We will look back on the summer of 2026 as one in which we dealt with heatwave after heatwave. Schools closed, public transport was disrupted and people urged only to travel if necessary. Amid the disruption, weather warnings and health alerts, an often-repeated sentiment these days is the harking back to the days when we "just got on with it". Fifty years ago, many parts of the UK faced an even greater challenge than the one we're facing now and the long hot summer of 1976 still holds British heatwave records. Children rode bikes on dry river beds, forests and mountains burned, reservoirs dried up and water supplies were cut off by authorities among genuine concerns that we would run out. It was the second driest summer since records began but it's the searing heat for which the summer is