The heat wave is supposed to break today. When I opened up the house this morning at 6:15, the air coming in felt almost chilly. Then I looked at the thermometer. It read 19.9ºC. That is not chilly — au contraire. A day at that temperature, in the upper 60s in ºF, would be a warm May or September day most years. In winter, we keep our heat at 18.5ºC, and that is comfortably warm.
Yesterday, when I talked to my California friend who lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains not far from Sacaramento, she told me that the afternoon temperatures there had dropped considerably and the weather had become very pleasant.
What are your high temperatures right now, I asked her. Oh, only in the high 80s and low 90s, she told me. That's 31 to 33ºC. I guess everything is relative. When I told her that we were having similar temperatures and we were finding it unbearable, she asked me if there are high levels of humidity accompanying our heat.
No, I told her, we're just not at all used to such high temperatures. Out there, she typically lives through weeks and weeks of afternoon temperatures in the 100s — 38 to 40ºC — every summer. California is a place of weather extremes — geographically. In summer, it's often chilly, cloudy, and windy on the coast, but hot and desert-like an hour's drive inland.
But it looks like an inland-California landscape here in the Loire Valley right now. That is, it's parched and brown. In winter it will be lush and green, as in northern California, from October through June. Brown summers and green winters — compared to the eastern two-thirds of the U.S., it's a world turned upside-down.
I'll be happy when the mornings and afternoons turn cooler again, and we start getting a little bit of rain. I wouldn't have said anything in that vein a couple of months ago, toward the end of our springtime deluge. Still, I like a climate where the weather in one season makes you long for the next season's weather, which will be radically different.
As you said it's all relative. A temperature of 18,5°C is uncomfortably chilly for me. A temperature
ReplyDeleteof 24-27°C (75-80°F) year round is paradise to me. I never complain about the heat!
Hope your health is improving fast. For a back pain, I just took paracetamol (doliprane) for the for time and it is great.
...for the first time. Sorry.
DeleteParacetamol goes by the name Tylenol in the U.S. The pain pills I got at my pharmacy were just labeled Paracétamol (Sandoz). Here's the Wiki article on Tylenol, the U.S. brand name. Paracetamol is also called acetaminophen in the U.S. but not in other English-speaking countries, evidently.
DeleteIf it's over 70ºF in the house in the winter, it's way to warm for me. My favorite climate was that of Champaign, Illinois — warm summers and cold, dry winters. The only negative was the wind. San Francisco wasn't bad except for the chilly, cloudy, windy summers. Washington DC was far to hot and humid for 6 months out of the year, as was Morehead City. The Loire Valley is nice except when we have these exceptional heat waves. Of course, that could happen in Illinois too.
By the way, we just had a surprise rain shower. The temperature dropped noticeably in about 5 minutes' time when the cloud moved over. Now the sun is shining again.
Thanks for catching my typo...
now in Poland is 32c degrees at 10.30 a.m. so hot . in the morning was 20C..
ReplyDeleteWe keep the windows open all night. The shutters are closed with just a gap to let air through, and screens (admittedly rare in France) keep the bats and cats out.
ReplyDeleteNo window screens here. But then not many bugs, and since we live one floor above the ground (which is entry hall, utility room, cellier, and garage) we don't have to worry much about cats. Bats though... well, we have had a few.
DeleteYes, I don't think I would like to live somewhere where there was continuously good weather, which for me might be 22 during the day and 10 overnight. Sometimes in life, things to complain about get thin on the ground, but there is always the ever reliable varying weather to complain about. We had the best late winter weather today, little wind, 19 degrees and sunny but with some clouds. All is relative of course. We have had a cold and wet winter, with days of high temperatures not above 12 and day after day of grey skies with plenty of rainfall in most areas of Australia. Most of our official drought areas have now been declared drought free.
ReplyDeleteA cold winter with days of high temperatures not above 12! A late winter day at 19 -- that would be a nice late spring day in Saint-Aignan. When we lived in San Francisco we had long summers in which the high temperatures seldom exceeded 15. In Illinois, we had long winters where the high temperatures seldom exceeded 0. We fortunately have had a warm summer here in Saint-Aignan this year. It has only been too hot over the past week. I agree about 22 being a good high and 10 being a nice low temperature.
DeleteI haven't been to San Francisco and apart from the appeal of its cable trams and large gay community, I am not especially interested, and you aren't the first who has painted a picture of dismal weather in San Fran.
DeleteFor Americans from the eastern part of the U.S., the SF climate is paradise -- at least at the beginning, when they move there. There's no snow for the northerners to complain about, and there's no suffocating hot and humid weather for the southerners to moan about. But after a while you realize that where you have moved to doesn't have much of a summer (clouds, mist, fog, and wind) and the winter is rainy. When Walt and I moved out there in 1986, the SF area was at the beginning of a drought, so we enjoyed dry and sunny winters. Later, the winter rains returned. And the chilly, windy, foggy summers are a constant.
DeleteYour fig tree seems to be enjoying the current climate conditions.
ReplyDeleteWe planted that little fig tree 10 or 11 years ago. Maybe it is finally going to bear fruit.
DeleteYour garden looks happy. I'm with you about liking the change of seasons. We're in the nineties now and I prefer the eighties which will be here in September. Plus my new granddaughter will be able to go out in her stroller in the eighties- temps in the nineties are too hot for newborns to be out for long. She already prefers being outdoors- she will fuss indoors, but just a short walk outside makes her calm.
ReplyDeleteThe Garden looks wonderful .. I , too, love the change of seasons, the relief from summer heat into crisp fall is my favorite although when living in Upstate NY, seeing a spring flower made me giddy with joy, hoping there would be no more snow.
ReplyDeleteI am now living in Florida. It is not bad ... so far. I have a forest behind me so I can't complain about the view. And as most of us know, the US has a great love for air conditioning and it is everywhere down here. I am one of those US lovers of AC , don't get me wrong :)
I never wanted to live somewhere that is hot/warm all year round. But then I lived through a couple of Upstate NY winters/snows.. it is funny what will change a persons outlook on things.
I want to grow tomatoes in a pot. We will see how green my thumbs are :)
"It's not the heat, it's the humidity." People get tired of hearing us saying that out here in St. Louis -- humidity world--, but it sure is true.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny -- we never had much humidity in Champaign IL, which is not that far from St. Louis. I guess the Gulf humidity gets sucked up the Mississippi River valley.
DeleteSeine Judeet, absolutely ! I was born in the desert SW (Arizona) and all the visits back in summer were wonderful. Then we would go back home, to North Carolina where the temps were never close to as high as those in Az but the humidity made you want to just lie on a tile floor in front of an open refrigerator lol
ReplyDeleteSo far, now that I am back in Fl .. it has been quite pleasant.