Prepare for a Heatwave: The Hottest May Since 1922 Was Just the Warning Shot

On 26 May 2026, the temperature at Kew Gardens reached 35.1°C. That was the hottest May day in the United Kingdom since 1922 — over a century of weather records, broken in a fortnight. The heatwave lasted the better part of a week. UKHSA issued heat health alerts across England. Fourteen people died in open water.

Today is 1st June. Meteorological summer officially starts today. And that heatwave was just May.

If you haven’t thought seriously about how to prepare for a heatwave — properly, not just “I’ve got a fan somewhere” — now is the time. Not next week. Not when the next forecast comes in. Now, while shelves are stocked and delivery times are normal.

Why the First Hot Spell Is Always the Worst

The pattern is the same every year. A heat warning comes in. The next morning, every fan on Amazon has a one-to-three-week delivery estimate. Camping shops sell out of cooling towels by lunchtime. The well-prepared households barely notice. The rest spend three days next to a desk fan with a broken motor they bought in 2018 and never tested.

The gap between “forecast says hot” and “you can’t buy anything useful” is roughly 36 hours. The households that sail through a heatwave are the ones who prepared when it was still raining.

We had a record-breaking May. The proper summer hasn’t started yet. Here’s what to have in place.

Keeping Cool — Body and Room

The most immediate problem in a heatwave is core temperature. Fans help with airflow. Cooling towels work differently — they use evaporation to actively pull heat away from the skin. Wet it, wring it, snap it, wear it. No ice required, no power required. They work on necks, foreheads, and wrists — anywhere with blood vessels close to the surface. In a heatwave, that distinction matters.

For rooms, a USB-powered desk fan has one key advantage over a mains fan: it keeps working during a power cut and can be moved around the home. Heatwaves increase grid demand sharply — the entire country running fans and air conditioning simultaneously is not a scenario the grid handles effortlessly. A fan that works off a power bank is a different category of product.

Prepare for a Heatwave Outside — Sun Protection Done Properly

Melanoma cases in the UK have risen significantly over the past two decades. The link between UV exposure and skin cancer is not subtle or contested — it’s the most directly preventable cause. We covered the full picture in our skin cancer prevention special report if you want the numbers.

The short version: SPF50 on all exposed skin, every time you go outside. Not just beach days. Gardening, the school run, cycling to work — May and June sun in the UK is entirely capable of causing damage. And reapply. A half-empty bottle sitting on the bathroom shelf is not sun protection.

The sachet format solves the “I never have SPF on me when I need it” problem. Four sachets per pack, each one enough for a full application. They live in a bag, a glove box, a jacket pocket — wherever you actually are when the sun is out.

Cover-up clothing with a UPF rating blocks UV at the fabric level — more reliable than remembering to reapply, and more practical for anyone spending extended time outside. A good hiking shirt with UPF 40+ blocks the same UV that SPF50 does, with zero effort after you’ve put it on.

A wide-brim hat with neck coverage matters more than most people give it credit for. The back of the neck, the ears, and any thinning areas on the scalp are consistently the most burnt spots on most people, because nobody thinks to apply SPF there. A hat with a proper neck flap removes the problem entirely.

Eyes are not exempt from UV damage. Cataracts and macular degeneration have both been linked to cumulative UV exposure. Wrap-around sunglasses that actually block UV400 — not fashion sunglasses with a vague UV claim on the label — are a meaningful difference.

For when you do catch the sun — and it happens — a proper aloe vera gel makes a real difference overnight. Not the blue perfumed gel marketed as aftersun. Actual aloe vera, in a tube, stored somewhere accessible.

Medication and the Heat — the Section People Skip

Insulin, certain antibiotics, GTN spray, some eye drops — all of these have storage temperature requirements that a hot summer makes genuinely difficult to meet. Leaving insulin in a car during a heatwave isn’t an inconvenience. It can render the medication ineffective. The same applies to anything with a “store below 25°C” instruction — which becomes optimistic when your home sits at 28°C for five days and your car reaches 50°C in the afternoon.

A cooling wallet keeps medication at safe temperatures for up to 45 hours using nothing but water. No power, no fridge, no ice. Activated by soaking in cold water for five minutes. It is, frankly, the kind of product people hear about for the first time in a heatwave and wish they’d had a week ago.

The second issue is power. Heatwaves increase grid demand sharply, and a power cut during a heatwave is a worse outcome than a power cut in February — because the food safety window shrinks faster, and because your medication is in a fridge that’s been off for three hours in a 30°C kitchen.

Your Pets in a Heatwave

Dogs can’t sweat. They regulate heat through panting, which is inefficient and has clear limits. Flat-faced breeds — bulldogs, pugs, French bulldogs — are at serious risk in heat. So are thick-coated breeds, older dogs, and any dog that hasn’t yet understood that lying in full sun at 2pm in June is a bad idea. Spoiler: most dogs haven’t understood this.

The five-second rule: press the back of your hand to the pavement. If you can’t hold it for five seconds, it’s burning their paws. This applies to tarmac, paving slabs, gravel, and artificial grass. Walk them early morning or after 7pm.

A cooling mat gives dogs somewhere to lie that actively draws heat from their body through pressure-activated gel. No power, no preparation — they just lie on it.

Keep them hydrated on walks. Dogs don’t pace themselves on water intake and won’t tell you they’re thirsty until they’re already struggling.

What to Do When the Power Goes

Most UK homes aren’t air-conditioned. The ones that are contribute disproportionately to summer peak demand. The grid manages most years, but summer power cuts are more common than winter ones in unusually hot years — and the May 2026 pattern suggests we may be in a stretch of unusually hot days.

A power cut in a heatwave is different from a winter power cut in important ways. The fridge becomes a problem within four hours. Frozen food is viable for 48 hours if you don’t open the freezer — but only if you don’t open it. The temperature inside the house doesn’t drop as soon as the heating goes off, because there’s no heating to turn off.

Do This Now, Not in July

Today is the first day of meteorological summer. The Met Office is already monitoring the Atlantic for the pattern that will bring the next significant heat event — and based on the trajectory of the last few years, it will come. Probably in July. Possibly hotter than May.

The time to prepare for a heatwave is not when the amber warning drops. It’s now, while delivery times are two days and the cooling towels are all in stock.

Get the cooling kit sorted. Check where your medication is being stored. Walk the dog before 8am. Buy the SPF50 and actually put it somewhere accessible and use it.

That wasn’t even summer yet.