Sunday, July 12, 2009

Heat Wave

London has been experiencing what the locals are calling a 'heat wave' for the last few weeks... I am a little late with my post so the 'heat wave' has been over for a week. What exactly does a heat wave look like in rainy, gloomy, usually cold London? Temperatures between 80F and 90F, 70-80% humidity and no clouds! For a Florida Girl this is a warm wave! However, the most important difference between Florida and London... AIR CONDITIONING! This city doesn't know the meaning of the word which makes 88F with 80% humidity a touch on the hot side! Couple that with the fact the the buses still have the heat on and the underground is also A/C free and what you have is some hot, stinky, irritable Londoners!

In order to stay cool we bought a fan. Luckily, since our flat is so tiny we are able to cool the entire place with an 8 inch desk fan! We open all the windows and let the fan blow! The temperature is fine but I do find that the humidity makes everything feel damp. We need the A/C to take the moisture out of the air more than to cool it.

The goods news about London style 'heat waves' is that they don't last long... When we left for Barcelona on Saturday morning it was 80F at 6 am and when we returned on Tuesday morning at 6 am it was 50F!!! We have spent the last week dodging rain showers, flash floods, and hail with temperatures topping out in the high 70s. If given the choice, I think I would take the 'heat wave' over rain any day!

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