Ordinary Gweilo

Today is expected to be the hottest day ever in the UK (beating the record set 3 years ago).  Not only is it likely to be several degrees hotter than last week’s hot weather here, but air conditioning is far less common.  I spent one summer working in an office in the centre of London that had no aircon and several smokers, and it was not a pleasant experience.  Makes me glad to be working in an office with aircon (and no smoking allowed) even if I can’t see out of the windows.

Of course, the problem here in Hong Kong is that people use aircon too much, and set the temperature too low.  The government recommends 25.5 degrees, but there seems to be quite a lot of resistance to this. 

There was a piece about this in the SCMP on Sunday, highlighting several buildings where the temperature is significantly lower than that.  One justification offered was that if the temperature is set higher there is a problem with ventilation.  Ironically, this may be the result of manufacturers trying to cut down energy consumption (by switching off the fan when the desired temperature is reached), but the solution is simple enough – set the fan speed to high!!

Still on the subject of weather (well, hey, it makes a change from Simon Patkin), why is the Hong Kong Observatory still issuing warnings of thunderstorms after the storm has arrived and then leaving them in force long after the storm has moved away?

Sunday was a case in point.  There were a few isolated thunderstorms near the border at around 4 pm, so up went the Thunderstorm Warning.  For reasons known only to the Observatory, they announced that this warning would be in force until 6.30 pm.  Guess what?  There were no thunderstorms in Hong Kong from 4.15 (when the signal was raised) until 6.30 pm.  I believe that they did then lower the signal at 6 pm, but why wait so long to do this?

My problem with this is that when a thunderstorm Warning is in force, most (in fact, probably all) outdoor swimming pools are closed – even though there is no legal obligation to do this.  And apparently indoor swimming pools can be bad for you  according to yesterday’s Times, which is somewhat unfortunate given that swimming is often recommended as a good form of exercise if you have asthma.  So it’s official, then – Thunderstorm Warnings are bad for your health.