‘Grapes have shrivelled to raisins while still on the vine.’

You think it’s been hot in the UK? Come to California, says Helen Angove. It's hotter.

So you think its been hot in Britain recently? You should try Southern California.

We have just emerged, gasping and sweating, from two weeks of meteorological hell. Temperatures have regularly been above 40 °C, and our house never cooled down to less than about 27 °C even in the small hours of the morning.

Sleep was impossible without the aid of fans and wet t-shirts, and on more than one occasion I found myself sitting on the back doorstep at 3am, hoping for a cooling breeze.

Even heat-hardened locals are saying that they don’t remember ever experiencing such relentless high temperatures before.

The media is reporting anything from 100 to 164 deaths directly caused by the heat, and many more that are probably heat related. The morgue in Fresno has apparently been stacking corpses on top of each other to get them all in.

Deaths

The weather has also been responsible for many thousands of livestock deaths, and significant damage to crops, with plums and nectarines suffering heat damage, and grapes shrivelling to raisins while still on the vine.

As for us, we have been largely hiding indoors and snuggling up to our antediluvian and noisy air-conditioning unit - the din of which precludes watching television or even chatting to one’s spouse.

As the rest of the State does the same, power consumption has been hitting record levels.

Browsing the BBC News website the other day, I happened upon a page of comments from people in the UK, also suffering profoundly from the heat.

One angry commentator made some acerbic observations to the effect that, in her opinion, it is the fault of millions of Americans using their air-conditioning units that have triggered the climate change that is making the use of air conditioning a necessity in the UK today.

And one certainly does hear horror stories - such as the sister of a friend of mine, who cools her house to a consistent 16 °C all summer (my friend now refuses to stay with her sister as she can’t deal with the idea of wearing a jacket indoors in summer).

Irresponsible

Whatever your stance on the reasons behind climate change it cannot be denied that such profligate use of energy is irresponsible.

And yet, my husband and I, encumbered with the twin disinclinations of active environmental consciences and a noisy, quality-of-life-destroying air conditioning unit, nevertheless still find ourselves using the infernal contraption.

In fact, we found ourselves using it with increasing frequency as the continuing hot weather sapped our resistance.

How can we then be surprised when millions of others do the same if they have access to the means? If the cutting of world carbon emissions is to be successful, it is going to have to rely on other mechanisms alongside human conscience.

I have noticed, here in California, a distinct change in building styles when one compares pre-and post-war architecture.

Pre-war housing (built before domestic air-conditioning became readily available) tends to have been built with the heat in mind - making use of basements, tree-cover and large porches with low overhanging roofs to shade the windows.

Featureless

Post-war architecture, on the other hand, tends towards featureless boxes with large unshaded windows often facing due south or west - almost as if deliberately designed to soak up every last ray of sun.

The reason is of course, cost - a house designed to beat the heat is just not so cheap to build. Just think what a change in building regulations could achieve. I suggest that there must be many other similar ways in which governments can make a difference to energy usage - alongside better education of the public in the ways of energy conservation.

In Long Beach recently, Tony Blair and Arnold Schwarzenegger have been engaging in setting up an agreement between California and the UK to work together on “urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote low carbon technologies”.

Let us hope the collaboration bears fruit. It seems the two leaders got on well - Arnie apparently even offered Tony the part of the Terminator in “Terminator 4” after he steps down from office.

Fortunately, the heat in California has abated (for now), and we are enjoying a spell of almost equally atypical weather, with grey skies and cool nights. Friends from the UK, when they phone, are taken aback by my referring to such weather as “delightful”.

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