Musings - climate change, more heatwaves and pigs?

[Tewdric]

I know I haven’t been an active poster for quite a while now, but I do still enjoy dipping into the community.

With yet another prolonged heatwave warning for the UK, working full time outside the home with no chance to work from home and an OH with severe allergy issues heatwaves are a bit of a nightmare.

My gang of three are all OAPs now. Wenlock is 6 and beginning to get a bit creaky, whilst Agatha and Christie are only a couple of weeks off being 5 and I suspect Aggie has the beginnings of kidney trouble…

We’re sorted for the next few days but the OH will have to move into the spare bedroom so that the girls can have the en-suit shower room without hospitalising my OH. (During our previous heatwave this year I had Covid straight after a holiday so the pigs were safely away boarding).

If we’re going to continue to get multiple, prolonged heatwaves each summer I may, reluctantly and sadly, be looking after my last piggies.

Is anyone else feeling a bit overwhelmed by circumstances and the weather?

And just because everyone deserves a greeting from Agatha to cheer this thread up a bit:-

 

[Tewdric]

I guess I realised today that if I’m going to continue to be a responsible owner, these are my last pigs and due to their age I may not be a pig slave for much longer.

 

[T-Rex]

I must admit it is hard and overwhelming when I’m working to make sure everyone stays cool and safe during this heat.

 

[Engel]

It's been a nightmare. Last time I had 5 pigs showing signs of heat distress and an elderly rat going into heat stroke. Not fun. I have a sibling who is only working on 1 lung and another who was struggling to breath because of the heat so trying to keep them both safe was stressful. I'm also checking in with my neighbour who has respiratory issues anyway, she was struggling last time. To top it all off, most of the food I had growing in the veggie patch has frazzled.

I'm sorry to hear you and your OH is struggling so much. Hopefully, you can figure out a way to have future piggies, maybe something like fostering? I understand these are difficult and testing times and we're all in the same boat. Try not to lose hope.

Agatha is adorable by the way.

 

[Bill & Ted]

So sorry @Tewdric its all becoming so stressful with these heatwaves. I generally love the summer but that last heatwave was horrid. We were house and pet sitting daughters house in East Sussex with our 4 guinea pigs, plus 3 hens and a house rabbit. I felt immensely stressed out and couldn’t cope or sleep with the heat. Down here in West Cornwall we are so lucky to always get a sea breeze which does help but in East Sussex it was full on Gas Mark 9
It’s nice to see you 9n the forum so don’t stop x

 

[Guineapigfeet]

I am in a similar position. My OH is allergic to hay (though not in danger of hospitalisation) so I don’t feel it would be fair to him to get any more inside pigs once Rey dies, even though it was his idea to have them inside permanently. The heat is also a big concern. The room the pigs (now, pig) lives in is the hottest room in the house come the evening, though the coolest in the morning, and I worry so much about them in this more extreme heat, especially if I am not going to be around in the late afternoon to put in cooling pods etc - not that they have Ever shown any interest in any of them! So once little Rey dies, I will not be getting any more.
And here is Rey, in her favourite (and freaking hottest) place!

 

[Freela]

My understanding is that many homes in the UK don't have air conditioning due to the temperature usually being more moderate? That may be something that will have to change as the climate worsens. I'm in Canada, we typically have pretty extreme seasons (our winters are a lot of cold and snow, sometimes extreme cold of -30 C or more, but our summers can have heat spells ranging into the high 30s.) Pretty much everyone has some manner of air conditioning, either centrally installed in the house or a window unit that cools at least one room in the house pretty effectively. This is pretty much as standard as indoor heating here. I'm thinking in time this is going to have to be standard in more places because I really don't see it getting any cooler as a general trend, unfortunately.

 

[Tewdric]

@Guineapigfeet I feel for you and understand.

OH is allergic to the hay and to Agatha’s coat. He has severe asthma so the pigs live outside in an aviary in the summer and a purpose built shed in the winter.

Our en-suite shower room, and the master bedroom are on the North side of the house. Cool in summer, cold in winter. It’s just I can’t repeatedly ask OH to sleep in the spare room if we keep getting extreme heatwaves.

@Engel look after yourself, sounds very tough. Yes, all my pigs are great. If the current bunch Agatha is rather special.

 

[Eriathwen]

I have a few animals that need to be kept pretty cold, not just 'not hot' and that on top of many older, special needs or otherwise higher risk piggies it really has been a very stressful summer. Personally I think I'll be saving up for a portable air con so I can at least move all the animals into the same room and keep them comfortable. No way I can run around like this every year changing water and ice packs.

 

[Bill & Ted]

You may well be right but I then think that air conditioning only adds to the problem especially in big cities and of course uses more electricity. I think at some point there needs to be better design/insulation when it comes to house building. The UK in general has a very temperate climate but we are starting to see spikes in heat waves and floods, it’s man made global warming for sure but how we manage to put a lid on it globally heaven knows?

 

[Bill & Ted]

It's been a nightmare. Last time I had 5 pigs showing signs of heat distress and an elderly rat going into heat stroke. Not fun. I have a sibling who is only working on 1 lung and another who was struggling to breath because of the heat so trying to keep them both safe was stressful. I'm also checking in with my neighbour who has respiratory issues anyway, she was struggling last time. To top it all off, most of the food I had growing in the veggie patch has frazzled.

I'm sorry to hear you and your OH is struggling so much. Hopefully, you can figure out a way to have future piggies, maybe something like fostering? I understand these are difficult and testing times and we're all in the same boat. Try not to lose hope.

Agatha is adorable by the way.

I have an allotment which manage to survive the last heat wave but this time it‘s really showing signs of being frazzled Hope you all manage over this week, it’s looking cooler by Monday

 

[Freela]

You may well be right but I then think that air conditioning only adds to the problem especially in big cities and of course uses more electricity. I think at some point there needs to be better design/insulation when it comes to house building. The UK in general has a very temperate climate but we are starting to see spikes in heat waves and floods, it’s man made global warming for sure but how we manage to put a lid on it globally heaven knows?

Yeah, it's definitely only adding to the problem as far as consumption of electricity and such goes. But at a certain point, not having access to it leads to preventable heat-related deaths (this happened on our west coast last year... it's usually more temperate there, they had an extreme heat wave that killed more than 30 people.) Insulation makes a difference (you would think in freaking Canada our houses would have good insulation/windows, but mine sure doesn't!) When I was a kid our summers were still hot but they tended to be confined to just a few months out of the year... I'm not in my mid-forties and I feel like our weather is either really hot or really cold, with only a couple of months of in-between. Our Septembers can be in the low 30s and then we can have snow by Halloween. It's nuts. We're either heating or cooling our house all year.

It's actually really interesting to me because I've never lived anywhere else and I always kind of thought that Europe had a similar climate to us (no idea why I thought that, I guess geography was not my subject!) It wasn't until I started on these boards that I realized that UK winters were mild enough that you could keep guinea pigs in a shed with a small heater year-round. Ours would be pigsicles by November unless the shed was fully heated and insulated like a mini house!

 

[Bill & Ted]

@Freela I live in the very western tip of the UK West Cornwall (the foot!) if you look on a map and our weather is very mild either way. We rarely get frost or snow in winter, my eldest granddaughter is 11 and played in snow for the first time in her life last year. Summers are generally mild (low 70’s tops) and damp. Whereas the Scottish Highlands can have artic winters being on the same latitude as Moscow. The south east counties are the hottest and driest, the western side of the country tends to be the wettest as westerly winds from the Atlantic carry rain, whereas eastern winds are drying
I am fascinated by the weather, like many people in the UK it’s the first thing I do on my iPad every morning, look at the days weather!
I feel for you constantly having to either heat or cool your home throughout the year. We are quite lucky in comparison, our springs and autumns tend to be mellow and mild (on the whole)

 

[eileen]

its getting difficult to keep piggies cool,fortunatley I'm at home,but between wetting sheets,fans and ice pods for 11 piggies it is difficult.I'm considering not getting anymore piggies with the workload of 4 cages,keep to two cages.consider portable air conditioning in the future.

 

[Freela]

@Freela I live in the very western tip of the UK West Cornwall (the foot!) if you look on a map and our weather is very mild either way. We rarely get frost or snow in winter, my eldest granddaughter is 11 and played in snow for the first time in her life last year. Summers are generally mild (low 70’s tops) and damp. Whereas the Scottish Highlands can have artic winters being on the same latitude as Moscow. The south east counties are the hottest and driest, the western side of the country tends to be the wettest as westerly winds from the Atlantic carry rain, whereas eastern winds are drying
I am fascinated by the weather, like many people in the UK it’s the first thing I do on my iPad every morning, look at the days weather!
I feel for you constantly having to either heat or cool your home throughout the year. We are quite lucky in comparison, our springs and autumns tend to be mellow and mild (on the whole)

I find this all really interesting... I'm realizing I don't know a lot about the climate in other parts of the world! I think I tend to think of places that 'have season' as all being similar to Canada (as opposed to places closer to the equator that have less differentiation between their seasons), but clearly your area is a lot less extreme in variation!

 

[Engel]

Just read that the UK may be having a week long blackout because of the energy crisis. Costs are going sky high. At this rate you'll find me outside cooking over fire.

 

[Mother Hubbard]

I too worry. I am lucky I work from home most days, pop into the workplace etc., but when the weather is as bad I'm home home home. The air con is running and fans and I'm still running back n forth ensuring it's cool enough and with ice packs - yes I'm probably way more concerned with boarders with me. However the increasing heat year on year does worry me so. I'm going to be installing water butts (many of them) to ensure I can water the veggies and continue to grow the grass as I need it for the piggies too.
Clients are also checking on how they are doing with the heat - they are fine, me however I worry relentless.
So the answer - move in the piggery!

I feel for all those not in the same position of course, I'm lucky.
Big hugs for those struggling.

 

[Pound Shilling & Pig]

I find this all really interesting... I'm realizing I don't know a lot about the climate in other parts of the world! I think I tend to think of places that 'have season' as all being similar to Canada (as opposed to places closer to the equator that have less differentiation between their seasons), but clearly your area is a lot less extreme in variation!

I think the part of Canada closest to UK weather is probably BC around Vancouver but not the mountains lol! I was there one Christmas time and it seemed very much like UK December weather.

 

[Freela]

I think the part of Canada closest to UK weather is probably BC around Vancouver but not the mountains lol! I was there one Christmas time and it seemed very much like UK December weather.

Yeah, BC is definitely the most temperate part of Canada. Lots of rain too. I'm in southern Ontario, which is kind of middle-ground for weather... the prairies are colder, and obviously the far north of every province is going to be a lot more cold and snow!

 

[Swissgreys]

We have a more extreme range of temperatures here in Switzerland, than we did in the UK.

This Summer we have rarely had days below 30 degrees, and in some places temperatures are regulary close to 40 degrees.
Nights have been warm too, and then suddenly in the past week the daytime temperatures are still around 30 degrees but night time temps have 'plummeted' to around 15 degrees!
It is wonderful for the cooler nights, but I have had to rush around and put light blankets back on all the beds, and this morning when my daughter came down she said it was freezing! But it will get to around 30 degrees today, and we will be swimming in the lake before lunch.

Winter temperatures can get as low as minus 10 where we live, and are always below freezing for several months of the year. Snow is common for at least a couple of months, and we are talking about several feet of snow - not just a dusting.

But having said all of that the houses here are generally very well designed, built and insulated.
We don't have air con, although we do have heating, and even on the hottest days, using careful airing and window shutters (which all houses have) the temperature inside never got above 21 degrees.
In Winter we have heating, but it is underfloor which quickly and efficiently heats the entire house, and the well insulated building maintains the heat very well.

 

[Pound Shilling & Pig]

We have a more extreme range of temperatures here in Switzerland, than we did in the UK.

This Summer we have rarely had days below 30 degrees, and in some places temperatures are regulary close to 40 degrees.
Nights have been warm too, and then suddenly in the past week the daytime temperatures are still around 30 degrees but night time temps have 'plummeted' to around 15 degrees!
It is wonderful for the cooler nights, but I have had to rush around and put light blankets back on all the beds, and this morning when my daughter came down she said it was freezing! But it will get to around 30 degrees today, and we will be swimming in the lake before lunch.

Winter temperatures can get as low as minus 10 where we live, and are always below freezing for several months of the year. Snow is common for at least a couple of months, and we are talking about several feet of snow - not just a dusting.

But having said all of that the houses here are generally very well designed, built and insulated.
We don't have air con, although we do have heating, and even on the hottest days, using careful airing and window shutters (which all houses have) the temperature inside never got above 21 degrees.
In Winter we have heating, but it is underfloor which quickly and efficiently heats the entire house, and the well insulated building maintains the heat very well.

I think design is key. Old cottages and houses in the UK have thick walls and small windows and keep much cooler than newer builds, where the philosophy seems to be more about building them cheaply (and selling them expensively). I think shutters are a great idea and have been effective across the rest of Europe for centuries. Plus they look fab!

 

[eileen]

Shutters maybe a way forward.its very ! formative post.why does the UK adapt these measures....not even AC is involved.

 

[Bill & Ted]

We stayed pet sitting in East Sussex for daughter in the last heatwave. her house consists of a very old cottage with a fabulous new build tagged onto one side of it. The old cottage has stone flooring and small windows, the new build part has large windows and by fold doors right across one side of it, you can guess where we spent most of our days. The new build part was totally unbearable during the day

 

[Princess Dustmop]

We have a more extreme range of temperatures here in Switzerland, than we did in the UK.

This Summer we have rarely had days below 30 degrees, and in some places temperatures are regulary close to 40 degrees.
Nights have been warm too, and then suddenly in the past week the daytime temperatures are still around 30 degrees but night time temps have 'plummeted' to around 15 degrees!
It is wonderful for the cooler nights, but I have had to rush around and put light blankets back on all the beds, and this morning when my daughter came down she said it was freezing! But it will get to around 30 degrees today, and we will be swimming in the lake before lunch.

Winter temperatures can get as low as minus 10 where we live, and are always below freezing for several months of the year. Snow is common for at least a couple of months, and we are talking about several feet of snow - not just a dusting.

But having said all of that the houses here are generally very well designed, built and insulated.
We don't have air con, although we do have heating, and even on the hottest days, using careful airing and window shutters (which all houses have) the temperature inside never got above 21 degrees.
In Winter we have heating, but it is underfloor which quickly and efficiently heats the entire house, and the well insulated building maintains the heat very well.

Sounds very much like here in New England, except we get down to closer to -15°C, occasionally -20°C. Snow is a definite here, too; anything under a few inches is just run of the mill.

We've got about 26-31°C predicted this week during the day with nighttime lows around 14-17°C. It's wonderful after the last couple weeks of mostly 35°-40°C (it's bad when 33-34°C is a relief ...).
Apparently, over the past month the overall temperature (averaging all highs and lows) has been about 26.6°C ... it set a record for the area. I don't want to set those records! I live in the northern states for a reason! I don't know how those in the southern states do it.

Houses around here have a mix of air conditioning statuses ... most at least have window units, though there are people who get by without. I am not tolerant of heat, so central air is a must. We have forced air heat, since the house was built before radiant was a thing.