Hi Di,

Yes this past Winter was milder, but so far Spring and Summer are cooler than last year - also cooler than what is typical. The consensus here is that the seasons are disappearing! But it doesn't always fit.

As long as I have known hurricanes have come off the African coast, or out of the Gulf. Occasionally something will form over water I think too. Those are unrelated to the heat systems we get though. Not sure if you were trying to figure that out?

The heat we get is always from Africa, btw. This year is much, much cooler than last year or the year before. I can't remember what year it was (2003? 2004?) that we had the dreadful summer throughout Europe. It was HOT HOT HOT all June through mid-October (usually nippy by then!) - unrelenting temps in the 100's - crazy. That year, the deaths recorded from heat stroke, dehydration, respiratory distress and other heat-related issues were at record highs in several European countries.

This Spring has been unusually cool. We should have hit the 80's in late Spring (but no complaints here!) and it barely touched 70. IThere's no telling really how the rest of the Summer will play out, but I hope we keep getting little breaks in between the heat waves, that will help. That and rain.

Oh yeah that year that was so hot, it didn't rain for the longest time - that contributed to the problem.

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As far as AC goes, few have it and fewer have central air. Most places here aren't used to dealing with intense heat because it didn't happen. They added AC to public transport here only in recent years, and people don't use it correctly so it either goes to waste and ends up breaking down or you end up in a freezer-box of a bus only to step outside into Sahara-temperatures and catch your death of something or other. Then people start saying AC is bad, and want it turned off completely... go figure!

waves