British Heatwave Talk (1985 – 2023): From Ice Cream to Armageddon?

How does climate science challenge interpretations of ‘the weather’? British heatwaves are traditionally considered a fortunate break from dull routine. A topic-modeling analysis of British national newspaper articles on heatwaves from 1985 until 2023 (N = 35,127) shows this longstanding Romantic understanding has largely disappeared; today, Apocalypticism is by far the dominant genre for conceiving them. A supplementary hermeneutic analysis then indicates complexity within this broad trend. 1980s stories already noted routine heatwave problems, while many recent ones continue depicting positive evaluations of leisure and consumption opportunities. Within the Apocalyptic genre itself climate change is today deemed a factual causal force, whereas in the 1980s and 1990s it was a possible carrier of future dangers. The approach used here is novel, replicable, focused and non-reactive and can be transposed to other national contexts.