It's going to be a long hot summer

We just read an article (in Chinese) which stated the predictions of meteorologists for this summer: less rain, more hot days, and more typhoons. The number of days where the temperature tops 35 degrees Celsius is expected to be about 20-26, whereas the average is around 9 days. Like last year, where there were about two typhoons, we expect about 2-3 this year. The summer of 2006 had about 27 high temperature days, so we're basically expecting more of the same. That average value of nine is taken over a long period of history, including years such as 1934, where there were 55 high temperature days, and 1877, when there were none. Damn! If only we had been born a century earlier.

A couple of summers ago, we kept reading about electricity shortages, brownouts, and blackouts. Well, with one Pudong generator already experiencing problems, who knows what's in store for us this year. It's mostly the big electricity gulpers and not individual homes that are affected. We've already been guilty of using a liberal dose of air con in the last few days. Personally, if you're going to choose between different kinds of pain, we'd prefer harsh winters over sweltering summers. Maybe we should save our money and get a ticket to somewhere nice in the southern hemisphere. We hear Tasmania is lovely this time of year.

Photo from isotopp's Flickr page