Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Echoes of 76 as hosepipe ban starts
Boats stranded on The Thames at Kew in 1976
Remember the summer of '76? With the hosepipe ban starting across the Thames Water region and others today, people are asking if we're headed that way again.
For more than a month, between 22nd June and 16th July,the thermometer topped 80°F (26.7°C), and for half of those days temperatures reached 90°F (32.2°C). Rivers slowed to a trickle, while some in Yorkshire stopped flowing completely.
The drought was caused by a dry summer in 1975, followed by 16 months of low rainfall. The sixteen months from September (75) to October (76) were the driest on record - data that stretched back to the reign of George II.
By September of ’76, the nation’s water supply ran so low that households in Wales, the Midlands, Yorkshire and East Anglia were left without tap water, with residents reduced to queuing at standpipes in the streets.
Do you have any memories, or even images of that dry summer?
Staines Reservoir, 1976 (Courtesy of netweather.tv)
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Permalink Reply by Ms on
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I don't have photos, but certainly have memories of the Summer of '76. I was renting a flat in Eastern Road, East Finchley and can remember the sun burning my back as I walked to East Finchley tube in the morning to go to work; changing my clothes 3 times a day to try and stay fresh; our IT department at work suddenly becoming the most popular guys as their office was the only air-conditioned one in the whole building at Greater London House; learning to walk slower, talk slower, become altogether more Mediterranean as we learned to cope with this phenomenal weather; pubs and cafes suddenly grasping the idea of putting tables outside; newspapers running out of "Phew! What a scorcher" headlines - oh, and Brent Cross shopping centre had just opened. We visited because of the airconditioning, but as they had sold out of vest tops, there was nothing else we wanted to buy so left empty handed.
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