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A good solstice to all and to all a good night!
Especially the latter, here, as good nights are necessary for survival, and by "good" I mean "cool." To illustrate, the temperature right now is 42°C.* Pause to let that sink in. And then another tidbit: the dew point is -9°C. Yes, that's right: more than 50 degrees difference. It's hot out there, but more importantly it's dry, dry enough the heat doesn't enervate. It feels good, actually, as it seeps into your bones -- especially the dragon's breath, our prevailing winds out of the northwest. It's dangerous, of course, but it doesn't feel it -- not until you topple over.
And you adapt. Carry water, wear a light wide-brimmed hat, change your hours: get up early, estivate at noon, turn active in the evening again. In a desert, even in an urban heat island, night is not day -- the earth radiates heat and we cool down to comfort. Last night, after day just like today, the low was 23°C -- downright comfy. When there's more moisture in the air, less heat radiates, the lows are higher, and it's, well, miserable. In a couple weeks, the monsoon moisture currently stuck in central Mexico will reach us in the form of thunderstorms -- beautiful, but muggy and with hot nights. For now, tho', we have good nights.
And now I'm going to walk 3km home through that solstice heat.
* Today's installment of the continuing local feature called Shock The Nonlocals is being presented in an Overseas Edition -- because, after all, shocking foreigners has more cache. (This may not work on any Aussies because they're used to this stuff -- but then again, you're not used to it right now.)
---L.
Especially the latter, here, as good nights are necessary for survival, and by "good" I mean "cool." To illustrate, the temperature right now is 42°C.* Pause to let that sink in. And then another tidbit: the dew point is -9°C. Yes, that's right: more than 50 degrees difference. It's hot out there, but more importantly it's dry, dry enough the heat doesn't enervate. It feels good, actually, as it seeps into your bones -- especially the dragon's breath, our prevailing winds out of the northwest. It's dangerous, of course, but it doesn't feel it -- not until you topple over.
And you adapt. Carry water, wear a light wide-brimmed hat, change your hours: get up early, estivate at noon, turn active in the evening again. In a desert, even in an urban heat island, night is not day -- the earth radiates heat and we cool down to comfort. Last night, after day just like today, the low was 23°C -- downright comfy. When there's more moisture in the air, less heat radiates, the lows are higher, and it's, well, miserable. In a couple weeks, the monsoon moisture currently stuck in central Mexico will reach us in the form of thunderstorms -- beautiful, but muggy and with hot nights. For now, tho', we have good nights.
And now I'm going to walk 3km home through that solstice heat.
* Today's installment of the continuing local feature called Shock The Nonlocals is being presented in an Overseas Edition -- because, after all, shocking foreigners has more cache. (This may not work on any Aussies because they're used to this stuff -- but then again, you're not used to it right now.)
---L.