Entries about weather

I have noticed over the years that many weather reports, especially those posted on the Internet contain information not only on actual temperature but what the temperature feels like. Although I have not really thought too much about the wind chill factor it seems like an intuitive and useful concept.

Being from the west coast of Canada I have paid no attention to weather concepts such as relative humidity or the heat index and what their interaction means in regards to perceived temperatures. My most memorable encounter with humidity was almost 30 years ago at my eldest brother’s summer wedding in southern Ontario. It was during the wedding photographs in a local park that I discovered it was possible to perspire to such an extent as to soak an entire suit jacket. Much later in life, I was in the interior of Brazil when an unexpected winter heat wave took the temperature to the mid thirties centigrade. The temperature was exhausting but by tropical standards the air was merciful dry and was quickly followed by the coldest weather experienced in Brazil in decades-in one day the high went from 35 degrees down to 4 degrees. In both these cases I knew it was hot but I never had a figure to quote that would quantify what I was feeling.

Our European adventure has until late, been one of abnormally cool temperatures which has conditioned us to hold our body heat like polar bears. We have been lucky to skirt the excessive rains of central Europe but have encountered some of the aftermath. Fortunately we have not sprouted webbed feet in addition arctic animal features. It has been only over the past week that we have experienced an almost alarming spike in temperatures. In Austria, temperatures reached thirty degrees making for some challenges on the hiking trails. The weather was manageable due to the proximity of flowing mountain streams, light breezes and the shade provided by the trees. Unfortunately, the mercury has risen even further in the Venice area of Italy and we are without much in the way of natural features to mitigate the heat.

Yesterday we were well-roasted on the open beach, so at the behest of our kids we skipped another coastal foray and explored the inland University town of Padua instead. This is the town, whose most famous student was Galileo. Perhaps his preoccupation with the sun being the center of our solar system has some bearing our experiences here.

From our research we learned that Padua contained at least a couple of parks with trees and the largest city square in Europe, complete with water features. In addition, the town has many narrow cobble-stoned streets with arcade style walkways that block the sun. According to local weather forecast it was going to be about 4 degrees cooler than our beach day so it seemed like it a promising outing in a town that could offer some reprieve from the heat.

We found parking with little difficulty, although it was not the specific parking facility we were seeking. The computerized parking attendant was a classic display of poor design. There was signage in both Italian and English which read like the small print on a software license. It talked all about your liabilities and lack of rights and how the city could not only take ownership of your car and kids but your very soul and said nothing about the hourly parking fee or how the parking system actually worked. The large computer screen was nearly unreadable due to its unshaded location. There were audio instructions in several languages, including English, that made it clear that you needed to enter the license number of your vehicle. Regrettably, that is where the helpfulness stopped. The next instruction was to press the enter button to complete the transaction at which point the automated attendant politely informed us that we did not need to pay anything but also refused to produce any kind of ticket stub by which to mark our arrival time at the lot. We stepped back from the machine to let others try and get a different response but to no avail. There was a fellow who had taken up a position right next to one computer console in order to solicit funds. He communicated with each Italian customer about how the parking lot worked and then stuck out his baseball cap for a donation which nearly everyone complied to do. When we went to try his machine he gestured a lot but still spoke to us in Italian. Unlike with others before us, he pointed to cameras at the entrance to the parking lot. These cameras recorded your license plate number upon entry, and we finally understood it was only when you wanted to leave that you needed to punch in your license number in to the unreadable computer screen and hence be informed of the fee owed. Upon exit, the camera would your read your plate again and open the gate if you had paid. We were appreciative of the sign language type explanation and like the others before us made a small donation.

It would seem the automated attendant which was likely put in place to save the city the cost of paying the wages of parking employees was unwittingly the contracting out of such work to a freelance attendant. The fact that there was a constant flow of customers and that the same man was still there when we returned several hours late, it was a fairly lucrative undertaking. For all we know, the guy might make so much money he owns a villa on the edge of town and owns the red sports car parked in the middle of the lot.

At the exit to the parkade we got some directions in English from what appeared to be a university student who just happened to be passing by. He told us to take a pleasant stroll through the park and once we were on the other site just follow the main road and the accompanying pedestrian signs to get across town. The park although pleasant was nothing to write home about and was actually quite small. It was almost puzzling that our University friend would have chosen to emphasize the pleasantness of this route. We were to discover for ourselves, and have it confirmed by a person we met when we got home, that most of Padua is quite devoid of trees except in two parks and some greenways along a stream that ran through a small section of town. It is in large part a cobblestone desert. Our university good smaritan may also have known that the weather forecast for the day was actually for warmer weather than the day before with temperatures reach 35 degrees which, when adjusted for humidity, would feel like a withering 41 degrees. Any kind of shade on a day like today would warrant at the very least a description of pleasant.

Needless to say our impressions of Padua were largely shaped by temperature. I can report that there are a number of brilliant clothing and department stores that we will fondly remember because of their air conditioning. There was also a grocery store that we also thought was quite divine, especially the freezer section where they were selling small tubs of gelato for only a euro a piece. We liked the store so much we visited it twice, first to get salads and cold and then to return for the gelato. It was so hot outside that we could see our salad wilt while we were eating it.
We did our best to navigate our way on foot to Prato della Valle a 90,000 square meter elliptical square in are on the far side of the historic section of Padua. It is the largest square in Italy, and one of the largest in Europe. According to Wikipedia, the square “is a monumental space of extraordinary visual impact, with a green island at the center, l'Isola Memmia, surrounded by a small canal bordered by two rings of statues.” Our impression in the sweltering heat was of a green space lacking in sufficient numbers of shade trees and woefully lacking in water volume, sitting in the middle of an asphalt dessert that would make Death Valley seem balmy. Sightseeing really is all about perspective. I am sure Padua is considered delightful and beautiful by many-but just not today.

The most memorable and delightful part of our visit to Prato della Valle, and perhaps Padua as a whole, was the air conditioned cab ride we took back to our car across town. The digital thermometer in the car reported the outside temperature as 38 degrees, which was later supported by our car’s temperature gauge.

By the time we were two-thirds of the way home we had cooled down sufficiently to consider grocery shopping before we returned to our air-conditioned home. We did not emerge again into the outdoors until around 8:30 in the evening. We decided that very early the next morning we would attempt a bike ride along the Pave River. We wanted to check over the free bikes that were at our disposal and take a short ride to discover where the riverside bike path started. Before Muriel and I could head off on our bikes we heard someone at our landlord’s house calling to us in French (our Kangoo license plates are from France). When we confessed we were unilingual Canadians from BC who spoke English, the fellow who was addressing us started to speak to us in Italian and then shook his head and chided himself and started to talk in English. It was a friend of the eldest son of our landlord. The son subsequently appeared. They were university students and quite eager and able to engage us in conversation. We ended up sitting on our patio for a while talking. They thought since it was approaching 9:00 pm that they would likely be interrupting our dinner preparations. We had to confess that we had not fully adapted to Italy and had finished our dinner at an ungodly early hour of 7:30 pm . It would appear these two young men would not be eating until closer to 10:00 pm. It was an animated and enjoyable chat about their lives as high school and university students. They were constantly correcting and teasing each other about their English. It was a remarkable display of fluency since one of them claimed only to have reason to speak English about once a year and never watched English movies or listened to English music.
When the young men were called into their house for dinner, Muriel and I headed out for our bike ride. We returned 45 minutes latter glistening with perspiration. We were less certain about the wisdom of a morning bike ride but left it as something to ponder in the morning. We just wanted to cuddle up with the air-conditioner before taking a cool shower and collapsing in bed.

Today was yet another travel day, but less exciting than some of our previous ones. We were sad to leave our great apartment, but also excited to be heading back to Italy. We were out the door by ten, and into our car. The weather has definitely been more like summer, and this morning was no exception. The temperature started out a muggy 28 with no breeze.

The first part of our drive was enjoyable, and we learned about "Capgras Syndrome" through a podcast, which is a very odd, but very horrible condition. If you would like to learn a little more about it, just click on this link. The other subject that we chose was polygamy, which you can learn more about here.

We stopped at a supermarket to pick up some food for lunch, as well as some cold juice to drink. We drove a little further and came across a rest stop to eat at. Unfortunately, all twenty garbage cans were overflowing, and there were no tables, chairs or washrooms to be seen. But it was the best we could find and our juice wouldn't be cold for much longer so we decided to tough it out.

This was our last stop until we got to our new house, which, by the way, is very nice. There are three houses in total on our renter's property, one of which we are staying in. Three generations live in the other two houses, one of them being four stories, and the other between two and three. The one we are in used to be the great grandparents house and it still seems decorated like it was when they lived here. Mom saw that one of the reviews for the place indicated that it was just like visiting your Grandma's house only she had gone away for a while. It is full of old Italian furniture and odd antique pieces (like guns, pipes and knives) from various places. The thing we like most about it is that it has air conditioning!

We plan to use the hot weather to our advantage by trying to find a beach or water park that we can hang out at in the next few days while the temperatures are in the 30 degree range.

Today we went for yet another hike in Cairngorms National Park, this one was in Glenmore Forest Park. The walk itself was titled Meall a'Bhuachaille..you all can have a go at trying to pronounce that one (Bh is pronouced "V").

Today's hike turned out a little different. It was fine at first, the weather wasn't too bad and the sun even came out a few times, but as we neared the summit of our little hill we noticed that the wind was picking up, and some dark grey clouds were headed our way. A few minutes later some snow started to fall down on us, which wasn't bad at first, it just meant sticking another layer on to keep warm and we would be free to continue on. But it started to come down faster, and turned into hard little bits of ice which we were pelted with continuously. When we got to the top there was a small wall of rocks which we sat behind to try and stay out of the wind. But it looked to us as if there could be rain coming and so we decided that we might as well continue walking, as we'd be wet either way. The wind had picked up even more, but we pushed through, hoping we could find the shelter that the information centre had said was somewhere along the way. The rain never did come, but the hail stayed unfortunately. But as we got partway down the other side we were able to get out of most of it, which was quite a relief. The hillside was pretty steep, and a little slippery from the few days of weather, which isn't a great combination. But at least the other three were able to keep their footing. Closer to the base we found the shelter that we had heard about, and decided to stop in for a few minutes to have a little lunch. We were joined later by a few others, along with their 8 month year old dog. You all are probably thinking "Aww, how cute.. a puppy!", but it wasn't quite like that. It looked to us like a cross of a Doberman and a Rottweiler, and it was so huge that even the man holding his collar looked to be having trouble. Some of you may know that one of my biggest fears are dogs, especially large ones... who aren't on a leash... and are very energetic... and want your chocolate. But we were soon on our way again, eager to get on with our walk. The rest of the hike was very flat, as we just circled around the bottom of the hill around to our car. But before we were able to seek refuge in Winston, we got our last bit of weather, some nice rain to finish everything off nicely.

When we finished our route we decided that we were done for today, as the weather had been pretty nasty and we all just wanted to have a warm drink, or in my case, a shower.

I've also decided to include a short summary, if the details were just too much to handle and get your head around.

Wow, this is pretty. Yeah, quite nice. Now I'm tired... and hot. Oh, but not for long. Wow, that's a strong wind. Ooh, snow! Ow... ow that hurts... wow, that's a lot of hail. Yay, the top! WIND.. MORE WIND. Lots more hail. Finally, a break with food and shelter! OH MY GOODNESS.. IS THAT A BEAR? No? Just a dog?.. okay... Great, this is nice and flat. The car is so close!!... but... RAIN.

After we got home my parents took a nap (surprise surprise!!) and Hannah and I just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. Later we got a knock on our door, and when we answered it turned out to be our friendly landlords offering us some freshly baked scones. They were warm and delicious and we all thoroughly enjoyed them. My mom was even able to wiggle her way into getting the extra one.