Weather Check

Yup...May 1rst is a magic date in Beijing. without fail, the temperature automaticaly rockets up by ten degrees. On the night of april 30th you could eat outside, but you needed to be dressed pretty warm. 12 hours later-shorts and t-shirts weather.

Wow!  Anyone else get whacked last night.  I see on the news that people were killed by tornadoes in SW China.



Here in beautiful Dongguan, I got stomped by an overnight storm.  Both drains on my roof got stopped up and the roof flooded.  The good news is that the emergency overflow prevented it from getting deep enough to do damage.  The bad news is that the emergency overflow is my stairwell.  I had to walk through an indoor waterfall to get up to the roof at about 1:15 in the morning to clear the drains.

I had some items hanging out of the balcony.  My towels ended up on the next building's roof (got those back).  I've still got one pair of jeans MIA.  I'm told a few houses down by the village pond got flooded.

I was suprised here in Harbin - Ice Capital of China to find that today our forecast for 34C was the highest forecast for all of China.  After a very long and cold winter we are definitely feeling the heat at the moment.  The average maximum temperature this month so far is 30C.  (The normal average Maximum high in June is 26C).  The current weather forecasts see these temperatures continuing for at least the next week, with every chance that sometime this week we might even get to 37/38C.  The same time one month ago the average maximum temperature was 16C.

100F in Jinan for the past two days. Thank God I'm finished school, and only have to pack and lump heavy boxes! Sweat was rolling!! This weather will continue for a few days more, then we'll have an almighty cloudburst, the drains will block, the streets will flood, and a few citizens will drown.

Slightly unpleasant lately in Suzhou.  I'm the only one complaining so far,  but it's gonna get SOOOO much worse.

*bump*

There it is, thanks hon  

http://raoulschinasaloon.com/index.php?topic=5644.0 My rant

Changsha weather has been awesome recently. The beginning of the holiday had some rain but these last few days have been 25C and sunny with a light breeze, cooler in the evening .... perfect

If you are new to the area (Tai_Li) best to get out and enjoy it because it doesn't happen often. It doesn't even happen every year.

Temperatures in beautiful Dongguan have been slipping below 30 on occasion for the last few days.  As soon as they hit 25, I expect the locals to break out their parkas.

Gotta agree with Loonie.  Not a parka yet, but I just hosted lunch for two students and one (a local gal) was wearing a sweater.  It's 26 degrees.  The student from Nei Mongol, my honey and I are just now getting comfortable with the temperatures.  Last night was the first night it was cool enough to sleep without the aircon.  Lovely to have the windows open.

You guys know better than that. It has nothing to do with the weather but the time of year.

I expect my students to return from holiday having traded their summer clothes for winter ones. They will wear their winter clothes now and complain about how hot the weather is.

You guys know better than that. It has nothing to do with the weather but the time of year.

I expect my students to return from holiday having traded their summer clothes for winter ones. They will wear their winter clothes now and complain about how hot the weather is.

Down here in the tropics, it's the temperature AND the calendar.  I've been standing around sweating in a t-shirt on a hot day in December, only to have Chinese friends in parkas comment on how incredibly strong I must be to endure being so exposed to the cruel winter weather.  When the temperature dropped 3 degrees a few days later, the amount of extra layers of padding they added to their wardrobes was phenomenal.  Only a few complain about the heat, and only during the height of summer.

Changsha weather has been awesome recently. The beginning of the holiday had some rain but these last few days have been 25C and sunny with a light breeze, cooler in the evening .... perfect

If you are new to the area (Tai_Li) best to get out and enjoy it because it doesn't happen often. It doesn't even happen every year.

You don't have to tell me twice, lol. It rained every day from the day I got here to about three or four days ago. So, I welcome the change of pace. I was a little worried about today, but the sun managed to hang out. Quite nice!

I have heard from a lot of people that the Chinese really don't like the winter. Now, I'm from North Carolina, and we certainly have all four seasons. So, I'm just wondering if maybe the winters here in Changsha aren't as bad as they're cracked up to be. At least, I can endure them. Any thoughts?

It's much. much worse. It's not easy to describe. Most newbies look at temperatures and dismiss the winters in this area as no problem compared to their home countries.

Take a look around. The buildings are made to dissipate heat from furnace like summers. There's no insulation and any heat will come from small air conditioner units rather than central air or radiators. A low temperature in Changsha is anything under 0C, the problem is that there is no place to get warm. Your house, school, restaurants are all cold. You can't warm up. People go outside during the day to warm up in the sun. All public places will have icy cold running water.

When you are outside, you are moving around but inside you might be sitting around. I wear more clothes to watch TV than to take a walk. If i spend a lot of time at my desktop computer my mouse hand will start going numb with cold.

Inside during the day is quite cold but the evenings are better because more people are home in their apartments, maybe cooking etc. It's strange to have the temps go up in your house as the sun goes down outside

There is very little snow, just cold rain or freezing rain and it's humid all the time.

I visit mt home country every Spring Festival because A Canadian winter is far more comfortable. I never bothered with long underwear until I came here.

Oh and make sure you have the clothes and blankets etc. You might be ok with electric heaters but when the power goes out ............ and it will.

长沙天气有太热有太冷  chángshā tiānqì yǒu tài rè yǒu tài lěng

Tai Li, to help you through the cold, cold winter when the power is on - do yourself a favor and buy a body length electric heating pad.  I use one to warm my bed for about 15 minutes before I go to bed.  I don't sleep on it or under it like an electric blanket, just use it to warm the bed.  It takes the chill off the damp sheets. I remove it before getting into the bed.

Another little heating wonder, also needing electricity, is something you will likely see girls hugging once the weather gets cold.  They use electricity to heat up and then stay warm for ages.  I use one to keep my feet warm at night and it really does retain heat for most of the night.  These are also useful for keeping one warm while sitting at a cold desk or while huddled under quilts watching TV.

Sorry I don't have any tips for keeping warm when the power is off except find a warm body to snuggle with