Wondering about the weather....

We’ve had beautiful sunny weather since before Easter, and each day it gets warmer. Early on, temps were in the upper 50s but now at the end of spring break they’ve climbed into the 80s.

I’ve loved the sunshine flooding into the house, the chance to see the stars in the night sky, eating meals out on the terrace, observing the way the leaves have unfurled and gilded the trees, the proliferation of flowers coloring the landscape, the sight of people biking, walking, and running.

But I don’t like the heat.

Normal temperatures in Belgium this time of year top out in the 50s or low 60s. Seeing 83 degrees for a string of days in April gives me pause. Last summer we suffered from a record heat wave from late June until the end of July. I became increasingly listless and miserable. Keep in mind that homes and businesses aren’t air conditioned in most of Europe, that when it gets hot there is no where to go to cool down. All those charming brick and stone houses with tile roofs turn into solar hot boxes. After a few days, I begin to feel as flat as a pizza in a brick oven. There’s just no relief.

Plus, with global warming and climate change constantly in the news, there’s a sinister undertone to every freakish weather occurrence. I felt unsettled when Nance, who lives in northern Ohio, said she’d had a green Christmas and a white Easter. When Belgium, which normally sees average highs of 70 degrees in the summer, has weather in the 80s and 90s for weeks on end, it’s worrisome. My brother in New York was buried by record-breaking snowfall last winter, my sister in Maine had floods, and all the violent thunderstorms whipping through Virginia have cost us thousands of dollars in tree service costs.

So when a friend tells me the bright warm weather is supposed to continue all this week, my smile is a little wan, my happiness tempered by thoughts of ozone inversions, melting glaciers, droughts, and fears of the unknown spanning both the short-term and long-term. Really, I’m trying to appreciate the sun, but I think I’m ready for Belgium’s trademark gray skies and rain to let me know all is right in the world after all.

April 15, 2007

Comments

[Nance]

Sigh. I know exactly what you mean. Freakish weather continues. Ask the Texan-bloggers, esp. this week. And there's a Nor'easter hitting right now. The wind is howling outside as I type this; thankfully, the forecast for NE Ohio has been revised from 4 inches of snow in my town to a dusting perhaps, but I'm watching the Indians baseball team play in windchills of 28 degrees while their fans in the bleachers are dressed in snowsuits and blankets. My sweaters and winter coat are still gainfully employed, and my spring clothes are still in storage. April IS the cruellest month.

[Ortizzle]

I feel the same scariness about freakish weather. When is the Bush administration going to wake up and realize that the rest of the world has been dealing seriously with global warming for the last couple of decades (living in Europe, you will have noticed, for sure, if Belgium is anything like Spain, or Germany (where a friend of mine has been separating garbage into 4 different containers for the last 15 years at least!).

Global warming truly is affecting the weather pattern. And now that I live in northern Texas, a.k.a. Tornado Alley, it is even scarier. On Friday, a tornado or two dropped down all too close to the neighborhood, and I was really frightened for my husband who was on the road for work, and in the direct path of a predicted tornadao at about the time it should have hit. He missed it by a few miles, thank God, but the scare remains, and it is even scarier to think that these events will be more and more commonplace.

[Di]

I know what you mean ... delighted as I am by the sunshine, I am depressed about the pollution layer that settles on Antwerp without the rain or wind to get rid of it.

We're cooking over here in our non-a/c apartment and the change was so sudden. Gert said it will drop to 18 celsius tomorrow ... I'm kinda looking forward to that.

[bice]

Be it global warming or whatnot, weather the world over is changing. Nothing is making sense any more. No season is predictable any longer. I'm not sure when the shifting and shaking will end or what the climate on the other side will look like but... change is coming. No doubt about it.

[simon]

Ditto - sunshine is nice, heat less so. Need a shower (of rain, that is...) to cool things off a bit.
What will summers be like when my children grow up?

[Ash]

It's so hot here in Holland and I'm worrying about my veggie garden. I spent hours watering yesterday and now I need to go and do it again. I love the warm weather, but this is just wrong for this time of year!

[mamatulip]

I feel the same way about the weather. We too had a balmy green Christmas and it's colder now than it was then. And when I think back to birthdays past it surprises me how much the climate has changed. My birthday's in mid-September and when I was a kid it used to be quite cool by the time my big day rolled around. Now? September can be a pretty hot and humid month...more often than not it's warm right up till October.

And I also hate to be hot. HATE IT. I'd prefer to be cold any day.

[Tera]

Yep...I know just what you mean. As much as the sun energizes me, the heat strips me of that same energy. I'm glad it looks like the temps will be dropping a bit later in the week. I'm already nervous about summer!

[christina]

It's a bit scary, isn't it? We've been having absolutely beautiful weather as well and that ain't right at all. It's supposed to be another sizzling summer too. I don't do too well at temperatures above 27°C or so and I can remember a summer a couple of years ago when it went up to 35 and stayed there even during the night. More of that and I'm a goner.