We are currently enduring an unrelenting heatwave. It’s lasted days. We expect a thunderstorm tonight. Never so eagerly have I awaited one. And I suspect I’m not alone.
I grew up partly in sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria and Uganda), and so hot weather is nothing new to me. However, living in Europe, I notice cultural differences – between Europe and Africa – in how people react to the weather.
For example, in a place like Nigeria where 35-degree (Celsius) weather is an almost daily occurrence, you would be hard pressed to meet anyone relaxing outside in the sun. You would only go outside if you needed to, and, even so, you wouldn’t linger there. And, in many urban homes, indoor air conditioning is almost a given. Virtually no-one seeks relaxation outside, under the punishing rays of the sun. In fact, I remember that, as children, whenever we wished to play outdoors, my mother’s response would always be the same: ‘wait until the sun goes down’.
Not so here in Amsterdam. The hot weather is a clarion call for people to go outdoors, find a terrace, and ‘relax’ in the burning sun. And London is every bit as wild.
That being said, I’m sure that, this week, even the most doughty sun-worshipper must have been given cause for pause. The last time I experienced such a heatwave was during the burning summer of 2003. And that was really something else. I remember France being particularly badly affected; it claimed the lives of many elderly people there.
Speaking of previous heatwaves, I also recall a fervid week in Accra, three years ago. So intense that your glasses misted up as soon as you set foot outside. That was truly something else.
But back to Amsterdam, and to the present. We await the ‘promised’ thunderstorm. Hoping for more amenable weather in the coming days.
Leave a Reply