Temperature reading on my car display this evening (87F)
It’s been a mini heat wave in the south of England today! Yes, it really does get hot in the UK sometimes....the high humidity makes it feel even hotter, so as soon as it gets over about 26°C (77F) it becomes sticky and very uncomfortable. Some of the hottest times of my life, I’ve spent living in the UK, and in London in particular. The buildings trap the heat and the worst place to be is the Tube, where on a packed (and not air-conditioned) train, temperatures rise well above 45°C (113F)...it’s illegal to transport animals at those sort of temperatures!
Despite growing up in the tropics, I actually don’t do heat all that well....I get headaches and feel lethargic and grumpy. I’m much happier when it’s warm but not too hot, so living in southern England suits me well. Sure it’s cold and very wet a lot of the time, but it tends to be quite comfortable on the whole without extremes of heat or cold (this past winter aka The Great Ice Age of 2009/10 excluded of course). This surprises some people here, quick to point out the minute the mercury starts rising “You should be loving this....it must feel like home!”
Hmmm...yes, because it’s always hot in southern Africa, the sun always shines and it’s never cold or wet. I’ve been trying to remind some British friends travelling out to South Africa for the World Cup that it’s going to be winter there (they don’t quite get the reversal of the seasons going on between the northern and southern hemispheres) so they may want to pack a fleece and perhaps a rain jacket.
Winter in Cape Town can be beautiful....it can also be chilly and very wet, and it can be very wet for days on end. And then the wind blows....normally at the same time the rain is falling, and sometimes at gale force. It took me the whole winter (and three wrecked umbrellas) my first year of university to work out that such contraptions are redundant in the Mother City. Finally, there is no such luxury as central heating and double glazing, so you can be just as cold indoors as out. Over here, our homes are designed to keep the heat in...great in winter, but a real bugbear during a hot summer when it’s almost impossible to get cool enough to sleep.
Hmmm...yes, because it’s always hot in southern Africa, the sun always shines and it’s never cold or wet. I’ve been trying to remind some British friends travelling out to South Africa for the World Cup that it’s going to be winter there (they don’t quite get the reversal of the seasons going on between the northern and southern hemispheres) so they may want to pack a fleece and perhaps a rain jacket.
Winter in Cape Town can be beautiful....it can also be chilly and very wet, and it can be very wet for days on end. And then the wind blows....normally at the same time the rain is falling, and sometimes at gale force. It took me the whole winter (and three wrecked umbrellas) my first year of university to work out that such contraptions are redundant in the Mother City. Finally, there is no such luxury as central heating and double glazing, so you can be just as cold indoors as out. Over here, our homes are designed to keep the heat in...great in winter, but a real bugbear during a hot summer when it’s almost impossible to get cool enough to sleep.
And I can’t believe I’ve just managed to write a whole post about the weather....
Worthless info: 'It Ain't Half Hot Mum' was a slightly dubious (potentially racist) British sitcom about the adventures of a Royal Artillery Concert Party, broadcast between 1974 and 1981, set in British India and Burma, towards the end of the Second World War.
That was a downright chilly temp. We had 92°F
ReplyDeleteat 6 pm today..... a touch too warm for me.
We keep the house a cool 71°F year round.
I am a native Floridian but prefer cold
weather.!!
As long as it's not too humid, I can handle the heat pretty well. I like any weather condition, as long as it's not too extreme. Where I live, you might say that there is no weather...Almost ALWAYS mild...
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