Some of you may know that the UK is currently in the midst of a heatwave, with yesterday's 36.3° Celsius (97.34° Fahrenheit) being the hottest July temperature ever recorded. The hottest recorded temperature in the UK was back in that hideously hot summer in 2003, when we reached 38.5° C, or 101.3° F. The lowest recorded temperature in the UK, by way of contrast, is -27.2° C, or -17.86° F. It's also a humid heat, I suppose because we're surrounded by the sea. I'm struggling to come up with any kind of statistic for this, but weather.co.uk's somewhat unhelpful humidity map suggests between 60-80% humidity where I am (Hastings, East Sussex) and across most of the UK, with some areas having only 40-60% humidity, but one area on Scotland's west coast moving into the 80-100% bracket. I'm sure some of you guys live in places that are hotter, colder or more humid (in which case, tell us how much more, so I can feel better). But here in the UK we're meant to have a temperate climate! If this is temperate, I'm just glad I don't live somewhere with an extreme climate - although at least you'd be able to predict it. In the UK, we can have any kind of weather, often several different kinds all in the same day. I find heat like we had yesterday, and have been having for most of July, almost unbearable. This country has no system for coping with heat. Maybe I should go along the road to the undertaker's where I used to work; they're the only people I've known in the UK outside of London to have air-conditioning. Or maybe I could convince the Great God that we should move back to Georgia, where it's hotter and more humid, but with air-conditioning, free ice-water all over the place, a slower pace of life and loads of pretty sub-tropical species of plant to make up for it. Our house here is baking hot. I dread to think what Garner's office is like. I just wish it would rain. I burn easily in the sun, I get heatrashes and prickly heat, I get sunstroke and heatstroke if I spend too long outdoors, and the humidity, pollens and pollutants make my asthma play up. I know people who say things like, "Don't you just love this time of year?" and, "It makes it hard to remember global warming's a bad thing!" But I hate this time of year. Roll on Autumn, that's what I say. Then I can step out of doors again without fear of frying on the pavement. Edit one: The above statistics should include the qualifier 'since records began'. Edit two: I've just discovered that humidity in London is 78% on average at the moment, and rising.
i so agree with you i live in the Scottish Bordes and all the crops are ripeaning and we are geting tunns of thunder flys and they get everyware it is so anoing but its dull and over cast today so i can keep the doors shut because its not so walm but yesterday we had a power cut just before 8 in the moring to about five past 3 in the afternoon so i had nothing to do exept read wich is not a bad thing i finshed the last hero in that time. well a power cut is not all bad i supose. but it was too long. we also lost power on tues day it waqs a major fault acording to the cumpany the systems in the bordes cant cope is we have power cuts.
Yeah, I've been listening to virgin radio, and sighing at the "wow 35°, hottest ever, bla bla", and then leaving my air conditioned office to go to a car that's a blistering 47°C in the shade... And that's not normal for here either. Here it's brick heat, blisteringly hot, dry, parched, horrid, oven heat. I hate summer here, and always have done. I love this city, I love living here, but I would love even more to just go somewhere cooler for the summer months, because it's hell. You just can't move, can't do anything, and nothing except real industrial air-conditioning can make it any better, which of course I don't have at home. We have a 1 bedroom council flat on the 5th floor, and this weekend, there are 3 or 4 people who are coming to visit, and we are the only place they can go... It's going to be hell for 2 days if the weather doesn't cool down a bit ! For our honeymoon, we went to the french carribean (no pirates, I want my money back...) and the air there was very humid and hot, but I must say I found it much more bearable than the dry heat here. We did go in autumn though, and went from 5°C in Paris to 35°C in Martinique which was quite a shock, especially leaving the cold air-conditioned plane after 8 hours flight...
You're normally better off at the seaside than inland a) because there's more wind, too cool you down b) because water is slower to absorb heat, so it doesn't get as hot as inland The heat is currently quite oppressive, my house turns into a sauna without the steam and ventilation isn't too great. Sleeping is currently difficult as it's impossible to get comfortable when you're starting to stick the bed sheets. I'm actually glad to be in work at the moment because we do actually have air-conditioning. Having said that, it wasn't working properly yesterday which wasn't very pleasant, though it's back to normal today. I would quite like it to rain, preferably towards the end of my football game today, that would be brilliant, I love playing in the rain on a warm day. Playing in the rain on a cold day however, is not so good.
**would drool if not completely dehydrated as a raisin** Raiiiiin... Raaaaaaaaaaaiiiinn... WATEEEEEEEERR !!
In Holland 2 people died when they were participating in a yearly four day walking event, in Nijmegen because of the heat. The organisation didn't get weather reports, they just "checked the site"...... Here in Portugal the heat is dry. The dutch weather is really humid. I prefer the dryer heat here. Portugal also has a long coastline so the influence from the sea helps.
Katcal, I'm surprised to hear you say you find humidity easier to cope with than dry heat - I've only ever heard people say they find the reverse to be true! I certainly prefer dry heat, since it doesn't sap you of all your energy in the same way. However, I'd rather have a humid 35 than a dry 47!
Well I absolutely love it nice and hot. I love the long days we get in the UK during summer, can't stand the darker winters, short days and the cold.
I'm with Mal. I can sweat with the best of them, but my blood is too thin to face the cold. We have roughly the same temps here as Grace gave, with just a touch higher average, but our humidity often ranges above 90%. The shade and direct sunlight are the same temperature, the only difference being that you don't have to squint as much. When I was working for my dad (cutting trees and such) we would nearly get sick because of the heat. Frequent breaks and LOTS of water are a must during this time of year. Hope everything cools down y'alls way.
Despite being a person who generally likes the rain, I'm really enjoying the heat and the sun, even though my skin is frytastic (short bursts of being inside and outside seem to have solved that). As long as there's a big jug of orange juice nearby at all times, I'm happy.
[quote:2085a098bb="Buzzfloyd"]Katcal, I'm surprised to hear you say you find humidity easier to cope with than dry heat - I've only ever heard people say they find the reverse to be true! I certainly prefer dry heat, since it doesn't sap you of all your energy in the same way. However, I'd rather have a humid 35 than a dry 47![/quote:2085a098bb] Dry heat can get extremely intense. When I lived in Dubai there was virtually no rain..ever...and it could creep past 50 degrees celcius on a regular bases areound June/July. That's why everyone who lived there would go back to their home countries for 2 months during the holidays. Humidity can be rotten as well though, in Singapore it's a steady 32/33 degree heat all year with prtty much 100%humidity constantly. Once you get used to it it's not that bad, I can play sports and everything at mid-day heat and find it hot but not unbearable. I don't really need ac constantly when in Singapore, it's brilliant after having been outside for any length of time and at night...thats the one time I need to be cold. Water's the key though. People in the UK do not drink enough. I am yet to meet a brit that will sit down regularly qwith a glass of water at their side and just sip it. That's why the heat in the UK is dangerous. My advise is keep hydrated. If you have been outside a lot drink warm water first because you are likel to drink more of it and if you need to cool down then a bottle of cold water on the back of you neck works wonders.
heh as you know i come form SA ( South Africa for those of you who dont), and we get some really eil weather. One of my mates has just come back from Uk and swears she has not been so HOT in her life. I guess its cause we can cope with the heat better cause most of us hav ice cold pools in our back yards (or like me go to someone elses home and swim) In the schools it sucks though cause most cl;ases dont have an aircom so we rely on about three desk fans. I love complaining about my country but then if anyone else does im first inline to stick up for it!! The bst part of an African, never takes side and fight every battle that way if u get bord u can change sides!!
Well the question wasn't exactly dry heat vs. humid heat, but more specifically the heat here and the heat in Martinique... Here we're in a kind of dip, and the city center is famous for being built of red brick, and red brick is famous for stocking and reverberating (splg?) heat, that's why brick is used in things like traditional ovens, or radiatiors... It's the fact that the heat acumulates here that's the most unbearable. We've just been in the town center for the last 5 hours where my husband had a tatoo done in a small studio with just one ventilator... urgh. Now the tropical heat in Martinique was better because evey now and then a 10 minute storm would break out, drench us and then go and leave us cooled and refreshed, and it's a small island, nothing like England (the palm trees were a dead giveaway...). But generally yes, I would prefer, on principle, dry heat to humid heat, I love saunas and hate hammams, which just proves it
There's a lot of red brick where I live too, as in most of the UK - perhaps that's part of the problem! Fairyliquid, it's definitely true that most Brits don't drink enough water. We really aren't used to dealing with heat, which is why it's such a disaster when Europeans experience the kind of heat people in other parts of the world would shrug off.
[quote:9bfe1663da="Katcal"]But generally yes, I would prefer, on principle, dry heat to humid heat, I love saunas and hate hammams, which just proves it [/quote:9bfe1663da] Also, what's a hammam, and doesn't this sentence contradict itself? :?
It didn't rain during football today, it remained hotter than a camel's hump wrapped in tinfoil and stuck in the oven at 220 degrees for an hour.
[quote:a3676c7343="Buzzfloyd"][quote:a3676c7343="Katcal"]But generally yes, I would prefer, on principle, dry heat to humid heat, I love saunas and hate hammams, which just proves it [/quote:a3676c7343] Also, what's a hammam, and doesn't this sentence contradict itself? :?[/quote:a3676c7343] A (finish) sauna is working with relatively dry heat, with water only being used to increase the effect and add some flavour, so to say. Classically, even when an infusion (right word?) is used in a finish sauna, the air should be clear again after a few minutes and generally not be too humid. Sauna starters better avoid those cabins where infusions are used a lot. They can be a challenge to your blood pressure when you're not used to the extreme heat, more so than just 90° per se. In the hammam -the steam baths part of bathing culture in Turkey and large parts of Arabia- work with hot steam - you never should be able to see very far. A finish sauna is mostly at least 90° C or even more, a steam bath about 60-70°C, but still just as effective - you feel just as boiled, subjectively. The massive steam is also the reason why, unlike finish saunas, hammams are not -or should never be- built from wood, but tiled like bathrooms, classically with a water source within the steam bath itself (a well or bassin or at least a water tap). I love both, actually. And sorry for the amount of bla. I can somehow adapt to this current climate, though I admit I would like to have some degrees less to be able to sleep at night. I have far bigger problems with the lack of sunshine in winters like the last one, lasting for six months... There were those nice times when we had four seasons and not only two, and I do miss them even if I try to regard this as a possibility to fill my sunwarmth tanks for dark and cold months in advance. There's nothing better than a warm autumn, with lots of sunshine, but [i:a3676c7343]gently [/i:a3676c7343]warm so that you can wear proper clothes without feeling like being glued into them. When I drove into the city with my daughter yesterday to see a friend in hospital, it felt as if the tires of my bike were melting into the asphalt, which looked suspiciously unconcrete itself all of a sudden. All animals I saw moved in slow motion... even the birds... The main thing speaking against the current climate, besides it being unnatural, though, is that the other two thirds of my little family have probably the same DNA string for climate adaption as Buzzfloyd. They're both totally apahtic, can't sleep, are drenched in sweat all night through, get sunburnt in front of a poster of a sundawn already, and will both be very grateful when the thermo drops a few degrees. So, in sympathy with all those designed for the temperate to cooler climate - may it rain soon! Another observation: The two of them - a redhead and a blonde and extremely easily sunburnt the both of them- don't appear to be missing the sunlight as much as I do. My husband at least can tell me so. I also observed that my state of health immideatly improves with the sun coming out again after the winter, unrelated to the temperature outside. That connection can't be made in their case it seems. I am mostly pale myself, but never got sunburnt in all my life either (not typical, I know). I've been going through life without sunblockers despite looking like Morticia Addams, complexion wise, and never even got a blush, not to speak of a sunburn.
I [b:16bc03cdfa]loathe[/b:16bc03cdfa] Summer! Freezing cold in work because everyone insists on having the air con on full blast, sweating my nuts of on the bus and no water pressure to the shower... grrrrr to Summer! :evil: :evil: :evil:
The leisure centre I go to has a steam room and a sauna next to each other, where people switch from one to the next depending on how they feel.
I love summer. Hot, sunny days where you can wander round licking an ice cream and wearing sunglasses. When you can sit outside at 9 in the evening with no sleeves. yeah, sitting on a train or at a desk when its hot sucks. But sitting on a train or at a desk when its cold sucks as well. I find summer a much nicer season to enjoy some quality outside leisure time. It helps that i rarely get sunburnt (thank you very much african ancestry). The worst parts of summer: the insects that fly through my window, so i can't keep it open at night. I live in a countrysidey corner, with wide fields and a boaty estuary. The insects are numerous. Also, it's a bad time to wear black, which is unfortunately my number 1 choice of top colour. But those minor gripes aside, i'd take summer over any other season.
It's all about what you're used to. It's been popping around 95 F here lately. Not too bad, but not the nicest either ;-) Personally, I prefer Fall (Autumn).
As I sit in my cold, cold house with toes that are numb and a heating blasting away not 1 foot away... I'll take summer thanks, your all just whinging cos its a little hotter than normal. You'll whinge that its too cold in winter soon.
I never complain that it's too cold in winter. Give me winter over summer any day. Being cold is a lot easier to fix than being hot. If you're cold, you can put on more layers of clothes, you can run around, you can make a hot water bottle, you can turn the heating on or start a fire, you can make a hot drink or eat some hot food. If you're hot, you can take a limited number of clothes off, maybe get a fan if you're lucky, and eat an ice lolly or drink a cold drink. Probably none of these things will cool you down enough, either. I agree with Brad, autumn is by far the best season. It's cooler without being as wet as spring, it's blustery and windy, which I like, but it's still sunny and not bite-yer-nadgers-off cold. Also, my birthday is in autumn. But even if it wasn't, I'd like autumn best. Hsing, thanks for the explanation of saunas and steam rooms. I understand what Katcal was saying now! I intend never to visit either.
[quote:20e8f947b5="Buzzfloyd"]I never complain that it's too cold in winter. Give me winter over summer any day. Being cold is a lot easier to fix than being hot. If you're cold, you can put on more layers of clothes, you can run around, you can make a hot water bottle, you can turn the heating on or start a fire, you can make a hot drink or eat some hot food. If you're hot, you can take a limited number of clothes off, maybe get a fan if you're lucky, and eat an ice lolly or drink a cold drink. Probably none of these things will cool you down enough, either. I agree with Brad, autumn is by far the best season. It's cooler without being as wet as spring, it's blustery and windy, which I like, but it's still sunny and not bite-yer-nadgers-off cold. Also, my birthday is in autumn. But even if it wasn't, I'd like autumn best. Hsing, thanks for the explanation of saunas and steam rooms. I understand what Katcal was saying now! I intend never to visit either.[/quote:20e8f947b5] Visit what, me or the steam baths ? (Thanks Hsing, perfect explanation there ) Like Mal, I have both at my local leisure center and have tried both, I just can't breathe in the steam room, the air is just saturated with steam, whereas the sauna, followed by a refreshing dip is just delicious ! Also I have a finnish family-in-law-in-law (my husband's brother's wife) and they are completely mad about saunas, which does make me slightly biased... Autumn is great, spring is nice too, and winter is bearable... like I always say, in winter, you can always put several layers of clothes on, wrap up in a blanket, whatever, whereas in summer, once you're down to your skin, there's nothing you can take off to make yourself cooler...
Seems like it's roasting nearly everywhere. Here in Ireland, it's been over 20 degress Celsius every day for weeks; best weather in a long time. I'm told 1995 was the best summer of the 20th century but don't remember it at all! Best we got the other day was 31.5, which is outstanding for Ireland. The highest air temperature ever recorded in Ireland was 33.3°C at Kilkenny Castle in June 1887. The record during the last century was 32.5°C at Boora, Co Offaly in June 1976. The lowest air temperature was -19.1°C measured at Markree Castle, Co. Sligo on 16th January 1881 while the lowest observed 20th century air temperature was -18.8°C recorded at Lullymore, Co. Kildare on 2nd January 1979.
[quote:8bdb2c30b8="TheJackal"]Seems like it's roasting nearly everywhere. Here in Ireland, [b:8bdb2c30b8]it's been over 20 degress Celsius every day for weeks[/b:8bdb2c30b8]; best weather in a long time. I'm told 1995 was the best summer of the 20th century but don't remember it at all! Best we got the other day was 31.5, which is outstanding for Ireland. [b:8bdb2c30b8]The highest air temperature ever recorded in Ireland was 33.3°C [/b:8bdb2c30b8]at Kilkenny Castle in June 1887. The record during the last century was 32.5°C at Boora, Co Offaly in June 1976. The lowest air temperature was -19.1°C measured at Markree Castle, Co. Sligo on 16th January 1881 while the lowest observed 20th century air temperature was -18.8°C recorded at Lullymore, Co. Kildare on 2nd January 1979.[/quote:8bdb2c30b8] I want to move to ireland for the summer, every year.
Ahh, the joy of Midwestern weather. We had a week of 100+ temps. Two days ago the bank downtown read 113 degrees F. Then just to keep things interesting, yesterday it barely hit 75, and this morning it just brushed 60...
i nearly cried when i got home because the knot on my left shoelace wouldn't untie and i was desperate to get out of my soaking clothes and into a towel to dry off. i sweat too much. i sweat as much in the winter as some friends of mine back in georgia would sweat in the summer. i don't understand it, but i inherited it from my mom so i blame her for it, fully. i fucking love the cold weather. england's winters are a bit more intense than i'm used to, but i can dance in a georgia snow storm wearing nothing but long johns. so long as the temperature isn't more than a few degrees below zero, i don't need to bundle up to stay warm, so long as i'm covered with a thin layer of cotton all over. from this, one might assume that i run at a slightly higher body temperature than normal, perhaps, but if i get a fever of a measly 99 degrees (F), i'm half dead already. when it gets over 100, i'm too ill to bitch anymore. i'm fine with other people enjoying the summer weather, but all i want is to spend the daylight hours naked in a wind tunnel, strapped to a laptop.
[quote:935122b560="Ozzer"]Ahh, the joy of Midwestern weather. We had a week of 100+ temps. Two days ago the bank downtown read 113 degrees F. [/quote:935122b560] 113! That's 45 celsius (Checked it up!) What do ye do? Live in the fridge for the summer?! A fact not known to many people is Irishmen melt when it hits 30 degress celsius!
[quote:9211f07898="Buzzfloyd"]Whether you're talking about the tabloid paper or the weather, I agree with you, Marcia![/quote:9211f07898] The poor Garners. I wish you one good thunderstorm that really cools the air down for a few days. By the way, a body can be trained to be a "good sweater". Ask a runner. It's a body trained in coping with heat it wasn't originally designed for - a northern design in a southern climate. People that can't sweat -for whaatever reasons, I've known some, just plain genetics or bad cases of neurodermitis- are far worse off when it comes to coping with heat. Seeing the little one's day care unit closed their gates for three weeks, and I can't do any more work than the occasional reading night (2 pm last night, then I fell asleep) or take her to the library, I have the time to put all my heat coping measures into action to make easier, moreso for her than for me. Even if I get stomach ache if I think of all the work I can't do these days, my sympathies for those having to sit out the heatwave in unclimatized offices. You see, I can't lock her up in our flat, she's a kid.* The boredom would kill her, and I'm so grateful she's not too interested in the telly. With this heat, it makes sense to shut and cloak all your windows for the day, anyway. It can't get any hotter than outside, so why let the heat in instead of trying to keep it out until the night comes? We go to the open air baths a lot, even if I normally find it a little boring there - just following her around in the kiddie's bassin made me forget about the heat for a while. They've spanned (?) large sails over the bassins, so they're always in the shadows, and the water is nice. There's also a small hill near the lake in our city where, for some reason I don't know, the wind never quite stops. We sometimes camp there and wait the worst heat of the day out. Look out for kites, kite flyers always find such places! We drink and drink litres of water, and I've found really cool water sometimes is even the bigger strain on my circulation than luke warm, even if luke warm is not what I'm dreaming about right now. I also don't dry my or her hair, and it can be a relief. Try it out. If anything else fails, the libraries should be climatized, even in countries like Germany and, seemingly, the UK, because books don't like it warm and humid. *sigh* *I don't follow the dogma that kids [i:9211f07898]have [/i:9211f07898]to play outside in the sun all day. My granny [i:9211f07898]did[/i:9211f07898]. She once took me to a holiday when I was about seven or eight, and decided the pale, book loving inner city grandchild (my cousins all were tanned, horse riding amazons, growing up in the countryside) needed a tan, too, and wouldn't let me in anymore. I was to play outside and get used to it. Me, not being used to so much sun, started complaining I felt dizzy. She wouldn't let me in. I finally colapsed at the doorstep, mauve in the face from circulatory collapse, and puked like a heron. She took me in, I needed two days to recover from my first heat stroke, and she left me alone with her tan fetish henceforth. But no, I didn't get a sunburn.
Yikes, Hsing! :shock: That must have taught her a lesson. I wish we could have a thunderstorm here. Hastings and Eastbourne are the two towns in the whole country that regularly have the most prolonged periods of high temperatures (over 30 degrees C) - I think we've held the record jointly for several years now. Past the ridge that surrounds the town, the villages get thunderstorms every week or so. In Hastings, we usually have to wait till they roll in over the sea from France. Katcal, where are you with those bellows?
I love the sun, and on several occasions I've tried to make love [i:c1e4dd2bf4]to[/i:c1e4dd2bf4] the sun.(Results:Unsucessful) I love heat, Also i've now moved from pale to slightly less pale. The hour tube journey is quite stuffy, but it tends to be the right temp for sending me to sleep. So i tend to just nap. I have no natural insulation, so I hate the winter, it's not my season. Although in winter I get ti wear scarfs, which always entertains me more than it should. Next winter I'm going to get proper mittens on string. They're going to be wicked.
I like summer, for the most part. I love walking about WITH NO COAT ON. Also: beer gardens. Generally, I'm just much more cheerful when it's sunny. However, I get hayfever, I can't cope with extreme heat and I BURN. Well, I do if I don't apply sun lotion. Remember kids! Sun lotion is your friend!
Haha dunno about you, but sunscreen is definitely my friend. I have the lovely white skin that goes with being a redhead, which means my summer sun color is red all over. I actually don't mind the summer heat, but I always get made fun of for being 'cold-blooded', I wrap myself up in sweaters and comforters because I can't stand the air conditioning. My favorite season is definitely spring, because then you are finally thawing out from the winter, and you can look forward to warm weather without actually having to experience it.
[quote:a8f15c354c="Orrdos"]Now we need only work out why the fuck suntan lotion has a phone number and we're jamming[/quote:a8f15c354c] Its probably the customer service line where you can either ring up and tell the sunscreen that you love it, and it'll send you more for free. Or you ring it up and say you hate it and it'll send you even more for free. Hence, sunscreen is a hussie, and will put out for absolutely anyone. Except Rinso, because there are some depths to which even sunscreen will not sink.
Summertime is when my job really pays off, usually. I have to wear at least an insulated hooded sweatshirt over my t-shirt and jeans to inspect the frozen fries. Unusually I have to do something other than inspection and then I realize how good I normally have it. We have had our end of season shut down and I had to help with the rework and strip-out and I sweat so much I make people nervous. I drank a lot of free Gatorade. At home we have central air-condititioning and I have something(includes a shower curtain, a piece of upholstery fabric and a godawful old pink dress) over all the windows. I have been able to use a windowfan to cool the house down after sunset most days. It blows air out of the kitchen window and I open up the bathroom window to let cool air in. If it does get cooler then 75F I do that. In pre A/C days we used to strip all the way down and spray each other with a plant mister. I have even resorted to getting my bedsheet wet and praying it didn't dry all the way before I got a decent days sleep. That was absolutely the worst thing about working the 3rd shift. I hated waking up with a headache from the heat and dehydration. We haven't had but a couple of days over 95F but it has been way drier then we'd like to see, but at least with lower humidity there have been few bad thunderstorms. Right now they are already doing back to school stuff, but I know I'll be hating summer for at least another month. I still hate winter the most though.
Summertime: Upside — Hillwalking without crampons! (mostly) :shock: Downside — The dreaded Midgie (the scottish mozzie with teeth like piranhas) :?
