Bracknell has been basking in sunshine over the past few days, with temperatures rising to as high as 38 degrees at its hottest point.

An extreme heat warning was released by the MET office for all areas of the UK, however with the large areas of wood lands and bodies of water it poses an even greater danger.

As the heat reaches record-breaking levels, we often seek to compare it to other years that have reached drastic temperatures causing chaos amoung communities.

1967 was one of these years, which seen temperatures exceed 32 degrees for more than a fortnight and triggered the most significant drought in a century.

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The most drastic effect that the heat caused during the two weeks of constant heat waves was the hazard of roaming snakes across the Bracknell country side.

Several were spotted by the Bracknell District Council’s countryside rangers and warnings were issued about ‘how to avoid snakebites.

During that 1976 summer in Bracknell, The Mid Southern Water company was just as worried about drought as the rest of the UK. A spokesman from the company said: The position will become really serious if there is no response to this appeal to use less water within two or three days.”

At the time 590,000 consumers in the area were using about a million tons of water a day more than it was possible to produce.

Increased demand for water was being met from man made reservoirs in Crowthorne and Maidenhead.

They continued: “We have not had a summer like this for over 200 years. If this demand is sustained at it’s current level and the hot, dry weather continues, there is a risk at least one of our reservoirs will run dry.”

Bracknell News:

During the first week of July in 1976, hundreds of Forest fires broke out in the Bracknell, Wokingham, Ascot and Crowthorne areas.

The smell of smoke was said to be constantly in the air and firemen were required to maintain shifts up to 18 hours a day. However, many fires at the time were simply left to burn themselves out.

The main wildfire during that particular summer was the Crown Estate and Swinley roundabout fire at Bagshot Road. One mile of woodland went up in a single afternoon due to the heat.

Another major fire in Nine Mile Ride, south of Bracknell, destroyed 15 acres of forestland, almost destroying a nearby farm.

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Chief Forestry officer from the Crown Commissioners, Mr J. J. Taylor, whose woods encircle Bracknell said: “The fire danger this week has been the worst I have ever known in 30 years in forestry. We are very concerned indeed about the general conditions now.

Earley petrol terminal and the US base at Greenham gifted tankers of 8,000 galloons of water which kept Reading district fire control in action.

 

The heatwave, which started at the beginning of July had people from all over Bracknell making their way to South Hill Park where they could be seen ‘casting themselves into the lake to emerge dripping, muddy, but best of all cool.’

Most could be seen arriving with bikini’s or simply shedding layers throughout the day.