The summer of 1976 is seared into national memory. Standpipes in streets, scorched lawns. For decades it stood as the benchmark for British extremes. We’ve now beaten it five times over.
Summer 2025 became the UK’s hottest on record at 16.10°C and according to the Met Office, this is no anomaly. The UK is warming at 0.25°C per decade, and 2025, 2023, 2022, and 2018 all now rank in our ten warmest summers since records began in 1884. A summer as hot as 2025 is now 70 times more likely than it would be without human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. In a natural climate, we’d expect one every 340 years. In today’s climate, roughly every five.
On top of this, British homes were built to trap heat, not repel it. When temperatures soar, the instinct is to buy a portable air conditioner but here’s the irony. Mechanical cooling uses planet-warming refrigerants, spikes energy demand, and contributes to the urban heat island effect. The more we cool artificially, the hotter the world gets.
Since the trend won’t be reversing any time soon, what can we actually do without adding to the problem?
8 Ways to Stay Cool (Without Making It Worse)
1. Use your windows. Open them in the early morning and late evening, shut them once it’s hotter outside than in. Counterintuitive, but shutting your home up during peak heat keeps it significantly cooler. A cheap thermometer inside and outside takes the guesswork out.
2. Shade from the outside. Internal blinds only reduce solar gain by around 10% the heat’s already through the glass. External shutters or blinds are far more effective. A DIY hack: use tin foil or another reflective material on the outside of your windows which face the sun to reflect the heat away.
3. Use fans wisely. At around 3p per hour, a fan is one of the lowest-energy cooling options going. Face it inward at a window to pull cool air in rather than circulate warm air around. But switch it off above 35°C. At that point it blows air hotter than your skin and heats you up.
4. Staying cool at night. Summer 2025 broke records for overnight warmth as much as daytime heat. Swap cotton bedding for linen or bamboo, which wicks moisture better. A cold-water hot water bottle at the foot of the bed, and a spray bottle on the bedside table, both help more than you’d expect.
5. Plant for the long game. A leafy tree planted to the south-west of your home gives dappled shade on summer afternoons and drops its leaves to let winter sun through. Even climbing plants on exterior walls reduce heat absorption. Slow investment, but summers will keep getting hotter for decades. If you’re lucky enough to have a big enough garden, planting a tree will cool you and the planet. (Bonus points for a fruit tree to help cut down on food miles!)
6. Change when you do things. Exercise, cooking, and errands done in the early morning or evening make a big difference. Avoid using the oven during peak heat it raises kitchen temperatures by several degrees. Hydrate steadily throughout the day, not just when thirsty. Since our summers are looking more like southern Europe’s temperature wise, we need to adjust our lifestyles to match the summer heat.
7. Knock on a neighbour’s door. Older adults and those living alone are disproportionately vulnerable during heatwaves. The UKHSA noted that coordinated community responses saved lives in summer 2025. A check-in costs nothing and may matter more than anything else on this list.
8. If you must use AC, use it smartly. If cooling is genuinely essential for medical reasons or young children choose a high-efficiency unit, consider solar-powered options, and combine it with the passive measures above so it doesn’t have to work as hard.
The question isn’t whether UK summers will keep getting hotter they will. It’s how we respond. As passive consumers reaching for energy-hungry quick fixes, or as people adapting thoughtfully, with as light a footprint as possible.
