It's not the humidity, it's the heat

I missed a wonderful photo-op yesterday. Both of us went to bed with socks on - wet socks, with a fan blowing over them. The idea, from an Australian, was that the socks would cool our feet and thus the rest of us as the water evaporated, and the evaporating water would also cool the air blowing over us.

It seemed to work for Ron. He slept much longer than usual, even after his socks dried. But I couldn't help feeling that my feet were soaking in clammy socks and I'd get dishpan toes.

Extreme measures have become necessary. In the last few days - and for the next week at least - forecast high temperatures have been at least 40C. According to my portable indoor-outdoor max/min thermometer/humidity gauge 39.9 has been the maximum, but that's hot enough. And during the night it's stayed around 30.

But the humidity has been less than we experience in midwinter in Canmore, where everything dries out including my skin. The readings on my little instrument here range from 25% to "LO" - below 20%. That's dry. It's also very nice when there's a bit of wind; sweating works. But when there's no wind it's just plain hot here.

The weather in Turkey has been just as crazy this year as it has been everywhere else in the world. Last winter, the rainy season, there was almost no rain, causing a lot of worries about the water supply. There's been a very little rain since we arrived - again surprising the locals, who assume there will be none after the end of March - but not enough to do any good. The trees and garden plants look very droopy indeed, and there's a watering ban. Even so, the water goes off in our apartment from time to time, quite unpredictably. We're back to keeping full bottles of water around so we can flush the toilet if necessary.

It's interesting living in Turkey, that's for sure. And I for one am a firm believer in climate change.