As you spend the weekend sweating and in search of shade, you won’t need informing that Britain is enduring what may prove to be the hottest heatwave on record.
Temperatures are expected to soar above 35C on Sunday with modelling suggesting it could climb as high as 40C as people return to work on Monday and Tuesday.
For many of us, this will be uncomfortable. Unions have called for working from home to be allowed where possible, while many companies have relaxed dress codes. Reports suggest that in the City – one of London’s most formal working environments – straw hats have become a must-have accessory.
But for some professions the next few days – boater or not – look set to border on unbearable.
Here, then, are perhaps the five of the hardest jobs to do during an extreme heatwave, as described by the people who do them.
Welders
Inside the Sheffield forge owned by Richard Beatson, the temperature has been known to reach 54C. “I put a towel in cold water then wrap it around my neck,” he says. “Although even that doesn’t keep you cool for too long.”
Welding, soldering and brazing are among the hottest occupations done anywhere on the planet. Beatson uses a forge to generate temperatures of 1,000C that allows him to meld, mould, shape and fabricate metal. On cold days, working alongside it can get toasty. On hot days, it’s pretty much a health hazard.
“We strip down to our T-shirt, protective trousers and work boots,” he says. “Sometimes I think about getting rid of the T-shirt and trousers too.”
Spray bottles of water are kept around the place while fans are set up on various surfaces. But, even taking this into account, the apex of the coming heatwave looks especially ferocious. “We’ll start at 6am on Monday and try to finish before the worst of the heat comes,” he says. “What else can we do? It’s our job.”
Chefs
So hot does it get it in restaurant kitchens during summer months that workers are known to fear an especially unpleasant ailment: chef’s arse. With so many sources of heat at waist level – the hobs and the ovens – the sweat on one’s backside causes agonising chafing. “You need to put a bit of soft cornflour down there,” says Peter Kinsella, owner and head chef at the Lunya in Liverpool city centre. “That eases the rubbing.”
Few kitchens have air conditioning – it’s expensive and space-consuming – meaning that the warm months are brutal. “You drink a litre of water every hour and you sweat so much you still don’t need the loo for the entire shift,” says Mr Kinsella. “That’s probably not healthy, is it?”
Heatwaves aren’t even that good for business. Hot nights tend to mean people host barbeques instead of eating out.
Still the 58-year-old wouldn’t change it for the world. “When you look out from the kitchen and people are enjoying your food, there’s no reward like it,” he says.
Steam and heat at North Brewing in Leeds
Refuse workers
Bin workers face all the usual issues associated with grafting long outdoor hours in hot weather – including sunstroke and heat exhaustion – but, for them there is also a uniquely disagreeable challenge to boot: dealing with the sensory overload that comes with collecting waste in warm weather.
“Sensory overload?” repeats Craig Dale, the assistant director in charge of waste collection with Oldham Borough Council. “You mean the bins stinking? They do but you get used to it. You don’t have to put your faces in them or anything.”
While some councils bring forward collection times in intense heat to allow rounds to be finished before midday, most work on the belief that such a change creates more problems than it solves. “People are creatures of habit,” says Mr Dale. “If you move forward [the time bins are collected], 50 per cent of residents wouldn’t have their bins ready so we’d have to go round again later anyway.”
Refuge workers face stinking bins and hard work
