Unusual weather for the time of year
It only seems like a couple of weeks ago that we were amazed when the thermometer in the car registered an outside temperature of 35 degrees. The first time I saw it go to 41°C, I sent S a text. 41°C! A couple of days later, it displayed 46°. Another excited text. But every day, the temperature crept up another degree, We got so used to this that we were disappointed on the odd occasion it dipped below 40°C. And then on Friday, it displayed an incredible 51°C. I took a picture of the display. But we were beginning to doubt the accuracy of either the display or the thermometer.
There is no doubt that the weather here is not doing what it should be doing. June is supposed to be the rainy season, two to three weeks at least of solid rain. Apart from looking a bit overcast one Thursday afternoon, there was no sign of any rain all month. This apparently has never been known before. July and August are supposed to be the hottest months, with around 20 days of temperatures exceeding 35 degrees. So far already this year there have been 9 days of temperatures exceeding 35 degrees, and we’re only 3 days into July. With temperatures like this, going out for any length of time is not an option – it’s simply a case of making your way from one air-conditioned location to another as quickly as possible. And so on Saturday we decided to visit the Shanghai Aquarium. This was built only a few years ago, and is billed as state of the art - and it certainly didn’t disappoint. With indoor recreations of areas as diverse as the Amazon Jungle and the Antarctic, it was a pleasant and impressive way to avoid the heat. With temperatures of 30°C, it was cooler in the Amazon Jungle than it was outside. After two hours, the final stage of our tour was to board the ‘travellator’ (a moving pathway) that transported us through glass tunnels where sharks swam all around us. In true Western style, the end of the journey arrived when the travellator deposited us neatly in the Gift Shop. Bizarrely, the Gift Shop must have been the only public building in Shanghai that was not air-conditioned, so there was no hanging around in there. But as we fled past the displays of pink fluffy dolphins and turtle fridge magnets, S spotted a thermometer…we had to have it.
When we got home, we took our new thermometer up to the roof garden. “I think we’re supposed to measure the temperature in the shade”, said S, putting the thermometer in the shadow of one of the walls. We went back to look at it 10 minutes later. The temperature was 47°C.
There is no doubt that the weather here is not doing what it should be doing. June is supposed to be the rainy season, two to three weeks at least of solid rain. Apart from looking a bit overcast one Thursday afternoon, there was no sign of any rain all month. This apparently has never been known before. July and August are supposed to be the hottest months, with around 20 days of temperatures exceeding 35 degrees. So far already this year there have been 9 days of temperatures exceeding 35 degrees, and we’re only 3 days into July. With temperatures like this, going out for any length of time is not an option – it’s simply a case of making your way from one air-conditioned location to another as quickly as possible. And so on Saturday we decided to visit the Shanghai Aquarium. This was built only a few years ago, and is billed as state of the art - and it certainly didn’t disappoint. With indoor recreations of areas as diverse as the Amazon Jungle and the Antarctic, it was a pleasant and impressive way to avoid the heat. With temperatures of 30°C, it was cooler in the Amazon Jungle than it was outside. After two hours, the final stage of our tour was to board the ‘travellator’ (a moving pathway) that transported us through glass tunnels where sharks swam all around us. In true Western style, the end of the journey arrived when the travellator deposited us neatly in the Gift Shop. Bizarrely, the Gift Shop must have been the only public building in Shanghai that was not air-conditioned, so there was no hanging around in there. But as we fled past the displays of pink fluffy dolphins and turtle fridge magnets, S spotted a thermometer…we had to have it.
When we got home, we took our new thermometer up to the roof garden. “I think we’re supposed to measure the temperature in the shade”, said S, putting the thermometer in the shadow of one of the walls. We went back to look at it 10 minutes later. The temperature was 47°C.
posted by Linda at 1:29 PM
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