We waited long enough for it and when it arrived, if you blinked you missed it.

Summer finally showed up about a week ago and we had a few hottish days in a row to enjoy.

This being Britain, woke weather folk immediately issued a yellow warning and a few lightweight snowflakes began moaning about the unbearable heat.

I have a number of American friends and it’s at this point they usually chip in with their Brit-bashing and abuse us for failing to handle the mercury rising a couple of notches.

However, this time I was surprised because Dwight, from Texas, has recently moved to live in London and as soon as the temperature rose he leapt to the defence of his new neighbours and put his fellow Yanks back in their boxes by explaining why we were wilting at 25C.

First, he reiterated just how far north Britain is and which part of Canada matches its latitude, and then explained it would be a frozen waste if it wasn’t for the Gulf Stream.

This, he concluded, means we suffer the most intolerable humidity and, unlike other countries, are completely ill-equipped to handle this moisture in the atmosphere.

“We suffer the most intolerable humidity and, unlike other countries, are completely ill-equipped to handle this moisture in the atmosphere…”

He says the science backs up his theory as the humidity means we’re not able to lose sweat from the surface of our skin, which is the natural way we cool down.

On top of having more than 50 per cent humidity, he blamed our houses, which have been built to retain heat and are not designed to circulate breezes.

I’ll spare you his thoughts on global warming in general but he has got a point that our infrastructure (rails/roads/water systems/electricity grid) is not equipped to deal with the increase in average temperatures.

We’ve never had air conditioning in this country - to be fair we haven’t needed it previously. Only 5% of households here have A/C, compared to 90% in America.

If all our properties did have air conditioning installed can you imagine the extra strain it would place on our grid, particularly at a time when we’re seeking to reduce our dependency on electricity? And that’s without even considering the stress and strain it would add to household budgets.

So, perhaps these people who start complaining the moment we start getting a decent amount of sunshine have a point after all - the science, and at least one sensible American, seems to support their view.