Empty reservoirs, ladybirds and sunstroke: remembering the UK heatwave of 1976 | Extreme heat

The latest heatwave in the UK broke the previous June record of 35.6C, which was set during the 1976 heat wave.

In Lingwood, Norfolk, a short-term temperature of 37.7C was recorded on Friday 26 June, breaking the previous record set on 28 June 1976 and 29 June 1957.

We asked people to tell us about their memories of the 1976 heatwave. How are they coping, and how does it compare to the 2026 heatwave?

Here are some of their responses.

‘The country was shocked’

Margaret Waring, 87, from Cambridge says: “The context of the 1976 heater was very different. “We had a drought. It shocked the country because it had never happened like this before.”

During the heatwave, Margaret worked in Manchester teaching geography, meteorology and climatology in secondary schools. “I used to come home and take a bath one time, we had to find out who would take a bath first and not pollute too much, I had two children downstairs and a man at the time, we didn’t have water to bathe.

“We built a sprinkler with a garden hose from the bathroom window and installed a plastic bucket designed to water the vegetable patch. And the flowers and grass were neglected. We also saved water on the washing machine.”

Water aside, the current heatwave is uncomfortable, says Margaret. “The heat didn’t seem to stop right now. The high humidity and temperature makes it difficult to cope. There’s a lot of pollution in the atmosphere. There’s been an amazing change over the last 50 years. But you can come home and have one in three showers now.”

‘The dams were empty’

John Ellis, 72, says sitting in the Oxford final in a full suit, shirt, jacket, heavy trousers, mortar board and bow tie during the heat of 1976 was “excruciating”.

“The test school buildings were boiling,” he says. “It was Victorian, very tall, and a lot of light came in. We were only allowed to take off our clothes! We had nine papers between Thursday and Tuesday; it was intense.”

When his exams were over, John, a retired FE teacher and now a crime writer, returned home to Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, to see “empty lakes”, including Ladybower in Derbyshire, “over the hill of Huddersfield”, and “remains of flooded villages exposed” like the Derwent.

Today, John says he finds it difficult to cope with the heat. “I don’t know if it’s an age thing, but the sun feels strong, you feel like you’re going to burn quickly, and the heat is amazing.

“The summer of 1976 was extraordinary, unfortunately we missed the chance to really stop this. We should have been reducing carbon emissions 25-30 years ago, so the scale of this is unavoidable. I think we can still prevent it from getting worse if we continue to reduce emissions, but we will have to adapt to the current situation.”

‘I was pregnant and we had no water’

Susan Gilliam, 79, was pregnant with her first child in a flat in Crystal Palace during the heater.

“It was very bad because it was very hot and very dry,” he said. “In the summer I lied and said I was doing little, giving birth was difficult but after that it was almost worse because we didn’t have water in the toilet, only you turned on the taps and nothing came out.

“When my son was born, there was no place to wash diapers other than a real toilet, it was disgusting, we used one bucket of water that was brought by the truck every day, you put a line with the bucket, they didn’t allow more than one.

“The flat was well insulated, but it was not suitable for doing that in the heat. I used to take the child out to visit Crystal Palace Park.”

‘It just got hot, hot, and hotter’

Mark Hainge, 68, from Hay-on-Wye, recalls a grueling summer training as an officer cadet at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in May, 1976.

“It just got very hot, very hot, very hot,” he said, “We were given a break from time to time – you can call it a water break, I guess – to draw water from the tap, like feeding the cows.

“At the end of the day’s training, our old-fashioned khaki flannel shirts would be completely soaked, so you had no choice but to wash them, iron them dry and put them back on, ready for the next day. You’re not really asking, I’m 18. I think if you made me do it now, there would be few questions.”

Like the temperatures, the levels in the school were high. “We would expect that the smallest details of our uniforms and attendance would be considered when drawing.” After a grueling hour in the main parade ground, the color sergeant of the Scots Guards who was in charge of our platoon decided to have some fun. ‘Mr Hainge – show me the boots!’

“I bent one leg behind me so he could check the soles of my boots. ‘Dirty boots Sir!’ he shouted triumphantly before I marched off the square and into the prison of the guard room. My ‘crime’ was to allow the tenders of my boots to collect the melting tar from the market place.”

‘I couldn’t have asked for a better job’

Being close to water during the heater of ’76 makes a difference in people’s memories of that time. Michael Keane, 71, who was a security guard in London, remembers it as “a good summer”.

“I couldn’t have wished for a better job as a security guard at an open pool, there was laughter and joking,” he said.

Michael was working at King George’s park outdoor swimming pool in Wandsworth, south-west London, which has since closed.

“I got a lot of help that summer and a lot of memories,” said Michael, who is retired and lives in Oval, south-west London.

At one point that summer, the pool had to be closed because the water was cloudy and not clear. “It was a bank holiday and, apparently, people broke in anyway,” he said.

Although retired, Michael is still an avid swimmer in lidos, lakes and the sea.

In this heat wave, if he is struggling, he finds the coolest room in the house and “stays there”.

“I’m lucky enough, I have a little wisteria in my house that keeps it cool,” he adds.

‘I got sunburned twice’

Tracey, 57, who grew up in Devon, says she remembers the 1976 heatwave well, even though she was only seven years old, and not because she got sunstroke “twice”.

“You didn’t put on sunscreen and wear a hat and cover up like you do now,” he said. “It burned, actually. I miss my mom, my sister, and I got really sick that summer.”

But unlike most people, they had a water source nearby.

“We lived on the edge of Totnes, and luckily our house had dry spring water,” he says. “We would see people on TV fetching water from the tap, but we didn’t have to deal with that.”

Tracey, who now lives in central Sweden and grows and sells vegetables, recalls that the family was very careful about how they used water.

The earth was hard baked and cracked, but there was absolutely no watering for the garden, and at school, I remember there were stickers on the toilets that said: “Spray if necessary.”

Tracey, who says she has not liked the recent hot weather – temperatures in southern Sweden reached 36C recently – adds: “Luckily we have our source”.

But the lessons learned during the 1976 heat never left him.

He adds: “They have stuck with me ever since. “I water my garden with rainwater – I have five 1,000 liter tanks, and water barrels.

‘You can’t walk without stepping on ladybirds’

“The thing I remember most about the hot weather was the crab,” said Susie Wardell, 80, who lives in Saltburn-by-the-Sea.” My husband and I were living at the time in a houseboat on the River Medway in Kent.

“We were tied up on the side of the boardwalk, and you couldn’t walk on it without stepping on it. There were hundreds of them all over the place. It lasted for weeks. That was my main memory of 1976.”

The advantage of living on a boat at that time was that Susie was not adversely affected by the lack of water. “We were heavy users of water anyway,” he said.

The current heatwave didn’t bother him that much, he says. “It’s fine, as long as you drink plenty of water and wear a hat when you go out.

He adds: “I haven’t seen a single bird this summer.”