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No, the summer of 1976 is not an excuse to ignore the heatwave

No, the summer of 1976 is not an excuse to ignore the heatwave

Related video: GB News host tells meteorologist to be 'happy' about heatwave

GB News

We assure you it isn’t some terrible knock-off of a hit single from Bryan Adams. Some people really are harking back to weather from more than 40 years ago to argue that the incoming heatwave is nothing to worry about.

The Met Office issued its first ever red warning for extreme heat on Friday, adding that an “exceptional hot spell on Monday and Tuesday” would lead to “widespread impacts on people and infrastructure”.

There are also concerns temperatures could hit 40C, breaking the previous high of 38.7C, which was recorded in Cambridge in 2019.

Though it’s 1976 which many people are talking about in relation to this current weather when the UK saw 15 consecutive days of temperatures above 32C, a swarm of ladybirds and – most alarmingly – a 20 per cent year-on-year increase of “excess deaths” that summer and a spike in hospitalisations.

But no, folks, let’s dismiss fears about climate change in favour of some good ol’ fashioned nostalgia!

One high-profile example came on Thursday, when GB News host Bev Turner told an actual meteorologist to be “happy” about rising temperatures.

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She asked John Hammond: “Haven’t we always had hot weather, John? The summer of ’76, that was as hot as this, wasn’t it?”

And she isn’t the only one referencing the weather from back then:

The argument has since been strongly ridiculed online, however:

Oh, and actual meteorologists and scientists have shut down the argument too:

We’d say remarks about 1976 are a load of hot air, but we honestly can’t deal with any more of that right now.

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