Morning, Surbiton. This is the one. The amber warning is live from eight this morning until eleven tonight, and it is going to touch 36°C this afternoon. Below: how to get through it, when it breaks, and the awards — which are going well in some categories and are completely empty in others.
The hot one
The shape of the day. Already climbing now. Through 30°C before lunch, peaking about 35 or 36°C between three and five, and still 33°C at seven in the evening. It does not really let go until after nine.
Tonight is the bit to take seriously. It only drops to about 19°C. That is the second warm night in a row, and it is the one that catches people out — a hot day you have slept off is manageable, a hot day after a night you could not cool down in is not.
The practical list. Anything strenuous, do it now or leave it until after eight tonight. Take water even on a short trip — the bus and the train are the worst of it and that is where people actually come unstuck. Shut the curtains on the sunny side of the house before it gets going rather than after. And if there is someone elderly on your road, particularly upstairs in a flat that has been baking since Monday, today is the day to knock.
And the good news: it breaks on Saturday. Tomorrow is still hot at about 33°C, but Saturday comes in at 26°C with a chance of rain, and Sunday is cooler again. Two more days.
The awards: what has come in, and what has not
Nominations opened yesterday morning and started arriving within half an hour, which I did not expect on a day when I had just told everyone to stay indoors. Here is where it stands.
Nominated so far
Pub: The Royal Oak · The Grove · The Lamb
Coffee: Coffee on the Corner · ICON
Place to eat: The French Table · Positanos · Nay Thai
Takeaway: Ploys · Sushi Hero
Hairdresser or barber: Metropolis · Shimi
And now the gap. Three categories have had not one single nomination between them:
Best tradesperson · Best estate agent · Best dentist
Which is funny, because those are the three where a recommendation is actually worth something. Nobody has ever been stuck at nine on a Sunday night wondering which coffee to have. Everybody, at some point, has stood in a kitchen with water coming through the ceiling trying to remember the name of the bloke their neighbour used.
So: who did your boiler, your roof, your rewire, your extension? Who actually turned up when they said they would? Who sold your house without making it worse? Which dentist do you send people to?
Hit reply with a name. One line does it. Nominations close Sunday night, the ballot goes out Monday, and the whole town votes.
It was clear, in the end
The forecast held and the sky stayed empty, which does not always happen when you have told six hundred people to go outside and look at something. I hope you got it. If you took a photograph you are still welcome to send it — it will run whenever it arrives.
The K4 now has an end date — and a different reason. Yesterday TfL blamed roadworks on Villiers Avenue. This morning the same notice says Ewell Road and electrical repairs, running until 6pm on Sunday. Same diversion via Lingfield Avenue, Maple Road and Claremont Road; same stops missed, Cheyne Hill to Surbiton station one way and St Mark's Church to Cheyne Hill the other. Four days, so worth planning around rather than waiting out.
Everything else is running. K1, K2, K3, 71, 281, 406, 418, 465 and the S3 all on a Good Service.
Finishing today. Both sets of Thames Water signals on Ewell Road, and the Kingston Road signals. There is also a one-day TfL job on Elmbridge Avenue today, on top of the council works there that run to the 18th.
Until tomorrow. Raeburn Avenue signals, Manor Way, Tolworth Road, and the council's stretch of Ewell Road. Hook Road grinds on either to mid-September or to mid-October depending which official source you ask, and I still cannot reconcile the two.
A new reader put it better than I have. Someone who drives a van round here for a living wrote in this morning: they have never seen so many road closures and works, and it is making it impossible to run a reliable service. That is the whole reason this box exists, and it is why I would rather print a diversion a day early than a day late.
The weekend
Saturday: the Farmers' Market is back on Maple Road, 9am to 1pm. Third Saturday of the month, up to forty stalls, run by volunteers with the stall fees going to local causes — and at 26°C instead of 36°C it will be a considerably nicer morning than today.
The railway, though. Effingham Junction is closed all weekend. Waterloo to Guildford via Cobham trains are diverted after Surbiton and terminate at Hampton Court, with buses running Surbiton to Guildford via Cobham. The Epsom-line Guildford trains turn back at Dorking. If you are travelling, check before you leave rather than at the platform.
⛅ Weather.35 to 36°C today under the amber warning, clear and unrelenting, down only to about 19°C overnight. Tomorrow 32 to 33°C with a bit of cloud.
Then it goes: Saturday about 26°C with a chance of a shower, Sunday cooler still. By Sunday night this week will feel like something that happened to somebody else.
Drink more than you think you need to, and keep an eye on your neighbours.
And if you know a good plumber, this is the one day I am asking for their name rather than their number.
Stay cool,
Mike
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