Farenheit 451

The weather - probably the most widely discussed topic in the UK - if not the world. The easiest way to strike up a conversation with another person (definitely in the UK - maybe not everywhere else) and something that affects us all. Regular visitors to this site will probably remember me throwing a line in here or there about the weather in general (particularly the thunderstorms) but i don't think i've devoted a whole post to it just yet. Well, this week deserves some kind of mention - if only to provoke either howls of outrage or murmurs of sympathy (knowing my friends and family, i suspect the former). The usual humidity throughout the day has dropped somewhat (thank God) to be replaced by scorching hot temperatures. I no longer have to swim through the air to get to work, I have to walk through an oven instead.

Cast your mind back a couple of summers if you will (July and August 2003) and most of us may remember a very hot couple of weeks indeed. There was something of a heatwave across most of Europe as I recall - enough so that people were actually dropping dead from the heat. If memory serves correct, it reached 100F for the very first time in recorded history in the UK (38.5C/101.3F near Faversham in Kent is the highest temp so far for the UK according to the Met office). I was in Ireland at the time (at the wedding of my friends Fiona and Pete) which was also pretty toasty too. Now compare this to Charleston where, at the start of the week, a severe heat warning was issued and it has reached that landmark temperature every day this week - and whilst not quite 451F, the temperature hit a high of 116F (about 46.5C). Phew! Sympathy anyone? Well, i guess not - cause i spend most of it in an air-conditioned building! Anyway, the best thing about this heat is that, come 10.00PM this week, i've been heading home (have to nip back into the lab late to do stuff) and it's been glorious - very pleasant heat indeed. Most of the locals complain at this - they hate the fact it doesn't get cool at all. Me, i remind them that back home at this time, i'd be freezing my arse...sorry, ass off and to stop moaning. Now with all this sunshine and hot weather, i imagine most of you are expecting me to have a great tan when i come back over there, at the moment, i'd say not to worry - whilst they say only "Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun", i can tell you that THIS Englishman is keeping his backside well and truly indoors!