Thursday, June 17, 2010

Weather Woes

Two words sum up West Bengal weather at the moment: hot and humid. Chalk it up to being smack-dab in the middle of the tropics.

Temperature reaches into the mid forties degrees Celcius (90-100+ degrees Farenheit) and stay there like unpleasant houseguests you just can’t get rid off. What makes things truly stifling is the alarmingly high humidity, which routinely creeps above 50%. Unfortunately, aside from rare cases, air conditioning is non-existent. You simply cope with a combination of ceiling and hand fans and not venturing out during peak heat hours (around 2PM). In fact, the majority of people take a midday siesta around lunch time at that time, with businesses closing down until about 5PM. To compensate, people tend to keep their shops open rather late to about 9PM and sometimes afterwards, when they eat an exceptionally late dinner by American standards. I’m rather fond of this schedule, as it gives plenty of opportunities for napping. TII, my friends. Perhaps I should simply go nocturnal…

1 comment:

  1. Oh jeez. You wouldn't believe me if I told you how humid it is in Moscow. Surely not as bad as Bengal, but definitely more the GA. And the temperature is so schizophrenic, fluctuating between mid 30's Celsius one day and the low 10's the next. Add to that the humidity and the fact that it is practically guaranteed to rain everyday for at least four hours, and that makes for some miserable weather.

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