14 sizzling pictures showing how the West Midlands coped with our hottest heatwaves. Are you in any of them?
Which heatwave sticks out most in your memory?
Probably most of us will recall the sizzling hot summer of 1976, in the same way that people of a certain generation hark back to the freezing winters of 1947 and 1963.
It's actually a bit of a myth. The summer of 1995 was actually drier, and 2006 was hotter, but 1976 just seemed more memorable and seemed to go on forever. It was the year when Brotherhood of Man triumphed at Eurovision, drought minister Denis Howell became the most famous man in the country with his Ed Davey-esque publicity stunts, and the crowd at Lords famously burst into a round of applause at a few drops of rain.
In Walsall, 17-year-olds Trudy Allen and Denise Clift made the most of the weather by relaxing in the town's Arboretum, where they took their sketch pads and spent he day drawing. In Oswestry, teacher Miss M Jones decided the classroom at Bellen House School was too hot, so took the youngsters into Cae Glas Park for an alfresco reading leasson.
