It really is.
For the past few days the ‘official temperature’ here has been 40-42ºC. Of course that is the official temperature at the airport taken around 1pm. In reality, in the centre of Sevilla mid-late afternoon you can add at least five more degrees to that . . . which is way too hot!
Nog and I live in a top-floor apartment in the very centre of Seville that has lots of balconies but no air-conditioning. We’ve got plenty of electric fans, but frankly, at these temperatures sitting in front of a fan kind of feels like sitting in front of a hair blow-dryer turned up to HIGH – not exactly refreshing but still better than nothing.
I mean, if you do anything even remotely strenuous or energetic – like breathe or stand up – the sweat starts pouring off in buckets. We’re getting through an amazing amount of cold mineral water – about 6 litres a day between the two of us.
And all practical stuff that needs doing – like shopping or running errands – has to be done first thing in the morning, at least before noon. At which point we hit the nearest bar for a very cold beer and a couple of glasses of cold water chasers.
But I’m not complaining (much…) because in winter our apartment – no central heating and huge draughty balcony window/doors – is soooooo cold that we have to wear three layers and hug our portable electric radiator when sitting in our living room. And getting up in the morning in winter is actually painful – we take turns getting up to put on the kettle for coffee and turn on the bathroom heater so we can shower without shivering to death.
I get on better with the summer heat and Nog deals much better with the winter cold. But even I have to acknowledge when it gets so HOT that I go totally floppy. Still, I do prefer Da HEAT. I dunno, it makes you have to just open up and accept it somehow … in a very relaxed and laid back manner, hardly wearing any clothes at all, which is lovely.
So, how’s the weather where you are?
casa azahar 
It’s hot here too. But not 42! It is only 34, but the humidity is about 80% so it feels a lot hotter. I have been getting my exercise in after dark. Are you still letting Azar have the cold packs or have you started lying on them yourself?
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Yeah well, we got the ol’ humidity thang happening too – Sevilla is in a basin, just three metres above sea level. So the air here can get *very heavy* indeed.
You know, I was actually thinking of putting towel-wrapped cold packs in bed, kind of like how people use hot water bottles in winter. The nights here these past few days have been so totally sweltering – we have two fans going and still can’t feel even coolish in the slightest – and the cats don’t come anywhere near us. After their ritual ‘goodnight cuddles’ (very sweet) they spend the rest of the night out on the balcony.
So if I don’t get my exercise stuff in before 9am it’s kind of game over. But I haven’t given up – just have to start getting up earlier.
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I am so darned spoiled sitting here with my central air conditioning (it’s 24 C in the house). And it’s not nearly as hot outside here (it’s currently 34 C) as it is over there in Sevilla. Heck, the humidity is quite low today- only 35%. If I had 42 C and high humidity, I would have to sleep in a walk-in freezer!
I’ve been using the cold packs wrapped in towels for Herman for a little while each day, though, and he loves it. Herman says thank you, az, for giving his mommy such a wonderful idea.
If I had to swelter at night, there’s no way I’d ever make it to work. I can’t sleep without at least a sheet covering me, preferably a blanket or coverlet of some sort, if not the comforter. And I can’t sleep if I’m the slightest bit warm. I’m so high maintenance!! 😆
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We tried the cold packs in bed last night – didn’t really do much for cooling off the bed but we discovered that if we put them near our feet they at least cooled them off quite nicely.
Friends from New York are visiting and staying in the apartment next door. They also have their little dog with them – very sweet chihuahua called Sylvia – and they told me she was really suffering from the heat and that yesterday they had to give her two cold showers. So I recommended the cold pack thing – they have one in their freezer there – and they said they’d try it later on today.
Meanwhile, we went out for a river walk this morning – a bit later than planned – and ended up totally gasping by the end. Had to go for a cold beer & water pitstop on the way back in an air-conditioned bar. Phew!
Future morning walks will have to be done between 8-10am …
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Hi Az & P.,
Well I finally found the az-blog and what a cool airy place it is, unlike your apartment apparently 😉
Here in the UK the temperature edges towards 35 degrees and we are sweltering. I really am a winter man and can’t take these temperatures at all.
Next week I’m heading off to Norway with wife, kids and my mum, to visit my younger, more handsome and cooler brother.
Blessings,
Craig /|\
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We used to get summers like that when I lived in Florence (also in a basin, near sea-level). I used to go nearly insane with lack of sleep. Good old LOndon, I thought, land of mist and drizzle, you’ll never do that to me. HAH. It’s in the mid 30s this week, and threatening to hit 40 tomorrow. And it’s SO humid. River basins. Bah. And our flat was carefully designed by a sadist – it’s like a railway carriage, long and narrow and windows only down one side, so you simply can’t get a through-breeze, and the afternoon sun is ON the windows so it turns the flat into a greenhouse. It’s 8 am and I’m already feeling hot and sticky and cross. Must buy fan.
Don’t get me started on the lack of air-conditioning at work. Just thinking of spending an afternoon at my desk makes me want to resign.
I am really whining, aren’t I? I do apologise.
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Whine away, Ag. I know I am. 😉
Meanwhile today it’s only supposed to be about 35º – relief!
I know you wouldn’t agree with this, Craig, but compared to this past week it’s almost refreshing.
Anyhow, I hear ya Ag, about your sadistically designed apartment. We can luckily get a cross-breeze happening (when the air decides to move, that is) but unfortunately have to close our livingroom door at night to prevent *very annoying and totally spoilt cat* from shitting on our sofa in protest when we don’t get up at precisely 7am to give him his brekky – grrr. Which cuts down on the air current thang during the night.
Yes, you must buy a fan, Ag. Several, in fact. We have two in our living room and two in the bedroom – couldn’t exist without them. They’re not expensive to buy and are very cheap to run – probably not much more than keeping a lightbulb on.
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Apart from crowds and public transport I’m really enjoying the present hot spell, mid thirties in UK, because it’s a dry heat. I can’t believe the way the air picks up plant and garden smells at night, compaired with the usual humid air we get. Almost reminds me of holidays in Greece. But humid air is on the way.
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Hot…
Actually, last night was the first night in a while that it was actually *cold* — as in probably requiring a sweater unless you are “a woman of age” who is always sweating whilst hypothermia is beginning to set in with everyone else sharing the same space –. Of course, this “chill in the air” (12ºC) was not felt indoors where it might have done some good. Instead, I had the fan on all night and was still suffocating.
Currently, the temperature is…. 27ºC/81ºF (30ºC with the humidity)
On Sunday and Monday, it was 33ºC/91ºF but the high humidity (avg. 66% –83% in the early morning hours) made it feel like over 100ºF.
My friends in the band were playing at an outdoor venue at the hottest part of the day and, whn they were packing up, Ken held out a mic stand for me to feel…. I nearly burned my hand!
The Co-op came around and cut down all the trees that were up against my house (because they are damaging the siding and in danger of damaging the foundation) so now we have NO shade at all in our yard or for our walls.
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A measly 33º? Pah!
Meanwhile, the HEAT is being more than just uncomfortable. A new tenant who moved in next door two days ago (was planning on staying until the end of August) told me today he has to move out and find a place with air conditioning. 😦
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I can cope up to about 35º, but more than that is too much. 45º is a killer, especially if you have to go out or do anything the least strenuous. And you can’t sleep, though an ice pack on the feet helps.
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Your new tenant next door is a wimp. The word ‘effete’ doesn’t get used often enough, does it?
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Well, he’s an actor. Normally lives in the mountains just south of here. Sports a goatee without the moustache bit. Also answers the door wearing only a damp towel. Hmmm…
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A damp towel, worn by a wet blanket.
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Oooh, good one, Ivan! 😀
I’ve now offered him a different room, with a balcony and a better fan, as of next week after my friends S&L leave. Of course he then was worried about street noise. 😕
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Meanwhile, it continues to be outrageously HOT here – this heat wave has lasted almost two weeks now.
At the moment we have three fans going in the living room … I wonder if there’s an accumulative effect going on. I mean, if you never get a chance to cool down properly and the outside temp is way hotter than your own body temp, does one slowly start cooking from the inside out?
I was thinking that this is what menopause must feel like and might be wondering if this is in fact the case, except that Nog is also experiencing the same ‘symptoms’.
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Darling, it’s hot here too. It was 111 F a(44 C) last Saturday…breaking the record by what? 15 degrees or so. I can manage, going to the store (blessed A/C), but I feel sorry for the boys. Panda and Oxy lay around like limp dishrags most of the time, and meow weakly. I’m sure they’re overacting for their audience, but still…
Okay, my whine’s done.
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*waves to Melissa*
Nice to hear from you! Though you might have given me a clue that it was you … had to trace your IP number and email to find your webpage and then saw your pic (and that gorgeous hair!).
Yeah, 44º is pretty damn hot. Nog says it’s nice to hear someone whining about a properly HOT temperature for a change, none of this 30º nonsense. 😉
Have you tried ice packs for the cats?
Well, hope you’ll stick around – where’ve you been?
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It still hasn’t been nearly as hot here as there. I tend to keep the airconditioning on, set to around 75 F (24 C), when we’re home, because we’re in a top floor apartment with a black tar roof, and it gets about 10-15 degrees F warmer in here than outside. Warmth combined with humidity aggravates my asthma a bit, indoors, especially when I’m sleeping. Unfortunately, I pay a price for this luxury: last month’s electric bill was about $300. 😉
Overall, though, I think 30 C is a really nice temperature- perfect for being outdoors!
That said, I also prefer the cold of winter to the heat of summer. Our apartment gets pretty darn chilly, too, but since there are two apartments downstairs, the floors don’t get too cold.
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Oh I know! When I first moved to Seville I had a small studio apartment with air-conditioning. And although I only put it on at mid-day (for lunch) and later in the evening just before bed to cool the place down a bit, my electricity bill was double what it normally was.
My wimp of a tenant who is moving out next week because of the HEAT said that just one air-conditioning unit in the livingroom would make *such a difference*! 🙄 I can just see it now. The airconditioning would be left on constantly and then they’d complain about having to pay almost the same again for electricity as their rent.
I get similar complaints in winter. I pay for the gas for a small gas heater in the livingroom – which really does heat up the room nicely. When I lived there one gas canister would last 2-3 weeks. Last winter I was having to buy one every bloody week as they left it on constantly whilst walking around the flat in short-sleeved t-shirts. They did this rather than put on a sweater or use the small electric heaters in their rooms (as they pay for electricity). So a heater meant to heat just the one main room was being used to heat the whole place.
Today it’s about 37º. Quite a nice change.
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My former roommate used to insist on keeping the thermostat set to 76 F during winter. I don’t mind keeping it there during summer, but during winter? We had a $400 heating bill one month. 😡 Luckily, K and I are both content to keep the apartment a bit chilly during winter- we set the thermostat to 63 during the day, because that’s the lowest we can legally set it without violating our lease, and 55-58 at night… temps in F, of course. Socks and sweaters are quite cozy in the first place!
While we do leave the heat and/or aircon on all day, we do adjust the thermostat so that it doesn’t *run* constantly.
The bills can be astronomical!
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We finally had some rain overnight, so it is a bit cooler here today. Our summers are always hot and dry and are the reason I always enjoy fall so much. 🙂
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Well, after more than a month of 40º or more, the forecasted high today is 33º (phew!). What a relief.
Actually, we noticed the change last night when we went out for tapas around 9pm – the air felt so light and fresh with a nice coolish breeze. 🙂
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I must be acclimatising – 33º now sounds pleasantly cool, but its actually 91ºF, a heatwave back in Britland. Still, compared to the heat we *have* been having…
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Of course the downside to the cooler temperatures is that the mosquitos are back! 😦
But for the first time in ages we are able to sleep without two fans going. 🙂
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😯 It’s raining!
Been totally pissing down since about 6am. And it’s only supposed to reach 26º today (brrr).
I can’t even remember the last time it rained here – think it was back in May.
Anyhow, although it’s nice that it’s cooled down it seems like too much at once – this feels more like the end of September than mid-August.
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It was 16C here today, and it felt quite warm. I think I’ve finally acclimatised to the Canberra climate.
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I actually had to postpone my class this morning – there’s no way I’d even get across the street without getting totally drenched. It’s that sort of stop & start rain and when it starts you can barely see out the window.
Going to wait and see if it clears up after lunch and probably do the class in the afternoon instead.
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Well goddam! Official temperature today is 44º fucking degrees! Which means in the centre of Seville it’s going to be at least 50º by late afternoon. And late afternoon is when I have to go out to teach a class, about a half-hour walk from here.
My only consolation is that this place is air-conditioned and they always put out a bottle of cold water for me as soon as I arrive.
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