London's 2018 heatwave and some hot weather myths
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Title : London's 2018 heatwave and some hot weather myths
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Title : London's 2018 heatwave and some hot weather myths
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news-today.world | Hi guys, I was going to write something quite depressing and then I decided against it - instead, I'm sitting here sweating on the hottest day of the year here in the UK where temperatures today and tomorrow are expected to hit 35.1 degrees today. We have endured heatwaves before in the UK of course, though we have to go back to 2003 when we saw temperatures this high - the highest ever recorded temperature in the UK is 38.5 degrees in 2003. Currently, there are heatwaves affecting many parts of the world from Japan to Greece to Finland to Canada. So with that in mind, allow me to do a quick Q&A about what it is like to be in a country that is suffering a heatwave like that, especially since I had just spent sometime in Singapore which does give me a good comparison of what normal life is like in a tropical country.
What is your definition of a heatwave?
This varies from country to country, but in the UK, we distinguish between a hot day and a heatwave by looking at how long the hot weather lasts. Firstly, you have to look at what the normal temperature is - so if we have a period say in early January when the maximum temperature everyday constantly exceeds 15 degrees, now that may not feel 'hot' in a way 35 degrees would make you feel uncomfortable, but that's in the middle of winter when we expect the temperature to be around zero. We expect our summer temperatures to be in the mid-20s, so when we get the mid or high 30s, that's clearly an anomaly, when the temperatures are 10 or more degrees higher than normal. Secondly, you have to look at the duration of the heatwave, so in the UK, we would look at how many days in the summer temperatures exceed 30 degrees and if those days are consecutive. We also look at the nightly minimum temperature as well - currently, it isn't falling below 22 degrees in central London at night when we normally expect night time lows of about 15 degrees. Associated with this current heatwave is a period of exceptionally low rainfall, otherwise known as a drought: coupled with the high temperatures, the impact is very visible with a lot of the grass turning yellow and plants suffering/wilting in the heat. Of course, homeowners will water the plants in their private gardens, but forests which are dependent on rainfall are really suffering at the moment.
Are you suffering really, or is this just Singapore weather?
There are several differences between what London is experiencing now and what one gets in Singapore. Firstly, the range of temperatures we experience is much bigger - today is is 20 to 36 degrees, that's a range of 16 degrees whilst in Singapore, typically, you get 26 to 33 degrees, a range of 7 degrees or so. So the coolest part of the day is the pre-dawn period and the mornings are surprisingly pleasant even during a heatwave, but the heat kicks in by late morning and because of the very long summer days when the sun sets as late as 9:30 pm at midsummer, the land just bakes in the intense sunshine all afternoon and the highest temperatures are achieved usually around 5 or 6 pm, it doesn't really start to cool down until the sun sets, so we're talking about 9 to 10 pm before the temperature starts to fall significantly from the daily maximum. In Singapore, because you're so close to the Equator, the sun rises and sets around 7:15 am and pm everyday, so you don't have these extra long days of intense sunshine to heat the land up to such high temperatures. Interestingly, the highest ever recorded temperature in Singapore is 36 degrees in 1983 in Tengah air base and we will match or exceed that in London today.
I can see where your cynicism is coming from - when the temperature fell to 21 degrees in Singapore earlier this year, there were people wearing boots and winter coats in public. So by that token, our hottest day of the year during this heatwave would still be considered a cold snap by Singaporean standards. Yes, a lot of it depends on what you are used to. The biggest difference between London and Singapore is the provision of air-conditioning: I was out yesterday at meetings and let me tell you what my experience was. I turned up at my client's office which thankfully, was air-conditioned and extremely pleasant. I then went for lunch with my boss at a sushi restaurant, we reckoned that they had to have air-conditioning if they are selling raw fish and sure enough, it was very cool there. Then we met a client in an upmarket cafe, where they had air-conditioning as well. Because we were in the West End, I popped into two department stores: Liberty and M&S and shockingly, neither had air-conditioning and relied on fans. I think I spotted a handful of mobile air-conditioning units in Liberty but really, the place still felt like an oven in there - it was unbearably stuffy. Yes there was a sale on but I realized it was hotter in the building that outside, when it was already in the mid-30s outside. The atmosphere was unbearable, I was sweating and felt so uncomfortable I instantly looked for the nearest exit in both cases: I was left wondering how the staff must have suffered working under such conditions. You see, even in my home, yes it gets hot, no I don't have air-conditioning but I can at least open the windows and get a breeze blowing through the rooms so it doesn't feel too suffocating. But with a big department store, there are no windows to open and so the heat is trapped inside.
So I want you to imagine going into one of those big malls on Orchard Road, somewhere like Wisma Atria or Ion and imagine if they didn't turn on the air-conditioning - yeah, that's what it felt like in Liberty and M&S. Furthermore, only some of our newer trains have air-conditioning, so on a day like this, the temperature on the Central Line trains this evening's rush hour can reach 35 to 40 degrees - this may sound horrific but it is something that happens every summer on a regular basis. One also feels sorry for the staff who work in such underground stations because unlike Singapore, none of these stations are air-conditioned and they are designed to keep the heat in during the cold winter months, so during summer months, the temperatures at platform level in such underground stations regularly exceed 35 degrees when the station is very crowded. The knock on effect is that staff working under such extreme heat can fall ill, then there are less trains run because of staff shortages, leading to more crowded stations which get even hotter, trains that get even more crowded and the temperatures in the trains and the stations just keep getting closer and closer to 50 degrees. The EU states that the safe temperature to transport cattle is below 30 degrees, but what is the alternative? Shutting down the Underground system would paralyze an important part of London's public transport system - so they just issue health warnings and advise people not to use the trains unless absolutely necessary under such conditions.
Are you a poor country? Can you air-condition your trains and buildings?
Well, we are not a rich country that's for sure and Brexit is going to make things worse. We go back to the same argument over and over again, you invest in something if you are going to use it regularly. So in Singapore, yes you invest in air-conditioning because you are going to use it every single day. I am looking at the weather forecast, we have a break in the heatwave this weekend and by Saturday night it will fall down to 14 degrees with day time highs not exceeding 22. So even when it does get ridiculously hot like today, the attitude is usually, "just bear with it for a few days, it will pass and the temperature will get back to normal before you know it". To be fair, some of the newer trains on our public transport network do have air-conditioning and the high end offices, restaurants and hotels will have air-conditioning; but for most normal folks, they actually have to think about spending money on something they will use just a few weeks a year at best, maybe even a few days a year. I remember having had summers where the temperature never exceeded 30 degrees. It is the same thing in Spain for example, my friend near Malaga lives in a building with no heating because it rarely gets cold enough to justify spending money on a heating system - yet every once in a while, the temperature could fall to like 5 degrees and his whole building will feel particularly cold. Do they rush out to install a heating system? No, they just wear coats indoors and drink plenty of hot tea until it warms up again in a few days.
To be fair to the public transport authorities, there is a long list of things that they can invest in to improve customer experience. For example, if they were to simply hire more staff to man the stations, to assist the passengers, then that could easily improve the customer experience and the extra staff would be there everyday, rain or shine, summer or winter, hot or cold. Installing expensive air-conditioning in the stations would make waiting for the trains more pleasant of course during summer, but bear in mind most of the year, the station isn't that hot at all, in fact they can feel quite chilly during the winter months. So it is a question of priority: do you invest in something that would benefit the passengers everyday of the year, or do you invest in something that will only be used during a heatwave? If there was an unlimited pot of money to spend on public transport, then we could have everything on the wish list - but the reality is that air-conditioning is always pushed down the list for this very reason because the money is always spent on something else which will be of more benefit to the passengers every day of the year. The same argument can be applied to investing in air-conditioning in public buses, buildings, hospitals, universities, schools, nursing homes and offices. And that is why we simply carry on the way we do, bearing with the heat and hoping that the heatwaves do not last too long.
Is it a dry heat, is the humidity a lot lower than in Singapore?
Actually no! The relative humidity in London now is about the 30 - 50% mark, which isn't that much lower than Singapore's which would usually range between 70 - 100%. Compare that to a real desert like Las Vegas in Nevada, USA - the relative humidity there is between 10 - 25%, that's because it is bone dry there in the desert unlike London which isn't in a desert. Yes London is still somewhat drier than Singapore of course, but that kind of dry heat you talk about is usually only associated with deserts. So it does feel a lot like Singapore right now in London, but without the air-conditioning. I am sparing myself the commute into the office by working from home and am sitting here in my living room, with the windows open. The sensation of a 'dry heat' associated with a desert is when any sweat on your skin evaporates so quickly, giving you the impression that you're hot but not really sweating despite the heat whereas right now in London, it is definitely sticky city with plenty of sweat still on my skin. The higher humidity makes it harder for the sweat particles on my skin to evaporate quickly, that's why places like Singapore feel so hot and sticky because of the high humidity whereas this cooling process works far more efficiently during low or near zero humidity such as in deserts.
Why is air-conditioning so important to some and not others?
I think it is a question of whether or not you're willing to put up with the effects of hot weather. I remember when I was a child growing up in Singapore, there wasn't much air-conditioning. It was something we associated with cinemas, supermarkets and big shopping centers, but our homes weren't air-conditioned, the buses did not have air-conditioning and as a child, I remember playing in the school yard, climbing trees and running around in the heat, not caring if I was pouring with sweat. And then fast forward three decades, now I have problems sleeping if the temperature at night doesn't fall below 15 degrees outside and 22 degrees in my bedroom. I am no longer used to the heat and sweating makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. I feel sticky and unclean, I just want to have a shower to feel clean again. So for people living in poorer, tropical countries, they merely accept that there is no escape from the heat and they give in to the fact that their bodies are going to generate a lot of sweat in an effort to cool them down in the heat - that's exactly what I did when I was a child and you'll be amazed what you can get used to; whereas for the rich people in places like Singapore and Dubai who do have the option of escaping to the comfort of a cooler, air-conditioning environment to be spared the discomfort of sweating, then the temptation of course is to go for the more comfortable option.
Why do our bodies sweat and why is it deemed uncomfortable or unpleasant by some?
Our normal body temperature is roughly around 37 degrees, though it may vary slightly depending on your body type, your age and your gender. When our body temperature starts to drift above the normal temperature, our bodies will naturally generate sweat in a bid to reduce our body temperature and this is a completely natural process that is incredibly effective. So think about what happens when you go jogging, the physical activity and exertion will raise your body temperature and naturally, you will start sweating very soon. There are no harmful effects as long as you drink plenty of water to replenish the liquids you have lost through sweat. Note that the outside temperature actually has little to do with sweating, when I was in Northern Finland earlier this year, I went cross country skiing and that is one of the most demanding sports you can do. Despite the fact that it was about -20 degrees, I was sweating profusely trying to keep up with my Finnish friend on the course and I was trying to take off my winter clothing. She was like, "no no no, don't take it off, it is too cold, you will freeze." Sure enough, the sweat on my scarf froze once I had taken it off, but I swear it was so wet with sweat. This negative feeling associated with sweat is cultural, the Finns love sweating and have even built saunas specifically to induce sweating even during the coldest winter months when it can be -50 degrees outside. But then again, Finland is a naturally cold country in Northern Europe and you're unlikely to sweat there unless you're doing some kind of sport like jogging or cross-country skiing, quite unlike Singapore, where you can be sitting perfectly still but still break out into a sweat.
What are the cultural taboos about sweat then in some places?
However, in places like Singapore and Dubai, the issue of sweating is so deeply tied up with the concept of social class. So if you're a lawyer or a banker, you'll be sitting in a cool, air-conditioned office during the working day and not sweating at all. But if you're a construction worker or a gardener, you will be labouring away in the hot sun when it is 33 degrees outside and sweating a lot. So for someone like my sister in Singapore, she has a white collar job and works (insane hours) in a very cool, air-conditioned office: the only time she sweats is when she takes a break and does some sports. Sweating for her is associated with leisure activities but never with work. In fact, it would be deemed unprofessional of her to show up at an important meeting with a client if she was sweating profusely because of this cultural taboo associated with sweat in Singapore despite Singapore being a tropical country. This is even more so in a place like Dubai where temperatures can hit 48 degrees in summer and the rich would of course take a taxi or drive from their homes to their offices, so as to avoid having to be exposed to that kind of desert heat which would induce a lot of sweating. Don't forget, sweat doesn't smell good either - it can be quite foul in some cases of body odour and there's a huge market in products designed to control that odour. So it does go way beyond the physical discomfort of feeling sticky when your body is covered in sweat, the discomfort can be psychological as well if letting people to see you when you are sweating profusely can induce some kind of embarrassment or awkwardness.
What about the myth about drinking hot drinks on a hot day to stay cool?
Oh I'm sure you've heard this myth before, instead of having an ice cold milkshake, we should be drinking hot tea on a hot day to stay cool. Well, let me put on my scientist hat and explain what is going on. Drinking a big mug of very hot tea will raise your body temperature temporarily, especially when the temperature is already uncomfortably high, this will trigger one of your body's most natural responses: sweating. It is the sweating that will ultimately cool you down if (and only if) you stop consuming the hot drink and allow the sweat on your skin to evaporate. If you keep drinking a lot of hot tea and say you're wearing clothing that prevents the evaporation of your sweat from happening fast enough, then drinking hot drinks will only increase your body temperature and making you even more uncomfortable. But if you drink an ice cold drink or eat an ice cream, it is a very fast and direct way to bring down your body temperature on a hot day without relying on sweating and having an ice cream in this heat is a lot more pleasant than a hot cup of tea. What pisses me off is the way a lot of people listen to old wives' tales without questioning the science behind it - like for crying out aloud, we are well educated people, we can talk about the physics behind the myth and understand how things work thanks to modern science. It is only stupid, uneducated elderly folks who never question myths like that.
Another myth that I want to address is that drinking a lot of water cools our body down during hot weather and that is only partially true. A huge problem with Asian people is that they believe that water has some kind of medicinal value when really, it doesn't. We will sweat a lot when it is uncomfortably hot and we need to replenish the water that we lose through sweating by drinking more water, otherwise we will become dehydrated. Heat stroke can occur if you sweat so much you run out of water to generate more sweat and your body overheats. So it is the sweating that cools us down, rather than the water per se. However, sweating only works if you are allowing the sweat to evaporate - so if you are overdressed in the hot weather and say your arms, legs and head are completely covered, your clothing is preventing the sweat from evaporating from your skin and under those circumstances, no amount of sweating or water can help cool you down and you're probably just going to get a heatstroke if you refuse to take off the excessive clothing or remove yourself to a cooler environment with air-conditioning. This is why swimming is a particularly pleasant way to cool yourself down in this heat provided the temperature of the water is cool enough to lower your body temperature. The water temperature in most pools, rivers and lakes now in the London area is around 25 - 26 degrees, that's enough to immediately lower your body temperature fairly quickly. You just need to jump into the pool to cool down, you don't need to drink the pool water (urgh, don't do that).
What are some of the problems facing Brits during this heatwave?
The heat makes it difficult for us to sleep at night, not only do most homes lack air-conditioning, our homes are designed to keep the heat in during the cold winters rather than stay cool when it is this hot. I have a difficult choice at night - I want to leave the window open to get cooler air from inside into the bedroom, but leaving the window open means letting in the noise from the street outside as well. Our work productivity drops in this weather, because we get tired more easily and are in such discomfort that we are unable to focus - don't forget, most of us Brits are simply not used to such temperatures and many only experience temperatures like that when they travel abroad for an exotic holiday. The children and the elderly are most vulnerable during heatwaves and in the current heatwave in Japan, the deaths from heatstroke have been mostly amongst the youngest and the oldest, those least able to take care of themselves. One major problem is for anyone who has to wear a uniform at work or in school because our uniforms are usually designed to keep people warm in winter and little provision is made for people to stay cool when it becomes extremely hot. Things could be far worse of course, Greece is suffering a lot worse due to the dry and hot conditions setting off a large number of wild fires which has burnt a lot of villages to the ground and claimed many lives.
What is some of the weirdest shit you've seen during this heatwave?
Well, apart from the xiao angmohs who like lying in the midday sun and getting terribly sunburnt? It has got to be the people who wear sweaters and winter coats when it is 35 degrees. Look, it is currently 36 degrees outside and 31 in my living room, I am just sitting here typing at my laptop and I am already sweating. I have seen people yesterday wearing winter coats in this kind of weather and I'm wondering, what's wrong with your blood circulation that makes you feel cold when everyone else is collapsing in the extreme heat? I'm not even talking about very conservative Muslim women who choose to cover everything up in spite of the heat, I'm talking about non-Muslims who still choose to wear coats despite the very high temperatures. Do they not sweat in this temperature? Or is there something wrong with their body's thermostat that prevents them from realizing just how much they are going to overheat by wearing a thick winter coat when it is 34 degrees? Heck, when I was in Singapore recently, I have seen plenty of people who do wear some kind of sweater/coats when out and about despite it being 34 degrees as well and that just puzzles me. You will sweat when you overdress in the hot weather and when your coat or sweater absorbs all your sweat, it will smell pretty disgusting. But if you don't sweat when it is this hot, then isn't your body going to overheat and that will lead to death by heatstroke? You need to take care of your body at such temperatures or death could occur if you do something really stupid.
Is this the hottest summer you've experienced in the UK?
Actually no, it is still not as bad as the summer of 2003 when we had the record breaking 38.5 degrees. We have had a period of consistently high temperatures since mid June and now that we're approaching the end of July, that's about 6 weeks of high temperatures that have been around or above 30 degrees nearly everyday. This is a bit unexpected because we have just had one of our coldest winters in a while, with an astonishing amount of snow even in central London earlier this year (which was great for Instagram!) so we've gone from one extreme to another. London is usually a lot more mild - with winters that aren't that cold and summers that aren't that hot - but the weather this year has defied all expectations and it is mostly due to the position of the Jet Stream. Once again, I fucking hate it when uneducated people say stupid shit like, "oh the weather is going crazy". No it isn't you idiot, there's plenty of modern science that can explain exactly what is going on and just because you're an uneducated idiot too stupid to figure out what is going on doesn't mean that the rest of us more enlightened, educated folks don't understand exactly what is going on with the weather. Okay, I just had to get that rant off my chest. I'm going to cool off with a cold drink and a bath. Leave a comment and share your experiences with the heat. Many thanks for reading.
What is your definition of a heatwave?
This varies from country to country, but in the UK, we distinguish between a hot day and a heatwave by looking at how long the hot weather lasts. Firstly, you have to look at what the normal temperature is - so if we have a period say in early January when the maximum temperature everyday constantly exceeds 15 degrees, now that may not feel 'hot' in a way 35 degrees would make you feel uncomfortable, but that's in the middle of winter when we expect the temperature to be around zero. We expect our summer temperatures to be in the mid-20s, so when we get the mid or high 30s, that's clearly an anomaly, when the temperatures are 10 or more degrees higher than normal. Secondly, you have to look at the duration of the heatwave, so in the UK, we would look at how many days in the summer temperatures exceed 30 degrees and if those days are consecutive. We also look at the nightly minimum temperature as well - currently, it isn't falling below 22 degrees in central London at night when we normally expect night time lows of about 15 degrees. Associated with this current heatwave is a period of exceptionally low rainfall, otherwise known as a drought: coupled with the high temperatures, the impact is very visible with a lot of the grass turning yellow and plants suffering/wilting in the heat. Of course, homeowners will water the plants in their private gardens, but forests which are dependent on rainfall are really suffering at the moment.
Are you suffering really, or is this just Singapore weather?
There are several differences between what London is experiencing now and what one gets in Singapore. Firstly, the range of temperatures we experience is much bigger - today is is 20 to 36 degrees, that's a range of 16 degrees whilst in Singapore, typically, you get 26 to 33 degrees, a range of 7 degrees or so. So the coolest part of the day is the pre-dawn period and the mornings are surprisingly pleasant even during a heatwave, but the heat kicks in by late morning and because of the very long summer days when the sun sets as late as 9:30 pm at midsummer, the land just bakes in the intense sunshine all afternoon and the highest temperatures are achieved usually around 5 or 6 pm, it doesn't really start to cool down until the sun sets, so we're talking about 9 to 10 pm before the temperature starts to fall significantly from the daily maximum. In Singapore, because you're so close to the Equator, the sun rises and sets around 7:15 am and pm everyday, so you don't have these extra long days of intense sunshine to heat the land up to such high temperatures. Interestingly, the highest ever recorded temperature in Singapore is 36 degrees in 1983 in Tengah air base and we will match or exceed that in London today.
I can see where your cynicism is coming from - when the temperature fell to 21 degrees in Singapore earlier this year, there were people wearing boots and winter coats in public. So by that token, our hottest day of the year during this heatwave would still be considered a cold snap by Singaporean standards. Yes, a lot of it depends on what you are used to. The biggest difference between London and Singapore is the provision of air-conditioning: I was out yesterday at meetings and let me tell you what my experience was. I turned up at my client's office which thankfully, was air-conditioned and extremely pleasant. I then went for lunch with my boss at a sushi restaurant, we reckoned that they had to have air-conditioning if they are selling raw fish and sure enough, it was very cool there. Then we met a client in an upmarket cafe, where they had air-conditioning as well. Because we were in the West End, I popped into two department stores: Liberty and M&S and shockingly, neither had air-conditioning and relied on fans. I think I spotted a handful of mobile air-conditioning units in Liberty but really, the place still felt like an oven in there - it was unbearably stuffy. Yes there was a sale on but I realized it was hotter in the building that outside, when it was already in the mid-30s outside. The atmosphere was unbearable, I was sweating and felt so uncomfortable I instantly looked for the nearest exit in both cases: I was left wondering how the staff must have suffered working under such conditions. You see, even in my home, yes it gets hot, no I don't have air-conditioning but I can at least open the windows and get a breeze blowing through the rooms so it doesn't feel too suffocating. But with a big department store, there are no windows to open and so the heat is trapped inside.
So I want you to imagine going into one of those big malls on Orchard Road, somewhere like Wisma Atria or Ion and imagine if they didn't turn on the air-conditioning - yeah, that's what it felt like in Liberty and M&S. Furthermore, only some of our newer trains have air-conditioning, so on a day like this, the temperature on the Central Line trains this evening's rush hour can reach 35 to 40 degrees - this may sound horrific but it is something that happens every summer on a regular basis. One also feels sorry for the staff who work in such underground stations because unlike Singapore, none of these stations are air-conditioned and they are designed to keep the heat in during the cold winter months, so during summer months, the temperatures at platform level in such underground stations regularly exceed 35 degrees when the station is very crowded. The knock on effect is that staff working under such extreme heat can fall ill, then there are less trains run because of staff shortages, leading to more crowded stations which get even hotter, trains that get even more crowded and the temperatures in the trains and the stations just keep getting closer and closer to 50 degrees. The EU states that the safe temperature to transport cattle is below 30 degrees, but what is the alternative? Shutting down the Underground system would paralyze an important part of London's public transport system - so they just issue health warnings and advise people not to use the trains unless absolutely necessary under such conditions.
Are you a poor country? Can you air-condition your trains and buildings?
Well, we are not a rich country that's for sure and Brexit is going to make things worse. We go back to the same argument over and over again, you invest in something if you are going to use it regularly. So in Singapore, yes you invest in air-conditioning because you are going to use it every single day. I am looking at the weather forecast, we have a break in the heatwave this weekend and by Saturday night it will fall down to 14 degrees with day time highs not exceeding 22. So even when it does get ridiculously hot like today, the attitude is usually, "just bear with it for a few days, it will pass and the temperature will get back to normal before you know it". To be fair, some of the newer trains on our public transport network do have air-conditioning and the high end offices, restaurants and hotels will have air-conditioning; but for most normal folks, they actually have to think about spending money on something they will use just a few weeks a year at best, maybe even a few days a year. I remember having had summers where the temperature never exceeded 30 degrees. It is the same thing in Spain for example, my friend near Malaga lives in a building with no heating because it rarely gets cold enough to justify spending money on a heating system - yet every once in a while, the temperature could fall to like 5 degrees and his whole building will feel particularly cold. Do they rush out to install a heating system? No, they just wear coats indoors and drink plenty of hot tea until it warms up again in a few days.
To be fair to the public transport authorities, there is a long list of things that they can invest in to improve customer experience. For example, if they were to simply hire more staff to man the stations, to assist the passengers, then that could easily improve the customer experience and the extra staff would be there everyday, rain or shine, summer or winter, hot or cold. Installing expensive air-conditioning in the stations would make waiting for the trains more pleasant of course during summer, but bear in mind most of the year, the station isn't that hot at all, in fact they can feel quite chilly during the winter months. So it is a question of priority: do you invest in something that would benefit the passengers everyday of the year, or do you invest in something that will only be used during a heatwave? If there was an unlimited pot of money to spend on public transport, then we could have everything on the wish list - but the reality is that air-conditioning is always pushed down the list for this very reason because the money is always spent on something else which will be of more benefit to the passengers every day of the year. The same argument can be applied to investing in air-conditioning in public buses, buildings, hospitals, universities, schools, nursing homes and offices. And that is why we simply carry on the way we do, bearing with the heat and hoping that the heatwaves do not last too long.
Is it a dry heat, is the humidity a lot lower than in Singapore?
Actually no! The relative humidity in London now is about the 30 - 50% mark, which isn't that much lower than Singapore's which would usually range between 70 - 100%. Compare that to a real desert like Las Vegas in Nevada, USA - the relative humidity there is between 10 - 25%, that's because it is bone dry there in the desert unlike London which isn't in a desert. Yes London is still somewhat drier than Singapore of course, but that kind of dry heat you talk about is usually only associated with deserts. So it does feel a lot like Singapore right now in London, but without the air-conditioning. I am sparing myself the commute into the office by working from home and am sitting here in my living room, with the windows open. The sensation of a 'dry heat' associated with a desert is when any sweat on your skin evaporates so quickly, giving you the impression that you're hot but not really sweating despite the heat whereas right now in London, it is definitely sticky city with plenty of sweat still on my skin. The higher humidity makes it harder for the sweat particles on my skin to evaporate quickly, that's why places like Singapore feel so hot and sticky because of the high humidity whereas this cooling process works far more efficiently during low or near zero humidity such as in deserts.
Why is air-conditioning so important to some and not others?
I think it is a question of whether or not you're willing to put up with the effects of hot weather. I remember when I was a child growing up in Singapore, there wasn't much air-conditioning. It was something we associated with cinemas, supermarkets and big shopping centers, but our homes weren't air-conditioned, the buses did not have air-conditioning and as a child, I remember playing in the school yard, climbing trees and running around in the heat, not caring if I was pouring with sweat. And then fast forward three decades, now I have problems sleeping if the temperature at night doesn't fall below 15 degrees outside and 22 degrees in my bedroom. I am no longer used to the heat and sweating makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. I feel sticky and unclean, I just want to have a shower to feel clean again. So for people living in poorer, tropical countries, they merely accept that there is no escape from the heat and they give in to the fact that their bodies are going to generate a lot of sweat in an effort to cool them down in the heat - that's exactly what I did when I was a child and you'll be amazed what you can get used to; whereas for the rich people in places like Singapore and Dubai who do have the option of escaping to the comfort of a cooler, air-conditioning environment to be spared the discomfort of sweating, then the temptation of course is to go for the more comfortable option.
Why do our bodies sweat and why is it deemed uncomfortable or unpleasant by some?
Our normal body temperature is roughly around 37 degrees, though it may vary slightly depending on your body type, your age and your gender. When our body temperature starts to drift above the normal temperature, our bodies will naturally generate sweat in a bid to reduce our body temperature and this is a completely natural process that is incredibly effective. So think about what happens when you go jogging, the physical activity and exertion will raise your body temperature and naturally, you will start sweating very soon. There are no harmful effects as long as you drink plenty of water to replenish the liquids you have lost through sweat. Note that the outside temperature actually has little to do with sweating, when I was in Northern Finland earlier this year, I went cross country skiing and that is one of the most demanding sports you can do. Despite the fact that it was about -20 degrees, I was sweating profusely trying to keep up with my Finnish friend on the course and I was trying to take off my winter clothing. She was like, "no no no, don't take it off, it is too cold, you will freeze." Sure enough, the sweat on my scarf froze once I had taken it off, but I swear it was so wet with sweat. This negative feeling associated with sweat is cultural, the Finns love sweating and have even built saunas specifically to induce sweating even during the coldest winter months when it can be -50 degrees outside. But then again, Finland is a naturally cold country in Northern Europe and you're unlikely to sweat there unless you're doing some kind of sport like jogging or cross-country skiing, quite unlike Singapore, where you can be sitting perfectly still but still break out into a sweat.
What are the cultural taboos about sweat then in some places?
However, in places like Singapore and Dubai, the issue of sweating is so deeply tied up with the concept of social class. So if you're a lawyer or a banker, you'll be sitting in a cool, air-conditioned office during the working day and not sweating at all. But if you're a construction worker or a gardener, you will be labouring away in the hot sun when it is 33 degrees outside and sweating a lot. So for someone like my sister in Singapore, she has a white collar job and works (insane hours) in a very cool, air-conditioned office: the only time she sweats is when she takes a break and does some sports. Sweating for her is associated with leisure activities but never with work. In fact, it would be deemed unprofessional of her to show up at an important meeting with a client if she was sweating profusely because of this cultural taboo associated with sweat in Singapore despite Singapore being a tropical country. This is even more so in a place like Dubai where temperatures can hit 48 degrees in summer and the rich would of course take a taxi or drive from their homes to their offices, so as to avoid having to be exposed to that kind of desert heat which would induce a lot of sweating. Don't forget, sweat doesn't smell good either - it can be quite foul in some cases of body odour and there's a huge market in products designed to control that odour. So it does go way beyond the physical discomfort of feeling sticky when your body is covered in sweat, the discomfort can be psychological as well if letting people to see you when you are sweating profusely can induce some kind of embarrassment or awkwardness.
What about the myth about drinking hot drinks on a hot day to stay cool?
Oh I'm sure you've heard this myth before, instead of having an ice cold milkshake, we should be drinking hot tea on a hot day to stay cool. Well, let me put on my scientist hat and explain what is going on. Drinking a big mug of very hot tea will raise your body temperature temporarily, especially when the temperature is already uncomfortably high, this will trigger one of your body's most natural responses: sweating. It is the sweating that will ultimately cool you down if (and only if) you stop consuming the hot drink and allow the sweat on your skin to evaporate. If you keep drinking a lot of hot tea and say you're wearing clothing that prevents the evaporation of your sweat from happening fast enough, then drinking hot drinks will only increase your body temperature and making you even more uncomfortable. But if you drink an ice cold drink or eat an ice cream, it is a very fast and direct way to bring down your body temperature on a hot day without relying on sweating and having an ice cream in this heat is a lot more pleasant than a hot cup of tea. What pisses me off is the way a lot of people listen to old wives' tales without questioning the science behind it - like for crying out aloud, we are well educated people, we can talk about the physics behind the myth and understand how things work thanks to modern science. It is only stupid, uneducated elderly folks who never question myths like that.
Another myth that I want to address is that drinking a lot of water cools our body down during hot weather and that is only partially true. A huge problem with Asian people is that they believe that water has some kind of medicinal value when really, it doesn't. We will sweat a lot when it is uncomfortably hot and we need to replenish the water that we lose through sweating by drinking more water, otherwise we will become dehydrated. Heat stroke can occur if you sweat so much you run out of water to generate more sweat and your body overheats. So it is the sweating that cools us down, rather than the water per se. However, sweating only works if you are allowing the sweat to evaporate - so if you are overdressed in the hot weather and say your arms, legs and head are completely covered, your clothing is preventing the sweat from evaporating from your skin and under those circumstances, no amount of sweating or water can help cool you down and you're probably just going to get a heatstroke if you refuse to take off the excessive clothing or remove yourself to a cooler environment with air-conditioning. This is why swimming is a particularly pleasant way to cool yourself down in this heat provided the temperature of the water is cool enough to lower your body temperature. The water temperature in most pools, rivers and lakes now in the London area is around 25 - 26 degrees, that's enough to immediately lower your body temperature fairly quickly. You just need to jump into the pool to cool down, you don't need to drink the pool water (urgh, don't do that).
What are some of the problems facing Brits during this heatwave?
The heat makes it difficult for us to sleep at night, not only do most homes lack air-conditioning, our homes are designed to keep the heat in during the cold winters rather than stay cool when it is this hot. I have a difficult choice at night - I want to leave the window open to get cooler air from inside into the bedroom, but leaving the window open means letting in the noise from the street outside as well. Our work productivity drops in this weather, because we get tired more easily and are in such discomfort that we are unable to focus - don't forget, most of us Brits are simply not used to such temperatures and many only experience temperatures like that when they travel abroad for an exotic holiday. The children and the elderly are most vulnerable during heatwaves and in the current heatwave in Japan, the deaths from heatstroke have been mostly amongst the youngest and the oldest, those least able to take care of themselves. One major problem is for anyone who has to wear a uniform at work or in school because our uniforms are usually designed to keep people warm in winter and little provision is made for people to stay cool when it becomes extremely hot. Things could be far worse of course, Greece is suffering a lot worse due to the dry and hot conditions setting off a large number of wild fires which has burnt a lot of villages to the ground and claimed many lives.
What is some of the weirdest shit you've seen during this heatwave?
Well, apart from the xiao angmohs who like lying in the midday sun and getting terribly sunburnt? It has got to be the people who wear sweaters and winter coats when it is 35 degrees. Look, it is currently 36 degrees outside and 31 in my living room, I am just sitting here typing at my laptop and I am already sweating. I have seen people yesterday wearing winter coats in this kind of weather and I'm wondering, what's wrong with your blood circulation that makes you feel cold when everyone else is collapsing in the extreme heat? I'm not even talking about very conservative Muslim women who choose to cover everything up in spite of the heat, I'm talking about non-Muslims who still choose to wear coats despite the very high temperatures. Do they not sweat in this temperature? Or is there something wrong with their body's thermostat that prevents them from realizing just how much they are going to overheat by wearing a thick winter coat when it is 34 degrees? Heck, when I was in Singapore recently, I have seen plenty of people who do wear some kind of sweater/coats when out and about despite it being 34 degrees as well and that just puzzles me. You will sweat when you overdress in the hot weather and when your coat or sweater absorbs all your sweat, it will smell pretty disgusting. But if you don't sweat when it is this hot, then isn't your body going to overheat and that will lead to death by heatstroke? You need to take care of your body at such temperatures or death could occur if you do something really stupid.
Is this the hottest summer you've experienced in the UK?
Actually no, it is still not as bad as the summer of 2003 when we had the record breaking 38.5 degrees. We have had a period of consistently high temperatures since mid June and now that we're approaching the end of July, that's about 6 weeks of high temperatures that have been around or above 30 degrees nearly everyday. This is a bit unexpected because we have just had one of our coldest winters in a while, with an astonishing amount of snow even in central London earlier this year (which was great for Instagram!) so we've gone from one extreme to another. London is usually a lot more mild - with winters that aren't that cold and summers that aren't that hot - but the weather this year has defied all expectations and it is mostly due to the position of the Jet Stream. Once again, I fucking hate it when uneducated people say stupid shit like, "oh the weather is going crazy". No it isn't you idiot, there's plenty of modern science that can explain exactly what is going on and just because you're an uneducated idiot too stupid to figure out what is going on doesn't mean that the rest of us more enlightened, educated folks don't understand exactly what is going on with the weather. Okay, I just had to get that rant off my chest. I'm going to cool off with a cold drink and a bath. Leave a comment and share your experiences with the heat. Many thanks for reading.
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