People seem to be moaning a lot but it looks to me like we've dodged a bullet so far this summer.
Given a choice between dangerously high temperatures and the weather we've had for the past 3 weeks or so, I'd choose the latter every time.
I hope I'm very wrong but I feel we've now gone past the tipping point with regards to climate change.
We have indeed dodged a bullet. I know the heat-hounds over on the MO thread are moaning, but it's
far better to have moderate temperatures and rain - for those lucky enough to be getting it - than the "canicule" style weather they're experiencing in southern Europe. It's interesting that not many weeks ago those same areas that are now baking were being deluged with rain, the anomaly charts for bits of Italy etc on wxmaps were off the scale!
It's all part of the process which we've seen since the late 80s IMO, that's when the "onwards and upwards" switch seemed to be flicked. Out went proper winters, in came heat records... and increasing in frequency too (i.e. it took 79 years for the 1911 record to be beaten, in 1990; the record has since been broken multiple times in the past 33 years). There's the odd throwback to the old norms, but they're now very much the exception.
Ass you say, even if all emissions were stopped tomorrow we're stuck with this for decades. As that won't happen, the best thing to do is prepare for the inevitable heat to come - make sure that we are equipped as a nation to deal with it. A/C will be a big feature, of course, and the key will be powering that in as eco-friendly a way as possible (which will be fun, with all the cars and non-reversible heat-pumps being installed).
It always used to irritate me, as a kid, when the first global warming articles were published. "Ooh, lovely", said the common man, "It'll be like the Med - bring it on!"
Well, they've got their wish - and even last year, they carried on. "Red warning for heat? Stuff that, it's called 'summer'", went many a comment locally.
Even recently, when the Met Office has been issuing press releases about the warmth in June etc, the comments pages on the papers, Twitter etc fill up with people outright denying it's been warm. It's most odd!
And talking of heat, the Beeb has an article about the effects of the heat in America, with Death Valley forecast to reach 54C. I'm actually pleased they're seeing the effects over there - as, Alaska aside (where they're very much concerned about climate change), they've seen less detrimental effects than elsewhere.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66195722