Millions face hosepipe bans as UK heatwave reaches 34.7C

BBC ^ | 07/11/2025 | Hollie Cole BBC News Simon King Lead Weather Presenter

[Disambiguator]

It’s in the 90s in the UK. Is that unusual? We’ve been dealing with 100+ here in SW Idaho, but we do have AC.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

So much of UK/Europe still without AC’s. Senior citizens suffer most.

[Leaning Right]

They can have my hosepipe when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!

P.S. The Brits sure do speak funny. What’s a hosepipe?

🤔

[lee martell]

At first glance, headline appears to mention a
“Hospice Ban”. Needless to say, that’s incorrect.

‘Hose-Pipe’ ban is the new term of the hour.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

It’s a distinct type of humidity — and the streets in England are very narrow. Everything is densely packed — at least in a city like London. The buildings, many of which are quite old, are not designed for hot weather, but instead amplify it.

[Steve_Seattle]

What’s a hosepipe?

[Allegra]

We call it a garden hose. 😏

[PAR35]

Roughly 94.5 or equal to the cool summer we’ve been having in the Metroplex. We’ve certainly been suffering from global cooling here this year.

[digger48]

So they get beaten with a rubber hose if they don’t comply?

[PAR35]

The buildings, many of which are quite old, are not designed for hot weather,

The old buildings were designed for hot weather - built before fans, much less air conditioning, and with windows that open.

Of course, the rich would decamp to their summer residences, but the poor always had to sweat.

[mass55th]

"What’s a hosepipe?"

Brits always come up with crazy names for things. Bathroom = Loo; Car Trunk = Boot. Cookies = Biscuits. Food gift basket = Hamper. And the rest of the time they mispronounce normal words like aluminum, garage, privacy, vitamin.

[gitmo]

I Duck-Duck-Went “hosepipe”. It’s a garden hose.

[verum ago]

It’s in the 90s in the UK. Is that unusual? We’ve been dealing with 100+ here in SW Idaho, but we do have AC.

Yes, it is. The mean daily maximum in London in July (its hottest month) for instance, is only about 75° F. I myself used to live in SW Idaho, but have also lived in very humid but still hot places like New Orleans, and yes, the humidity matters greatly. If it's too humid, you can sweat all you want, and it doesn't cool you off at all. Not much AC in the UK either, and the concentration of people in urban areas doesn't help- they run hotter than the surrounding rural areas.

All the above said, I can't help but feel that the people of the UK have fallen quite a ways from "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun"...

[Fiji Hill]

And the rest of the time they mispronounce normal words like aluminum, garage, privacy, vitamin.

Also tomato, potato and banana.

[Williams]

I’m pretty sure in Winchester 73 starring Jimmy Stewart, when he goes to prison they tell the prisoners, “If you get out of line, we hosepipe you”. The guards were holding lengths of big black rubber hoses.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

UK is more wet and cold as a rule though…not snowy, blizzard…but yeah.

[Fiji Hill]

If you have been to Washington, DC in the summertime, that’s probably what it’s like.

[technically right]

Don’t forget you open the “bonnet” to check your engine.

[Kleon]

Ironically, we’re the ones preserving the English language.