Whew! What a scorcher!
The heat wave here in Amsterdam and across much of western Europe that we’ve had for the past week continues unabated.
Here’s the temperature at about 4.30pm today – 32.2 degrees Celsius or 90 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s outside. Inside, it’s almost as hot – 30.2 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit).
What are two degrees among friends! It feels as hot inside as it does outside. And in my office, it’s another degree hotter (31). My Dell desktop computer generates a lot of heat so that’s undoubtedly contributing. The PC has five fans which are working pretty hard to keep things cool.
So whew! Surely it must have peaked for today. I really can’t imgaine it getting to 33 or higher. Yet these are not the hottest temps in Europe by far.
Searing summer temperatures used to be something relatively unusual in this part of Europe. Yet 30+ is no longer uncommon.
What on earth are we doing to this planet?
9 responses to “Two degrees of separation”
Bizarrely in my flat in London it’s still freezing – the only cold place in Europe.
While in my work the air con has gone so the computers have pushed it over 100….
We’ve been roasting here in Boston as well. Of note: 35C/95F at 7:00pm(!) on Tuesday night, as my family and I were waiting for the start of a baseball game in town. Combine that with the kind of humidity that made you feel in constant need of a shower (heat index of about 38C/100F yesterday), and it was pretty damn uncomfortable around here. In fact, with all the ACs going full blast, the region set a one-day record for electricity use: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/07/19/region_avoids_major_blackouts_as_it_sets_a_power_use_record/
Fortunately a cold front — featuring drenching thunderstorms — moved in overnight, and temps are quite comfortable today (24C/75F).
And that’s all from the Boston Weather Desk. Back to you at the HQ, Neville!
If that does not scare you – you should all be sure to check out the movie An Inconvenient Truth – excellent and completely relevant to this conversation.
Go jump in the pool Neville :)
I don’t have a pool, Mitch, but I do have a canal right outside my window. It’s looking mighty tempting at the moment where, at 11pm, it’s still 28 celsius.
Thanks for that report, Bryan. Drenching thunderstorms, cool temps… Can’t wait for that kind of normality here :)
And Rob, what can I say? Good ol’ Blighty!
Hobsin, I like your blog’s theme. I live in Houston and it’s not that hot in the evening. Don’t fall for “Global Warming,” that’s just a Big Brother scheme to empower more and more government control on a natural cycle that comes and goes. No industry or big government was around to cause the last three ice ages…
Check out my blog at sadbastards.wordpress.com.
Oh Neville – stop wingeing – we’re 43 outside, a balmy 33 inside and set to get warmer. And get rid of that power sucking, heat generating Dell thingy. Get a Mac Pro laptop and be done with it. Way ‘cooler.’
What are we doing to the planet? Building data centres that suck power like crazy and keep thee and me ‘always on.’ We’re FU’ing it up buddy. One connected person at a time :)
LOL
A Mac Pro laptop, Dennis? Are you kidding? I love my Dell Dimension XPSGen5! And, by the way, I think the correct word is “whingeing.” ;)
Greg, surely a better expression these days is “Global Heating”?
[…] Given some people are wingeing about the northern European warm weather, while others see it as fortuitous, I’ll just say this: daytime high is 43 outside and a balmy 33 inside. Relative humidity is 22%. Normal summer for us. No problem – but then we don’t go out when you can fry eggs on our patio’s tin roof. Bragging rights to me? […]
[…] We’re well into the summer now, halfway through the really quiet period when most of Europe goes on holiday. At least the weather’s fantastic, in all senses of that word. […]