Glad to hear it, and I agree, no need to wait! Tomorrow night I'll join you and we can get mistieyed together, ok?
Rain all weekend and 76 on Sunday - wow, from 105 to 76 in 4 days!!!!
Hopefully the rain will start in Austria. They are waiting for it.
It IS raining in Austria - like in many other parts of Europe - since some days
WH: Great map!
Hot as hell here today! Thank God for air conditioning:)
But, there's two tropical storms out there lurking, and a huge hurricane, expected here around mid to end of next week.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, the tropics..................
Accepting all applications for rain...from whatever source....tropical storms, hurricanes, whatever. And yes, Walter, Ul reports rain in the outer areas, but not Vienna proper.
See the little chartreuse dot? See the stuff coming at us from north and south. That's my weather report for the day!
Ah, yes, Tart...you got a hurricane wannabe coming in...please pass it to the E-NE.
sumac wrote: And yes, Walter, Ul reports rain in the outer areas, but not Vienna proper.
There have been heavy rains and thunderstorms, killing at least three people and doing lots of damage, last night in some parts of Austria. (And my aunt in Vienna had had a rainy night :wink: )
No rain in the part of Vienna where Ul lives. And she wishes that it would rain. Getting chilly there though.
We've been getting reports of the deaths in France from the heatwave. Over 11,000 at last count. How come the death toll is so high? c.i.
c.i., I heard that too on the news last night! That's an awful lot of people to die from heat! I would imagine a lot of them were elderly, no air conditioning, dehydration, etc. but that's all supposition on my part.
Yes, our hurricane Fabian is alive and well, very organized, very threatening. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, better get our galoshes out, take the canoe out of storage, find the paddles, start saving water, ho hum!
Elderly people are especially at risk during heat waves because if they are weak, their body's natural temperature control system cannot cope, leading to an unusually high fever which, in some cases, fatally hits circulation.
In Germany, we had some dozens heath related deaths.
Press reports in Italy have put the death toll at 1,000, although no official estimates have been issued. In the Netherlands, officials say between 500 and 1,000 more people died in July and August than during an average summer, but figures were deemed preliminary.
In Britain, which sweated through the hottest temperatures ever recorded this summer, the Office for National Statistics said that 907 additional deaths were registered in the week ending August 15 as compared with 2002.
In Spain, officials have said that more than 100 people died in the first two weeks of August, when thermometers soared daily to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across large swathes of Europe.
The Madrid government said an updated toll would be issued in the coming weeks, but the patients' rights watchdog group ADEPA, citing unnamed medical sources, has claimed that 2,000 people may have succumbed to the intense heat.
The health ministry in neighboring Portugal said there were 1,316 more deaths across the country between July 30 and August 12 as compared with the same period last year, attributing the soaring mortality rate to the heat.
I have been inside for the last two days and my feet and ankles are swollen.
Walter, Thank you for doing the homework to share with us the number of deaths in Europe caused by the heatwave. Relatively speaking, the US death rate from heat is minimal, because most areas that experience very high temperatures every summer also have air conditioners - except for the poor.
"In Spain, officials have said that more than 100 people died in the first two weeks of August, when thermometers soared daily to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across large swathes of Europe."
In Madrid (for example), the nice old buildings where the rich and middle class live have high ceilings, stay cooler. Many probably have airconditioning now as well. But, just as in this country, the housing for the lower-middle class and those at or near the bottom is cheap, low-ceiling, ticky-tacky, high-rise boxes.
That's Madrid. In the rural areas, those who are not well off are often those living in the old cortijos which (I can attest, having lived for years and years that way) are wonderful in the heat. They have thick masonry/adobe walls, many small windows which can be shuttered. Water is sprinkled on the ground outside (usually water from cleaning the floors) on the breezy side of the house which, when it evaporates, cools the incoming air. When I built my house here in Texas, I used some of the same principles and still hose down the breezy south side on hot days. Still works. I use my AC minimally (I hate that closed-in feeling!)
There have been architectural projects in this country to create much more sensible public housing, housing in which (for example) people who can't afford AC won't fry in the summer. But here's where public generosity disappears: what? give THEM well-built housing? Disgusting! Watch our taxes go up!!
We have a ceiling fan in our family room. It's sufficient to keep us cool enough during the hottest periods during the year which lasts several weeks at most. We also have a attic fan that goes on automatically when our house heats up. My wife wants to install a air conditioner the next time we have to replace our heater.
Yes indeedy. Ceiling fans. And mine (really neat ones) come from Cicerone-Land!
margo wrote:The end of winter is approaching! Spring next week. 
Well it's officially here, margo! Spring at last in Oz! The 1st of September.
But the weather here in Melbourne hasn't quite caught on yet .... It feels more like winter than winter!
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
How come you people in Sydney are having such a fine old time while we freeze? brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
