Freightdog wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 1:12 pm I want to come home. I’ve been in Europe since October. It’s been -2° to +5° fro the last few weeks. Back in the UK for a week, it’s wind, driving rain, driving drizzle, driving me nuts.

I’m cold.

Doc67 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 2:01 pm

Freightdog wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 1:12 pm I want to come home. I’ve been in Europe since October. It’s been -2° to +5° fro the last few weeks. Back in the UK for a week, it’s wind, driving rain, driving drizzle, driving me nuts.

I’m cold.

I'm not advocating doing an English full winter - sod that - just Mar-Apr-May in central coastal Spain, then June and July in London, then back here for August to February.

It's not that I don't like my time here, it's just I don't like all my time here and a 7/5 month split seems a good balance and avoids the one part of the year I loathe. I am fortunate to have the freedom to go wherever I like, and I think it's about time I started enjoying it, as I'm not getting any younger.

Doc67 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 09, 2024 9:43 am So much for the cool season, it lasted about 10 days in total. My outside temperature gauge shows the overnight low last night was 26.9c with 75% humidity, and that was at 6am. By 8pm it was all over, 29.6 @ 63% humidity. The daytime high yesterday was 34.8, and that is in total shade and with a lot of cloud cover too!

We are now on the cusp of the ever-increasing hot season with in-the-sun-heats of +40c and surface temperatures on the roads of even more. We are living in an oven with a very dodgy temperature setting.

This country would be so much better at 5 degrees centigrade below the current temperature, year round. Sadly, it seems to be going in the other way. Much like parts of southern Europe, which now has to deal with such high temperatures as to knock their tourist industry peak months of its perch, last year's hot season was the hottest I have seen (my electricity bills confirm that with a 25% increase). Many of my regular haunts became very unpleasant as their AC units couldn't cope. Outside bars were miserably hot; fans do nothing at 40c. I vowed never to do another Mar-May, and reading the current runes, that is still on the cards.

The world is seeing some alarming climate behaviour with record highs blowing out the previous records by whole degrees, not just fractions of a degree. Normally temperate areas are having periods of heat hitherto unseen - and nobody is prepared for it - and areas used to high temperatures are seeing consistent highs over long periods; Phoenix* recorded 55 days in a row with temperatures reaching 110F / 43.3c I have never been to Phoenix, but I bet 95% of consumer spaces have excellent AC (>25c). Not so PP. In fact, very few places do. Many have units, but few can (or are prepared to) get the place much below 30c.

At what temperature point does this place become uninhabitable to you, without 12-24-hour AC? How many people can sleep with overnight temperatures of ~30c without AC? How many want to pay the EDC bills that come with comfortable indoor temperatures?

Personally, I am getting close to giving this place a miss for at least 4/5 months of the year - March to July inclusive - and that throws up residency issues as I won't want to pay rent for those 4/5 months and so it could mean moving every year. A €750pm apartment in Spain, for Mar/Apr/ May - with an onsite pool, beaches, great shops, food, bars, restaurants, cheap wine and easy transport. It is looking very tempting, and there are plenty of places available in the shoulder season. June and July in London, and then back here for the rains. Idyllic...

For those with families and businesses here, getting out of dodge may not be an option.

*https://www.npr.org/2023/09/10/11986697 ... eat-record