Hot in the City

It's truly summer and hot. Not that hot (not hot like Gulf humidity and heat) in that there is a light breeze and the humidity is low.  But it is the hottest it's been this summer. The forecast this weekend is for hair dryer heat -- you know, when even if a little wind blows it just makes you feel hotter.  Here's a screen shot of my favourite weather forecast website for Jerusalem -- 02 Weather Station (02 is the Jerusalem land line area code):

Weather forecast  http://www.02ws.co.il/station.php?&lang=0

Eight months later and I'm still enamoured with the little icons (pictograms) -- this weekend features shorts and t-shirts. If you hover your cursor over the icon it tells you what to wear. The shorts icon says "short pants and t-shirt".  The long sleeve shirt icon says "long sleeves, it is recommended to also take t-shirt and add or remove layer when necessary". Okay, so the syntax is a little off, but you get the point. The winter icons include a raincoat, a jacket, and a coat.

The bus ride home today was slow and hot. The AC was on, but a bit weak so the windows were wide open...energy efficiency is not the priority, that would be not melting!

Open windows & AC

Jerusalem buses do have a great feature that is somewhat energy efficient and most definitely life saving -- blackout blinds. Pulling them down is the only way to survive if you happen to have a seat on the sunny side of the bus. Fortunately, it usually doesn't take much negotiation to get the person ahead or behind you to agree to blocking their view for the sake of cooling off a couple of degrees. Still, I made an effort to remember the better side of the bus to sit on for my usual route to and from the uni. The commute usually takes about 25 minutes, but in slow traffic it can be closer to 50 minutes, so it is worth memorizing where you want to sit!

A blackout blind on the bus

A hot weekend in Jerusalem is when the evenings stay hot. Normally, you can expect to need long sleeves for your walk home from dinner or the pub. In a heat wave, it's not necessary to carry an extra layer unless you are going to the movies where the AC is usually set at about 17C (I think that's the lowest you can set AC). Early this week I went to see Hannah Arendt (no, she's deceased, but there's a new movie about her) at the Cinematheque. I took an extra layer, but I could have used a second or thicker first layer. It was amusing watching all the women (and older men) enter the theatre with sweaters in hand.

Anyway, because it normally cools down in Jerusalem at night air conditioning is not really a necessity in many homes. Granted, during the day it can be sticky, but at night, up here in the hills, you can usually count on a breeze and a temperature in the low twenties. So, in fact, lots of folks don't have AC. And certainly, anyone who lives in an old place that hasn't been renovated doesn't have the built in wall units. Instead they have fans; you switch out your winter space heater for a fan. And, you hope you work in a building with AC and get to the museums or movies once in a while.

The truly adaptive folks can spend the really hot nights sleeping on the flat roof of their Arab-style house or building...like this one.

Talbiya rooftop