooling. You are looking at a nonstop heat from tomorrow 7 am until the early hours of Wednesday. The days will have a strong breeze coming straight out of an oven with will stop at sundown and the night will have no air movement at all so your house/flat won't have any chance to cool and you need to continue to keep yourself and your piggies as cool as possible throughout the night.

- Fill an extra jug or two with water and keep it in the fridge for yourself. Plain water and tea are better thirst quenchers than any sugary drinks. Keep sipping away steadily and do not bolt a big glass or bottle of ice cold stuff down in one go, as much as you are tempted - you do not want to have a nasty tummy upset on top of heat exhaustion. Done that as a teenager in the 80ies when we had our first near 40 C day in Switzerland. It wasn't pleasant.

- If you yourself are very hot and are having a heat headache, dampen a scarf and wind it around your head to help cool down your brain (especially when not working in public services). The trick with the evaporating water cooling has got lots of other practical applications...

- Make the best of the still cooler night tonight and follow the BBC weather advice to leave all possible windows and doors open ideally overnight or until you go to bed and air and do the same first thing in the morning if you had to close them while asleep. Then close everything, pull any curtains and anything you can do to keep the sun from getting into your home; once closed, the sealed indoors can only heat up so much; that is simple physics. It will be stifling but much safer.
If you leave the windows or even just a flap on the shade side open, you'll allow a hot breeze of over 50 C in and make things a lot worse instead of better. There won't be anything in the way of a cool breeze until Wednesday. :(
BBC Weather - Home

- have regular luke warm showers or hold your wrists under a cold tap when you are overheating. A cold foot bath also helps to cool you down.

All the best! Temperatures will go down more in the countryside but not much in cities.
I won't be coming on here over the next few days.
 
Eriathwen said:
Feel better soon Wiebke!

Today was a success, the temperature in the piggy room stayed a good 6 degrees below what was going on outside with just the cardboard up on the windows. They were introduced to their granite chopping boards and seem to have decided they're safe, being a bit perplexed at first 😅 water bottles are all frozen ready to go tomorrow, and a new batch ready to go in the freezer as soon as those are out to serve their purpose.

From what I can see, I only have about 6 hours to worry about both days, with the rest of the day only being as warm as today. I may break my rule of not leaving windows open over night on Monday, as I doubt I'll be sleeping much anyway and 22c overnight is asking a bit much of the pigs after such a warm day.
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Open your windows only in the very early hours/early morning of Tuesday; especially when you can't sleep anyway. By 7 am it is already starting to warm up quite quickly.
 
In addition to Wiebke’s excellent suggestion of a damp scarf around the head, I have found it very helpful to use a foot bath (or washing up bowl) filled with cool water to plunge my feet and ankles into. Cooling your feet can help to bring down your temperature and feels lovely. You can make it even more refreshing by adding some Epsom salts to help ease soreness, tiredness and help prevent muscle cramps. Simple but effective.
 
To add to the list for human comfort - if you've got anything like after sun, put it in the fridge. You can normally get away with reapplying it frequently and the cooling effect may seem miniscule but it does help. I keep a tub of Doublebase in the fridge, same idea. As a migraine sufferer I usually always have a tube of Deep Freeze on hand too for the same reasons, but you can't reapply it constantly.

The goblins aren't being put to bed tonight. They're probably not going to appreciate the light staying on in the hall but I can't sleep with an open door without it, and it's too warm to close the doors, the heat builds too quickly.
 
Wiebke said:
Open your windows only in the very early hours/early morning of Tuesday; especially when you can't sleep anyway. By 7 am it is already starting to warm up quite quickly.
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Absolutely! Luckily I only live a couple hundred metres from the river severn so I'm blessed with a lot of cool air as it passes over the water, but tomorrow's a different beast. I was planning to set a 5/6am alarm just in case, to make sure they're closed before it starts to warm up again. It'd be typical the one time I assume I won't sleep, I'll be out like a light, so better safe than sorry!
 
Sorry to hear that Covid has finally caught up with you @Wiebke ! Do let me know if there's anything I can help with, college holidays have started now so I'm around all the time.

My reflective insulation panels have done a good job of keeping the piggy hutch room down to 22 degrees max. The piggies stayed in today, as I was out in the morning and then again in the evening. It was 25 degrees in their run at 3pm but 34 in the shade near the piggy room 🥵 according to my thermometer .

Hope you both feel better soon, Wiebke and @Lavinia x
 
Eriathwen said:
Absolutely! Luckily I only live a couple hundred metres from the river severn so I'm blessed with a lot of cool air as it passes over the water, but tomorrow's a different beast. I was planning to set a 5/6am alarm just in case, to make sure they're closed before it starts to warm up again. It'd be typical the one time I assume I won't sleep, I'll be out like a light, so better safe than sorry!
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I was going to do the same. Open all holes again very early on and then close up as soon as the sun hits our big garden front around 7 am and start watering the sheets to keep the glass from heating up in the first place.
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
Sorry to hear that Covid has finally caught up with you @Wiebke ! Do let me know if there's anything I can help with, college holidays have started now so I'm around all the time.

My reflective insulation panels have done a good job of keeping the piggy hutch room down to 22 degrees max. The piggies stayed in today, as I was out in the morning and then again in the evening. It was 25 degrees in their run at 3pm but 34 in the shade near the piggy room 🥵 according to my thermometer .

Hope you both feel better soon, Wiebke and @Lavinia x
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Thank you for your kind offer. We are well provided until Wednesday and as David is well over his own Covid now, he doesn't need to self-insulate.
 
I’ve got things ready and waiting, including a list in my phone so I don’t forget anything. Four towels to be soaked and wrung out. Four frozen water bottles. Four snuggle pads in the fridge. A bedsheet to be soaked and wrung out. What I don’t have is cucumber so will try and run down to Tesco early morning to get some.

The parents have been given the option to collect children at 1:30 tomorrow and Tuesday. We’ll see how many do so.

I hope yourselves and your piggies make it okay through the heat.
 
Getting very nervous myself! I have a 7.5 year old which I’m very, very worried for. Blinds closed in the front room, 16 inch fan constantly running + frozen water bottles in. Last thing I’m going to do is fill bottles with cold water in the fridge before I have to leave! It sucks, I live on my own + out all day for work it’s an absolute nightmare!

It’s even worse as all managers have gone on PTO at the same time + I work with animals so it’s not like I can just leave when my time is up… but I’m finding myself leaving work multiple hours late due to workload at the moment!
 
I came downstairs again at silly o’clock and it was 23 degrees in the room. I opened all the doors as there was a lovely cool breeze and the room dropped to 21 and stayed that way until 7am. It then slowly started to creep up, 22 degrees just half an hour later. Its hit 24 in the room now and it’s already that outside so the door can’t be opened again. There‘s wet sheets on windows and over part of the cages. It’s going to be a difficult day.
 
I was up at 6am so the piggies got a good feed before I started disrupting their habitat- by 8am we had 3 frozen bottles in as cool packs, fleecy tunnels mostly replaced by cool wooden bridges, a cool damp cotton sheet over as a cooling sunshade...
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And here's elderly Luna lol defying all my best efforts chasing sunbeams :)
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up at 6 this morning, windows had been open overnight, pushed the door a jar and i managed to get up 2 old bed sheets outside the window and soaked them with the hose, as well as covering the inside with towels and blankets. lowest we got to this morning was about 23 degrees.. got a fan on rotate in one corner of the room however we are already at 26 degrees🥵 frozen bottles ready in the freezer, i don’t know if theres much more i can do!😨
 
Wishing everyone well today . My boys were put in their indoor runs at 7am today. Cleaned the cages and frozen water bottles, fan etc at the ready. Fortunately I’m home for the next 2 days. Six boys who love to bar bite drives me nuts sometimes. I hope to hear it today more than anything. I know it will be a sign they’re doing ok
 
Got to East Sussex yesterday afternoon, M25 not too bad, very hot in the house though. I managed to squeeze all the GP’s into the utility room which has tiled floors. it’s extremely hot already. Everyone has ice packs, ice bottles and a damp cotton sheet over them now.

Hope everyone stays as cool and safe as possible x

Get well soon everyone who is suffering with Covid
 
The air out the front is still lovely and cool (just recieved a package and got a lovely blast of cool air opening the front door!) So for now, the piggies windows are open again, but their thermometer is being closely monitored.
I'm going to move the salamanders and elderly hamsters down into the dining room a little bit later. They'll have to put up with the nosy cat but at least it won't be as warm.
 
eileen said:
I love the sheet idea,piggiepuggle.i will try this,towels are very heavy.
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Yes its just an elasticated single bed sheet which fits petfectly over the 5x2 C&C area closest the the window, the cage is L-shaped so there's a sheet over this, a couple of matching damp pillow cases hung over the side of the other cage arm as blinds, and the hay room in the corner gets shaded anyway by the other cage areas :)
 
Washing machine's on (at 30, because otherwise it works as a radiator I don't really need), blinds are closed, curtains are half open only so I can see what I'm doing, Snugglesafes have been in the freezer overnight because the fridge is full. It's going to be a long day.
 
I've also got a vivarium thermometer hooked over the cage bars at the warmest unshaded point and its reading 21 degrees lol poor piggies must be freezing!
I'm very lucky the main piggy room only gets the sun until 11.30am, by 1pm it cools down again.
Upstairs warms more slowly because we have blackout curtains up there but it stays warmer longer as the heat from downstairs rises and the heat from the roof creeps through the ceiling, so after lunch I need to switch to cooling Ollie and Hatty- I've popped a small frozen bottle in this morning just in case but they get more heat overnight, so they will have the fan on later with the door open to the cooler landing and bathroom, and they have snugglesafes in the fridge.
Lots of effort but well worth it to keep the piggies safe, hope everyone in the red warning/possible 40 degree inland areas manages ok!
 
Up early this morning too, opened doors and windows to let the cool air in. Cages covered in damp towels and ice blocks deployed. Realised i didn't have enough ice blocks to keep changing them so went to Lidl and bought a pack of small bottles of water, these are now in the freezer for later. It's already 24.8C in the piggy room. I don't feel too hot yet and i am working in their room, so just keeping an eye on them.

We have also set-up the runs downstairs (which is usually a couple of degrees cooler). It it gets too hot up here we will move all the piggies downstairs.
 
Wishing everyone and their pets well today,
My piggies are in the living room (the coolest place but it’s already hit nearly 27c In here, I’ve got all windows and curtains/blinds shut, the fan is on but worried this will make it hotter 😥
 
I've put the Snugglesafes into the base of the beds with a fleece pad on top like I do if they've been microwaved, because that way I know they'll use them if they need to. Cam's already sat on one for half a second before bouncing straight back off again, but it's a start lol. I would have left them in the freezer but last time I did that and the washing machine was on the vibrations opened the freezer door and I only found out because they make a racket when they fall to the floor :bal: just refilled their water bottles too and they're getting increasingly irate because none of these visits are producing food, lol. 22.6 in there for the time being.
 
PigglePuggle said:
Clover won't leave her fleecy tunnel either so I moved her alongside a long thin 1 litre frozen bottle in a sock :)
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Maybe that's a niche in the market for our crafty members - fleece tunnels with pockets for frozen bottles, for piggies who just won't do the sensible thing on hot days 😂

anyar.dris said:
Best investment we have really, portable aircon. 😁👍 We had ours for 4/5 years now. We got it because of the piggies too. We had a teddy breed of piggy that time (Bunny) that struggled with heat during that summer. So hubby decided to buy a portable aircon, because electric fans and air coolers really weren't enough. Hubby and I are sharing the benefit of it too. 😁😂
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Great to hear that yours has been so helpful! We've been away for the weekend so ours is being tried for the first time today - fingers crossed 🤞🏻
 
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