Meme a little meme of H

[tabouli]

H is for HOT, which Melbourne has been in spades (not to mention diamonds, hearts and clubs) for the last three days. Tomorrow the Bureau of Meteorology is predicting FORTY-FOUR DEGREES CELSIUS (111F), God help us. With forty-two degrees on Friday before the heatwave breaks. Fortunately, I'm now within reach of sea breezes, and the house is

Comments

[alitheapipkin]

I'm a Helen too :)

It's really funny because all the way through school, I was one of many, many Helens, and even at uni I knew a bunch of others and wasn't the only one on my pretty small course, but then I moved to Scotland and suddenly I am the only one in my local friendship circle. Ok, I do mix with a much broader age range than I did, but still - the craze for the name in the late 70s and early 80s seems not to have happened outside of England.

[tabouli]

Yeah, it's pretty uncommon in Australia among women my age, but reasonably common among women my dad's age if the number of Helens among his colleagues is any guide. My high school had a veritable plague of Fionas and Karens, though being Presbyterian and those being Scottish names, I suppose that's not surprising.

[lnhammer]

Ah. 44C -- that's when you know it's really summer in Arizona. The point where it goes from "hot" to "too damn hot."

(Surprisingly enough, we never actually reached that in Tucson last summer -- 43 a couple times, but never higher. It was a surprisingly mild season, all told.)

---L.

[tabouli]

Ah, but there are geographical issues to consider here. Arizona is mostly desert, no? You expect desert climes to be dry and extremely hot. Adelaide is a desert fringe city, and the heat there is almost always dry and outstrips Melbourne by a few degrees (was 46 there yesterday). BUT! Melbourne is nowhere near the desert. It's closer to the South Pole, on a large bay and backs onto forested mountains and fields, which means it can be humid as well as hot. Its buildings aren't designed for extreme heat the way Adelaide and presumably Arizona buildings are, because when most of them were built it didn't get this hot for this long. This level of prolonged heat is quite freakish for Melbourne.

[lnhammer]

Southern Arizona, yeah, we build for the heat. There's even a couple distinctive local architectural styles for this (used more in buildings before A/C became prevalent). I'd forgotten that Melbourne has a harbor.

(About half of Arizona is low desert, the typical image of the state -- the northern half is plateau, a mix of forested mountains and high desert, typically 10+C degrees cooler, including freezing all winter.)

---L.

[ladyknight1512]

'H is for HOT.' I'll say. God. Last night was good though. All bedsheets stripped but got a proper sleep and didn't wake up once. Not counting on that for tonight though. Heard it's only going to get down to 29. :( I'll never complain about the cold again.

[tabouli]

At risk of sounding smug, my proximity to that dread COAST you so despise has won me quite bearable nights down here. Only Tuesday night was really unpleasant - since then the evening sea breezes have kept the house comfortable enough for sleep, even without air conditioning. I was planning to sleep on one of the sofa beds in the lounge (coolest room) if it really got punishing, but I haven't had to.

[ladyknight1512]

Well actually, last night turned out to be not so bad after all! When I went to bed it was HOT and I was sweating, but when I woke up in the middle of the night it was warm but comfortable. So not so bad after all.