BTW, GatoE, I took your advice and kept my 530i. She went to the Bimmer hospital a few weeks ago and got lots of stuff done – runs beautifully!
But you must remember that I was a Pacific Ocean (California) shark before I swam to the Atlantic Ocean!
[RIGHT][/RIGHT]
Glad to be of help! My 740 just developed some “issue”. :dubious:
I’ll work on it… later.
“Issues” and “BMW” are scary words when put together. I’m sending good thoughts for your 740 Girl (Boy?)
:eek::eek::eek:
A GIS for “dew point chart” leads to most suggesting dew points around 55-60 are “comfortable” and 71-75 is “oppressive”.
Here (upper Midwest - US) we had a couple of hours in the 80+ dew point range during a heat wave about 5 years ago… Reminded me of coastal Panama. Ouch.
Our weather forecaster mentions the dew point, and we are getting to the time of year when I dread the numbers. I’m always excited in the late summer as I see them drop, until they finally settle in the 50s for a while and I feel that I can relax, and summer will soon be over.
On paper, Bangkok and Houston are about neck-and-neck as far as temperature and avg. relative humidity during the hot months, with Houston having higher record high temps.
The only good thing about Houston’s weather vs. Bangkok’s is that Houston actually cools off in the winter, while Bangkok seems to be miserably hot and humid year round, with the average high being under 90 only one month of the year in December, when the average high is 89.3. It also rains a lot less in Houston.
That’s actually an advantage in Bangkok’s favor. You get the heat consistently enough that you get used to it. I live in the Houston climate vortex, and I hate the cold of winter here. Rain is nice when its 90, but considerably more unpleasant when its 40.
That’s actually one of those things I’ve had a hard time explaining to people. Even though it’s rarely COLD in Houston, it’s often very uncomfortable in the winter because of the humidity in ways that the same temperature doesn’t seem so uncomfortable in less humid climes.
Humidity is like a “weather misery enhancer”- it makes every temperature more uncomfortable.
New Orleans is especially weird to me- the humidity and discomfort vary much more drastically during the day than anywhere else I’ve been.
Well, you’re made of sterner stuff than I am. Even after decades, I find it unbelievably harsh, and every Thai I know including my wife agrees it feels worse now. In Hawaii, I was always outdoors, same as everyone. In Thailand it’s always easy to identify the local farang (Western) residents, because we’re all pale from never venturing out of doors. I also remember you identified your hotel in the past as being on the eastern edge of Bangkok, and I’m not sure you would do the same if you were more centrally located.
The official temps are, I believe, taken at Suvarnabhumi Airport, which isn’t even in Bangkok but rather in open space in Samut Prakan province. No one here believes those figures for the city proper, just like no one ever believes the official population figures. (Migrants from upcountry are always still counted as living in their home province.) It gets much, much hotter in central Bangkok where we live. This is a concrete jungle.
And the Northeast tends to get even hotter. We spent Songkran this year in Roi Et province. Songkran is April13-15, right in the middle of the hottest time of year for Thailand and nearby countries. In Roi Et, it was approaching 120 in the afternoon. We all just stayed in my friend’s house with the air con blasting on high.
It is miserably hot in Bangkok almost year-round. I have to say it can get almost pleasant in December and January. The rains have stopped by then, it’s not rainy at all during that time. But you never can tell. One year recently, the “cool” season, what Thais laughingly refer to as winter, lasted only about 10 days in January. And I remember the hot season five years ago being unusually cool (although it’s been hotter each year since).
I lived in Mae Hong Son province for two years in the 1980s, the northwesternmost and most mountainous province, and you’d think that would be cooler in the hot season. It was pretty darned chilly in the cold season, often dropping even to the freezing point at night (but warming up in the day), but the hot season there is often the hottest in the country. It seems the mountains lock in the heat.
In countries like Thailand with high humidity, temperatures can never approach the kinds of high temperatures arid countries like Iraq have. If it get “too” hot in humid countries, it rains. The highest temperature ever recorded in Thailand was in Uttaradit. It got to 44.5 C. or 112 F. Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Pakistan, etc. have all had temperatures that exceeded 53 C. 126 F.; Tunisia even got to 55 C. 131 F.
I know all about hot, humid Asian summers. I spent seven years in Taipei, Taiwan (without A/C!) where summer temperatures regularly reached into the high 30’s, (High 90’s) with deadly high humidity. One can comfortably go outside only between 4 am and 7 am. Ten showers a day was typical. Ate so much “street” watermelon that my sweat smelled like watermelon.
And Taipei isn’t even tropical. The Tropic of Cancer cuts right through the middle of Taiwan, south of Taipei.
Most people don’t think of Hong Kong as a tropical island, but it is. Its weather is influenced by the massive fronts coming from Siberia and China. I’ve been in Hong Kong in December, and there’s certainly no tropical feel at that time.
A new record for India was set last month at 51 degrees Celsius or 123.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Thailand’s bad enough. I think I’ll pass on India, at least at that time of year.
Both Taipei and HK are miserably cold during the winter. Few if any homes have heat so one never gets warm except under the covers.
India (except for the far north) is beautiful during the winter. Wife and I spent a December, January and February traveling on the trains throughout the country. We stayed with a family in the ex Portuguese colony of Goa during the Christmas season. (The Christian influence from the colonial days is still prevalent.) Weather was in the low 80’s F and the ocean temperature was in the 70’s.
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