Monday, August 30, 2010

Snowy Scandinavia VS sweltering Shanghai


This morning I was greeted by a somewhat surprising news story: it’s been snowing in the northern parts of Norway (in Jotumheimen to be more precise)! Now, sure, fall and winter tend to come early to northern Europe, but snow in August? That must be some kind of record?! (and it wasn’t as if it just snowed a little bit either: it snowed a lot!)

Snow, fall, warm clothes and cosiness still feel far away from life in Shanghai. Last week was much cooler than the 39 degrees I experienced when I first came back here, but it’s still well over 30 degrees, humid, and hot, and my feet and hands are still too swollen for it to be comfortable in high heels/rings. Last year it was 28 degrees in the beginning of November, so let’s see how long it will last this time. I am guessing mid-November, what do you guys think?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I heard from news some time ago that this year it has been snowing so far every month (including june & july) in northern Finland (Kilpisjärvi)... Cool.

Martin said...

My guess is Late November, early December. It is just a guess. 39 is a bit too hot for my liking. Hopefully the weather cools a bit, at least to a more comfortable temperature.

Anonymous said...

So glad you are blogging again. I really missed reading about your adventures..welcome back!

Jonna Wibelius said...

anonymous -yikes. I hope winter 2011 won't be as long as this year's winter in Scando land.

Martin -Unfortunately I think u might be right...

Anonymous -Thanks for your nice comment! It's good to be back!

Carl said...

Thanks for blogging again, Jonna! It is great to read about your funny and interesting experiences there in Shanghai. Keep up the great writing! :D

dujuan99 said...

I lived in Shanghai in 1992/93. Most people had no heating or airco. Now we are living in Vienna, where I'm from, after 10 years in Beijing. It was like fall here the last two days, lots of wind and rain. In July we were in Latvia, it was mostly sunny and warm. You could swim in the ocean almost every day. China in summer is very uncomfortable, especially in the big cities. Shanghai gets more heat than Beijing, but at least it gets more rain, too. In Beijing there is central heating in most buildings. It starts in early November. Until a few years ago it used to start on Nov. 15 at the earliest. But then they had some very important Party meetings and National People's Congress whatever thingies in early November, so the heating started earlier.

Johan said...

I saw a gymnasium ("high school") graduation in snowfall in Sweden a couple of years ago.

//JJ

Richard said...

34 degrees in Hong Kong yesterday, and I don't imagine it's going to cool down until Dec (for my liking anyway) Hongkongers will breakout severe winter clothes when it drops down to 27 degrees and everyone will have the flu-no joke! Went home to Canada two weeks ago and everybody was complaining how hot/humid it was @ 25C. I guess it's all relative.