Heatwave: the delusions of a warming British summer

热浪:温暖英国夏日的幻想

Editor's Picks from The Economist

2025-07-10

8 分钟
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A handpicked article read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. Britain's summers are getting increasingly hotter, but people's expectations haven't adjusted to the new reality. Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
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  • The Economist Hello, this is Alok Jha,

  • host of Babbage, our weekly podcast on science and technology.

  • Welcome to Editors Pics.

  • We've chosen an unmissable article from the latest edition of The Economist.

  • Please do have a listen.

  • Stepping off the 910 from London Victoria to Whitstable was akin to disembarking from a Ryanair flight in Alicante rather than a former Oysterport in Kent.

  • A little before midday, the temperature was creeping towards 30 degrees Celsius.

  • As a wall of heat hit her face, one pensioner dispaired, it's un-British.

  • Increasingly it is nothing of the sort.

  • Summer days of 30 degrees Celsius are now common in southern England.

  • Occasionally the heat is extreme.

  • Britain hit 40 degrees Celsius for the first time in 2022.

  • In some scenarios it could hit 45 degrees Celsius according to the Met Office.

  • Britain is becoming hotter.

  • Each summer brings an annual fast in which an increasingly hot country pretends it is anything but.

  • Britain's image of summer has not caught up with its sweaty reality.

  • To Britain's, summer is still a season for suffering, stoically, in the rain.

  • Glastonbury, a music festival which kicked off on June 25th, is still written about as a mudfest,

  • even though sunstroke has been a far bigger risk than trench foot for years.

  • Wimbledon is portrayed as a rain-addled fortnight rather than a tournament that has had to introduce ten-minute breaks for players when temperatures reach 30.1 Celsius.