THE sun may be fading a bit now, but the recent high temperatures across the UK will have reminded some of the great heatwave of 1976. Here is a picture of some people in Glasgow queuing for water during that long summer.
By late June 1976, London was seeing temperatures of up to 33C, only a shade lower than the capital’s hottest recorded day in 1940, but The Glasgow Herald advised that Scotland would be next. On Sunday 27 June, it was 25C at Lossiemouth, 22.8C in Aberdeen and Edinburgh and 22.2C in Glasgow – the city’s first day in several weeks without rain.
And then the temperatures rose even more. On July 1 Glasgow’s temperature soared to a record for the month of 29.5C. The heat caused salad items to leap in price: tomatoes increased by 10p per pound. In England, it was too hot to pick strawberries or to transport those that had been picked (and this during Wimbledon, too).
Glasgow comedian remembers the year well and told The Herald about one experience in particular. “I do remember the 1976 heatwave,” he said, “and one Saturday in particular when I was opening a church fete at one o’clock and a lady in the platform party fainted with the heat and three Penguins melted. Fortunately they weren’t the birds you find in the Antarctic but the more palatable version made by McDonalds Biscuits.”
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