Author Topic: It's summer and the whining has begun (Read 4835 times)

Iain · « **on:** July 03, 2006, 02:07:00 AM »

I'm not going to pretend I actually like hot weather, it isn't my favourite, but I'm going to indulge in an anti-British moan.

This country seems to grind to a halt for each of the following:

- A light dusting of snow. First few flakes come down and people start to abandon their cars.
- Temperatures over 25C (77F) Instantly people start to assume that they are going to die of heat stroke.

The only weather we seem equipped to deal with, and enjoy moaning about, is driving persistent rain. Which is a shame because I've hardly seen any this year.

The BBC are telling me that the weather today in my locality is max 28c, an 8mph easterly, 45% humidity. Sunrise was at 0449, sunset is at 2131. I expect this is nowt for some of you.

Leatherneck · « **Reply #1 on:** July 03, 2006, 02:47:28 AM »

I know what you mean. When we were in London in June a few years ago, we were delighted by the weather--85 degrees (30 C) and sunny, little rain. The locals were acting like it was Armageddon and they were about to expire from heat exhaustion!

Now here...we really have something to bitch about: it's 82 already at 0730, and going to 96 degrees with humidity and little breeze. Great day to be putting up cedar siding on the barn, Eh?

TC

client32 · « **Reply #2 on:** July 03, 2006, 03:07:29 AM »

I would gladdly welcome that weather report.

Actually, today isn't going to be too bad here. The high is only 94 degrees.

Maybe I need to think about moving.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #3 on:** July 03, 2006, 03:10:16 AM »

Quote from: Iain

I expect this is nowt for some of you.

Is nowt a typo or a Britishicism?

Iain · « **Reply #4 on:** July 03, 2006, 03:23:54 AM »

Nowt is a northern thing - 'Bread with nowt taken out' is a famous slogan.

Preacherman · « **Reply #5 on:** July 03, 2006, 03:29:25 AM »

Try north-central Louisiana today . . . actual temperature 91Â°; with humidity, etc. factored in, the heat index will make it feel like 103Â°!

Iain · « **Reply #6 on:** July 03, 2006, 04:02:01 AM »

Sorry, yes it means 'nothing'. I don't use it often, just occasionally it fits right into a sentence.

Heh, the weather here is very similar to the weather in Las Vegas today.

Preacherman - how do you cope? I'm sounding like any other Brit now, but I've just got no comprehension of how people operate. I went dragon boating yesterday morning (should I admit this in your presence?), temperature probably got up to around 25c by the time we were off the water, I was extremely grateful everytime someone behind me screwed up and deposited large amounts of river on me.

Harold Tuttle · « **Reply #7 on:** July 03, 2006, 04:02:44 AM »

i'm heading to Northern Austraila in 2 weeks

i have been warned about the sun and the snakes

i'm thinking of wearing flip flops, a sleaveless wife beater T, and one of my kilts
Wink

come on try and get me!

Tallpine · « **Reply #8 on:** July 03, 2006, 04:25:07 AM »

yeah, there is an english lady on another forum that i frequent that has been whining about global warming because it hasn't been raining all the time this year ....

our outdoor thermometer scale goes from -60 to +120, and we dang near need all that range in the course of a year in Montana Tongue

280plus · « **Reply #9 on:** July 03, 2006, 04:25:42 AM »

The neighbor's POOL water was 84*F this morning. LOL...

We're headed for the mid 90's today I think. It's not too bad when it's dry but the humidity is what causes the most discomfort. You just get used to it. Why is jolly old England so much cooler? No gulf stream?

Harold, be careful, you don't want things slithering in places you don't like slithering. Tongue

Iain · « **Reply #10 on:** July 03, 2006, 04:36:25 AM »

The UK has a relatively mild climate in part due to the gulfstream as I understand it. I live on a more northerly latitude than all the states but Alaska.

Can't begin to make analyses based on global weather trends, but it has been reasonably dry here of late. Not as dry as some stats would suggest, but dry nonetheless.

mtnbkr · « **Reply #11 on:** July 03, 2006, 04:44:58 AM »

I'm pretty impervious to high temps as long as I have water to drink.

Now cold weather is another thing entirely. When the temps get much below 25degrees (farenheit), I pretty much shut down.

Chris

Lo.Com.Denom · « **Reply #12 on:** July 03, 2006, 05:57:19 AM »

Quote from: fistful

So nowt means "nothing"?

Owt is to Nowt what Aught is to Naught. Best as I can explain it, anyway...

I know what you mean, Iain. I'm sure people weren't as hysterical about weather and temperature when we were kids (I think we're roughly the same age).

Yesterday, I went round a local music festival with a friend who seemed convinced that her children were going to die of sunstroke or cancer if she exposed them to direct sunlight. (But then, she is mental... Tongue

) Had to wonder if she'd inadvertantly given birth to Mogwai rather than children...

"Brightlight!! Brightlight!!"

Personally, I've got lousey circulation so I much prefer hot weather to cold. I'm sure we'll be back to "overcast" and "drizzle" before you know it, though!

Preacherman · « **Reply #13 on:** July 03, 2006, 07:07:05 AM »

As Michael Flanders once observed about the English summer:

"It's almost summer again. Missed it last year - I was in the bathroom."

Cheesy

Stickjockey · « **Reply #14 on:** July 03, 2006, 08:15:41 AM »

Quote

Owt is to Nowt what Aught is to Naught...

Or summat...

Stickjockey · « **Reply #15 on:** July 03, 2006, 09:14:29 AM »

Dragon boat...

Iain · « **Reply #16 on:** July 03, 2006, 09:32:00 AM »

I've seen that picture before, but I only just noticed the woman on top of the dragon. Apparently in some traditions you can be the first to the line and still lose if that person fails to snatch a flag suspended at the finish line. They've got a good bow wave going, although they don't have a 'well oiled machine' look about them.

It's a sport I'm only dabbling in right now, did a race for my brothers company a fortnight ago and went along to an open session yesterday. Paddled with a mixed crew, a mixture of gender and experience. Right now my traps are sore, my lats are sore, my spinal erectors are sore and I have a bruised bottom. It was good though.

Art Eatman · « **Reply #17 on:** July 03, 2006, 02:19:55 PM »

DRy? Did someone say, "Dry"? Hey, Terlingua's had seven-tenths of one-as-in-uno inch of rain since last early September. It's been so dry that the quail coveys haven't really broken up into pairs to go do the egg-and-quail-chick thing. Saw a coyote running down the bed of Terlingua Creek, with a cottonwood tree in hot pursuit.

But it's cooling down some six to ten degrees these next ten days, per
http://www.intellicast.com/IcastPage/LoadPage.aspx?seg=LocalWeather&loc=ustxct25463&product=Forecast&prodgrp=Forecasts&prodnav=none

That's a helluva URL if the whole thing prints out. http://www.intellicast.com and type in my ZIP code, 79852.

Anyhow, I was seeing 108 to 112 at my house, in May and June. Saw a coyote chasing a jackrabbit, and they were both walkin' ral slow.

, Art

Iain · « **Reply #18 on:** July 04, 2006, 12:55:45 AM »

It's a Chinese thing that seems to have become an international sport. American high schools have crews, and I think the Canadians are big into it. The boat in that picture is more flashy the ones I've been in - http://www.heurist.freeserve.co.uk/main/Pictures/dragon/ - the second picture shows the kind of boats I've been in, and the first shows the exact place that I've been getting in and out of the water.

Art - looks like we both have some thunderstorms on the way.

Nathaniel Firethorn · « **Reply #19 on:** July 04, 2006, 02:46:24 AM »

Quote

- Temperatures over 25C (77F) Instantly people start to assume that they are going to die of heat stroke.

I'm really beginning to think that air conditioning is addictive. Stay in it too much and you lose your ability to deal with normal summer temperatures.

And if you get it too cold, your body thinks winter is coming on and starts preparing accordingly. Take a look at the human dumplings waddling around the shopping malls and you'll see what I mean...

- NF

280plus · « **Reply #20 on:** July 04, 2006, 04:31:10 AM »

Down in Florida there are what we called "air conditioning hermits". They never venture outside, they have everything delivered: food, clean laundry, etc. They usually have this pasty white complexion. I could never understand why someone would work all their lives, move to Florida when they retire and never go outside again because it's so friggin hot. What's the sense? But I agree with you NF. If you spend most of your time in the AC you lose acclimation to heat. I worked on the stuff all my life but only recently started using it. Why? Because I wanted to stay acclimated to the heat, I had to work in it all day. Same with the cold.

Funny, The Weather Channel was JUST talking about the big heat wave hitting England. They expect temps in the upper 80's and the last time this happened ~27,000 perished there because of it. Here upper 80's is perfect summer weather. Strange planet we live on.

Iain · « **Reply #21 on:** July 04, 2006, 04:54:44 AM »

27,000 sounds a bit of an exaggeration. In the same year that Paris had those famous deaths Britain experienced something like 2,000 'additional' deaths, but not to sound harsh, the heat and the cold merely tend to accelerate things for some older folk short of full-on exposure or heat exhaustion.

280plus · « **Reply #22 on:** July 04, 2006, 05:00:36 AM »

Maybe I didn't hear the number right. I'll keep a lookout to see if they run the clip again. Seemed awful high to me too. You think we would have heard more about it if it was that severe. Stay cool!

Cheesy

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #23 on:** July 04, 2006, 05:29:38 AM »

Quote from: Nathaniel Firethorn

I'm really beginning to think that air conditioning is addictive. Stay in it too much and you lose your ability to deal with normal summer temperatures.

I recall, before my Dad installed AC in our house, I had a lot more tolerance for heat than the other kids at school. Now, I can't stand to be hot.

mtnbkr · « **Reply #24 on:** July 04, 2006, 06:37:16 AM »

Quote

own in Florida there are what we called "air conditioning hermits". They never venture outside, they have everything delivered: food, clean laundry, etc. They usually have this pasty white complexion. I could never understand why someone would work all their lives, move to Florida when they retire and never go outside again because it's so friggin hot.

I have some friends in Va Beach like that, though they're not quite as extreme (they at least go out to get food, laundry, etc). However, we went to the Outer Banks one summer and it was tough getting them outside for more than a couple hours at a time.

Quote

I recall, before my Dad installed AC in our house, I had a lot more tolerance for heat than the other kids at school.

Funny you mention that... When I had a VW Beetle without AC, I could tool around all summer without feeling particularly hot, but now, I have to have the AC on and cooling as soon as I get in the car.

BTW, I just got back from a 16 mile bike ride (road) while towing my daughter in a Burley trailer. Current temp is 86degF and humidity is 61%. I drank about 60oz of water during the ride. I made darn sure Abby drank water periodically. The water was back there with her, but I stopped every 2-3 miles and had her drink some while I watched.

Chris

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Author Topic: It's summer and the whining has begun (Read 4835 times)