Arizona + humidity = Shanghai in July/August

I can’t imagine weather in Shanghai being any worse. Previously, I wrote about Thailand being like an outdoor sauna. Over the past 3 weeks, it’s been even worse in Shanghai. The weather forecast has not dropped below 90 degrees even once. And the humidity is like stepping into a steam room. The dewpoint often surpasses 75 degrees. For those who aren’t up to speed on their meteorological terms, that means if the temperature of the air were somehow cooled down to below 75 degrees, there is so much moisture in the air that it would fall out as rain. This has caused the inside of my refrigerator to look more like a typical freezer. I’ve posted the weather forecast for some days in July to show you what it’s been like. The Real Feel index used by Accuweather (the equivalent of wind chill for both high and low temperatures) was forecast around 120 degrees.

The worst thing about the weather lately has been that the temperature does not decrease much at night. I’ve also posted a picture of my Google weather forecast. How come even when it’s 90 degrees in Washington, it still drops down to 70 at night? In Shanghai, when it’s 90 during the day, it’s still 82 at night. This may not sound like a big deal, since at night you’re typically sound asleep in your air conditioned apartment. However, it means that nothing gets a chance to cool down. The water from the tap is warm and the inside of my apartment elevator is gross.

The locals respond to all this by wearing towels around their necks and pulling their shirts up to their chests to let sweat evaporate. Westerners like me settle for sweating like melting blocks of ice and taking 3 showers a day. I can’t wait until September arrives and the temperatures start to drop again.