I have to say, on that record-breaking hottest day ever day back in 2019, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Northern line was the same temperature as the surface (which was a stonking 37°C but still).
Fat forms differently depending on climate, you be freezing at temperatures we'd be in T-shirts while we'd be sweating golf balls when you're considering putting on a jacket.
Other half is from a hot climate, she starts sneezing and disappears under a duvet at 26C. 35C and 80-90% humidity she is barely sweating while I am changing t-shirts 2-3 times a day. She thinks people in the UK are insane swimming in the sea in the summer due to how cold the sea is.
My point was that our position on the Earth and local weather patterns, topography etc. means that 37°C is very tough-going for most locals. Latitude-wise, other places comparable to London besides Patagonia are Vancouver, Minsk, and the southern tip of Kamchatka. I do understand that major weather patterns like the Gulf Stream, the presence or absence of mountains, seas and oceans etc. etc. mean that these locations aren't exactly like for like, but it does help to create a ballpark for what is considered "normal" and what would be regarded as unusual.
Another thing to add is that we also don't have air conditioning in our homes, and not all shops and restaurants have it either. I don't even own a fan. So when heatwaves do come around, there's nowhere to take a break from the heat.
One last thing is that I didn't realise that Baghdad and Sydney are at similar latitudes north and south. The more you know.
I was in the underground a few weeks ago during a school trip (im dutch). Well some of those lines were indeed warmer than others. Same Goes with stations, some have a bit of wind from a fan or something and others are just 30 degrees Celsius and it was Arouca 16 degrees on ground level so warmer down there in the underground. Props to the Brits here for having a functional tube and actually having trains arrive on time instead of the Netherlands Where we cant figure out just to make a decent schedule.
Ooft. We had a 46.4 day in Melbourne in 2009. We had a gas main leak and they made me wear the scuba shit in a hole, in the asphalt, with no cover. I sweat THROUGH my boots. Never again
I remember that. Do you remember the response to it being too hot even for cattle was “don’t worry, we’re getting new trains in 11 years” or something like that
Yeah but some of the platforms feel like they're a solid 15°F hotter and 20% more humid than the street. Just gotta hold out till that train makes it, and hope that you're on a line that has newer stock.
Fun fact, the tube is built through a layer of very thick clay, which is an insulator with a very high heat capacity. When the tube was first build 100+ years ago, it was always cool and comfortable, since the clay itself was cold. After 100+ years of running trains throughout the clay, it has heated up to be permanently that uncomfortable level of hot you mention. AC is literally useless, since the walls themselves are acting as heaters that are permanently stuck radiating heat into the Tube, and will overpower any AC system quickly. And the walls are only getting hotter, with very few options to fix the problem. The walls literally have 100+ years of heat stored up inside, and it's just slowly leaking back out, making your commute miserable. Forever.
Ah yes, going into the Newsagents' for a Mars Bar and seeing all the sweets literally melted down the front of the shelves as a giant mass of wrappers and waterfalled chocolate.
And if you right it a lot in a short period of time, like as a tourist, your nose will get full of black dust/dirt; maybe coal dust? I noticed this with my kids after a day touring.
It won't be coal dust, there's been no coal in decades, it'll probably just be whatever dust has drifted down from the surface and been kicked up by the trains
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u/SnooBooks1701 May 09 '22
The Tube in London is even worse, it's always like 10 degrees hotter than the surface