In November 2023, Storm Ciarn raged across the southern United Kingdom, bringing with it a band of severe low pressure.
Observing the storm, a PhD student at the University of Reading set up a specialised device called a pressure hypsometer that uses the boiling point of water to determine barometric pressure.
It's well known to mountaineers that water boils at a lower temperature at higher altitudes, which in turn makes it hard to brew a good cup of tea.
During the storm, the boiling point was reduced to 98 degrees Celsius instead of the normal 100 degrees.
Making it worse for Britons was that the storm arrived during breakfast hours, and it's estimated that up to 20 million people in south-east England were affected.
However, the tea story isn't as bad as the question suggests because hotter water isn't necessarily better for brewing tea.
In fact, it's said that white tea is best brewed with water below boiling because too much heat will scald the tea.
According to one tea specialist, lower brewing temperatures "gives a thicker, smoother body and the aromatic high notes are clearer".
They add that "the lighter or fresher the flavour you're looking for, the lower the temperature of the water. The stronger or richer the flavour, the higher the temperature".
Green tea can taste bitter or grassy if the water is too hot. Oolong tea, on the other hand, is better with hotter water.
The fact that tea is sensitive to small variations in temperature points to something more fundamental: life - and the planet itself - is finely tuned to work within a narrow range.
As you pump more energy into a system, the more volatile the reactions become, although how much depends on the chemistry. Some are more stable than others, according to what chemists call the temperature coefficient.
It affects many things such as the power of muscle contraction, which generally perform worse at lower temperatures.
Animals can only tolerate a very small range of internal body temperatures. A human, for example, can only tolerate a temperature rise of a couple of degrees, after which it becomes lethal.
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