What's the weather where you are?

[Yozilla]

In Split it was measured 31° overnight , everything is hot - furniture beds, utensils, clothes - practically everything you touch is warmed up. So late night i tried do find some relief by putting my pillow in fridge to cool down. Didn't help much but me pillow smelled like bacon (hehe hehe - strange ain't it?). I can barely type - and that only at night, through day the heat is so all pervading, so i escape to the beach e-very afternoon, where there are some public showers with some rally cold water running there all around the clock. After that cold remedy one feels almost like "en-lightened for a while

This could be a looooong summer...

 

[lilies]

West of Ukraine, Carpathian Basin: Thermometer shows 40.5 °C in shade outside. 27.5 °C is shown inside, but it feels hotter as the air traverses through open doors, windows (small house and I love fresh air). Weather service graph shows +1 °C increase for tomorrow (Thursday) then we are headed down. Rain clouds and some rain are occasionally helping.

Dark room sleeping is suspended in this heat, since rooms are heated up quickly from the walls radiating stored heat from sunlight to both directions at night.

The only remedy from this heat can be a giant concrete block building with you living downstairs and there is a big stairway / cellar area you can open doors to, the air there is super cool! Or in a big cave!! :D

 

[hesperides]

All the years I´ve been living in the South area of Spain, we got between 40-46ºC all day and at night it would still stay as high as 32ºC indoor. This lasted from end of April until October was over. Terrific! The best solution when I couldn´t sleep was just taking a shower and without wiping up my body, I went back to bed. At other times, I also sprinkled water over my body from a bowl I kept on my nightstand or passed ice cubes all over the body. This last option was very helpful btw. Besides, at that time I didn´t have an AC in my car so I always had a handy spray filled with water. These were unforgettable stressful heroic times, I tell you.

I know these people are suffering a lot right now since they are hitting 50C since several weeks. The biggest issue there is temperature doesn´t lower enough at night to allow some respite for the body, so many end up sleeping and working with an airconditionner with all its nefast health repercussion.

Weather in Canarias still normal so far.

 

[Persej]

We are burning in Balkans.

 

[davey72]

The sun is out this morning. All the rain has washed the smell of the forest fires from Saskatchewan, and Alberta away. Here is a pic of the type of weather we have been having. This was taken near Edmomnton Alberta within the last couple days.

 

[Jacques]

No heat wave here.

Right now, it is 16º C outside and it should be a lot warmer than that.

Theorically we are in the middle of the summer and July is the hottest month of the year.

 

[Chad]

No sunshine for north west England! And i love the heat in general the heatwave seems to stop at the channel.

So far, we've had an extremely weak summer; a few consecutive days of sunny/hot weather, a few uncomfortable days in a stuffy office, through June and early July. But those were the exception. Since, it's been a mixture between days where the northerly winds win out and it feels chilly to the skin, especially in the shade, and yet the sun, when it does briefly pop out, feels like it's burning. Little higher than 17 during the day and 8C at night. When we have the southerly winds it's quite apparent because it actually feels like summer, a little; though night-times are still fresh and if outside for long require layers.

July has been very unsettled, though at night we've had our windows open so the humidity is around, though the last few days have been on/off winds of about 15mph; possibly due to the clash in temps, it seems we've had a very slight increase in lightning storms spotted about the country. The sky can be grey one moment and relatively fluffy clouds the next, but it's never too sunny for more than 30 minutes. The forecast attached is probably one of the more optimistic ones of late - they've been pretty much cloudy skies with NO sun.

It doesn't bode well for the end of summer when we really do get winds.

Also, i can see the Cass constellation from my backdoor and, last night, i'm sure i saw a UFO travel across it - it was a pinpoint of light meandering across the sky (slight detour from the weather!).

 

[casper]

Croatia
Today, apparently the culmination of a heatwave, the thermometer shows 40, 5 degrees.
(In the shade).
Nights are very warm, the wind is not blowing, breathing the warm air.
Night swimming, in the last 15 days, it has become a need, not only for young people, but older, so, if you go to the beach about 23 hours, you can not find a free parking space, and the beaches are crowded.
Nights are replaced daily.

 

[Andrian]

Yes, the heat here in France has continued for the past few weeks. We had a couple small breaks with clouds and then a storm last Saturday night with torrential rain for about half an hour. But now, back to the heating up phase. If we close down the house in the morning, we manage to keep it around 28/29 C while it goes up to 30-35 outside, but that's still pretty miserable. I think it must get over 40 or so in the sun. At night, we open the windows to let the cool air in and, with a fan, it is possible to sleep. But the heat sure does take the energy out of a person!

Same here in the North of Italy, we are experiencing this kind of heatwave starting middle of June for a couple of weeks then a small pause( a couple of days) then starting from July till now it was always hot and the humidity in the air is very high which makes the heatwave even more unbearable, i've read an article on an italian weather forcast site and basically according to some researchers this summer so far is the hottest in many decades like at least in the last 50 years, the water in the sea has reached 32° C, it's insane, excuse my irritation please, it's just like Laura has said, this hot weather it's just taking your energy away. I hope from all of my heart that at least august won't be like july.

 

[Laura]

It rained last night... stormed, actually, and the power went out. So, it started getting cooler about 2:30 am. Then, it rained most of the morning and temps stayed around 19-22 degrees C, so we had all windows opened and fans blowing the cool air inside to cool down the walls of the house. Later in the day, sun came out and it warmed up to 26, but the instant it hit 24 I closed the shutters and windows.

Thinking about using water spray to cool down, that's a great idea. A plastic spray bottle by the bed... perhaps a bit of alcohol in the water would also help, and mint soap is a lifesaver when it is hot. It can REALLY cool you down. Just be careful that you don't put it on sensitive skin areas. Maybe boiling some mint leaves, refrigerating it, and using it to spritz yourself at night? And of course, I'm drinking glass after glass of ice-water.

 

[Gaby]

And of course, I'm drinking glass after glass of ice-water.

That made me chuckled... Because by culture, I was indoctrinated to drink hot tea for hot weather. That is the way it is done in Uzbekistan and someone once told me that it helped the body cool down.

Found this article which explains (or tries to justify it :P)

A Hot Drink on a Hot Day Can Cool You Down

_http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-hot-drink-on-a-hot-day-can-cool-you-down-1338875/#BDLzTDwco3aWQFwV.99

A rigorous experiment revealed that on a hot, dry day, drinking a hot beverage can help your body stay cool

By Joseph Stromberg
smithsonian.com
July 10, 2012

...In many countries around the world, conventional wisdom says that you can cool down on a hot day by drinking a hot beverage.

We got in touch with Ollie Jay, a researcher at University of Ottawa’s School of Human Kinetics—and an expert in all things sweat-related—to ask a pressing question: is this claim for real? His Thermal Ergonomics Lab, it turned out, had published a study on this topic just a few months ago.

Their answer, in short: Yes, a hot drink can cool you down, but only in specific circumstances. “If you drink a hot drink, it does result in a lower amount of heat stored inside your body, provided the additional sweat that’s produced when you drink the hot drink can evaporate,” Jay says.

How does this work? “What we found is that when you ingest a hot drink, you actually have a disproportionate increase in the amount that you sweat,” Jay says. “Yes, the hot drink is hotter than your body temperature, so you are adding heat to the body, but the amount that you increase your sweating by—if that can all evaporate—more than compensates for the the added heat to the body from the fluid.”

The increased rate of perspiration is the key. Although sweat may seem like a nuisance, the body perspires for a very good reason. When sweat evaporates from the skin, energy is absorbed into the air as part of the reaction, thereby cooling the body. A larger amount of sweat means more cooling, which more than counteracts the small amount of heat contained in a hot beverage relative to the entire body.

The caveat, though, is that all that extra sweat produced as a result of the hot drink actually has to evaporate for it to have a cooling effect. “On a very hot and humid day, if you’re wearing a lot of clothing, or if you’re having so much sweat that it starts to drip on the ground and doesn’t evaporate from the skin’s surface, then drinking a hot drink is a bad thing,” Jay says. “The hot drink still does add a little heat to the body, so if the sweat’s not going to assist in evaporation, go for a cold drink.”

Jay’s team got to the bottom of the “hot drink” tip by rigorously testing the idea on cyclists in a lab. Each cyclist was equipped with skin temperature sensors and a mouthpiece measuring the amount of oxygen consumed and carbon dioxide produced, which indicated the amount of heat produced by the body’s metabolism. The researchers also carefully tracked the air temperature and humidity, among other factors. The data yielded an overall picture of how much heat each cyclist produced and how much each released to the environment, and those drinking hot water (roughly 122 degrees F) stored less heat in their bodies than the others.

The researchers are still unsure why hot drinks lead the body to produce more sweat, but they have an idea. “It’s commonly thought that the hot drinks raise your core temperature, but we found that that isn’t the case,” Jay says. “What we think is that it’s the thermosensors that line the throat and mouth that elicit the additional sweating response.” He notes that additional research is needed to pinpoint the exact location of these sensors.

To be clear, the tip only works in very specific circumstances: a hot, dry day, where you’re not wearing so much clothing that your sweat is prevented from easily evaporating. In other words, if you’re in a humid locale—for example, anywhere on the East Coast—don’t try drinking hot water. But on a hot day in the desert, a cup of hot tea might actually be the trick to help cool you down.

I do get refreshed after hot tea, seriously! But it is dry where I live in Spain.

It has been very hot for weeks on end, the hottest any local person can remember from their lifetime.

There were a couple of storms lately. The other day there was thunder on a clear sky. It is really weird weather!

 

[Xico]

Here in California it's been very humid in last 3 days, and we don't know till when will there be any rain..

 

[mkrnhr]

That made me chuckled... Because by culture, I was indoctrinated to drink hot tea for hot weather. That is the way it is done in Uzbekistan and someone once told me that it helped the body cool down.

In the Sahara desert they drink hot "tea" although I'm not sure which mixture of plants it is. When it's really hot (like 40°C and more), when you drink cold water you tend to lose water through transpiration, so I would imagine that it's related to dehydration issues in those places.

 

[Sinapi]

Here in California it's been very humid in last 3 days, and we don't know till when will there be any rain..

We got about an inch of rain where I live in Southern California (between the coast and the desert) over the weekend, and also a bit last night. Large drops appeared very suddenly and continued for hours. We even had thunder! But the humidity is miserable! It's ranging from 80F to 90F (27C to 32C), which is normal, but I'm used to dry heat, not this mugginess like in the Deep South. I have to jump in a cold shower after working outside or else I get dizzy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the psychos in Sacramento don't impose more rationing on water; in the heat, it's just criminal that people in some towns barely have enough water to meet their basic needs. There might be riots if they keep this up.

 

[Anamarija]

On Pelješac temperatures for weeks are 39°C (102°F), and this last days and heavy swelter. On Korčuli, island next to us and on our island Pelješac there is wildfires going for couple of days. Yesterday we all expected raining becuase there was some lightining but nothing, just more swelter. We are on the end of Pelješac and probably wildfire will not come on our door step, but everything depends of the winds. Wind changes every 6 hours. In the media they said that pilot of canader saw the pyromaniac, but no one knows for sure. The fact is, every spot of burning right now is full of pine which is known for good burning.

http://dnevnik.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/pozar-na-peljescu-i-dalje-gori-u-prevrnutoj-cisterni-bila-su-dva-vatrogasca-lakse-su-ozlijedjena---394051.html