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Why do temperate seem different in different countries?

  • 29-12-2020 6:32pm
    #1
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,778 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    In Dublin when it's 20 degrees it's a glorious day and people are going to the beach. 28 and you are passing out. I'm in dubai and its 22 and feels cold. 30 feels lovely and not too hot at all.

    What's the deal?


Comments

  • #2
    ZX7R
    Registered Users Posts: 3,426 ✭✭✭ZX7R


    Humidity and becoming acclimatise to the local weather


  • #3
    Donegal Storm
    Registered Users Posts: 2,023 ✭✭✭Donegal Storm


    Zascar wrote: »
    In Dublin when it's 20 degrees it's a glorious day and people are going to the beach. 28 and you are passing out. I'm in dubai and its 22 and feels cold. 30 feels lovely and not too hot at all.

    What's the deal?

    I have no idea about the science behind it but acclimatisation is definitely a thing.

    I remember when living in Australia if the temperature dropped below 20C you'd be reaching for a jacket, 20C in Ireland and it's shorts, t-shirt and ice cream!

    Same when going to the Med, everyone knows that feeling of stepping out of the plane to be hit by a wall of heat but by the time you're getting back on the plane to go home you think nothing of it


  • #4
    ED E
    Registered Users Posts: 36,162 ✭✭✭✭ED E


    [Thinly veiled.....]


  • #5
    riffmongous
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,615 Mod ✭✭✭✭riffmongous


    Acclimatisation is one thing, also important day to day and location to location, is your heat balance, and this depends on more than just the air temperature. The simplest example is wind chill, the wind speed affects the amount of heat lost by your body with higher wind speeds removing more heat and hence it feels colder. Other factors are the incident radiation (is the sun shining on you, are you surrounded by warm buildings?) and the humidity (if it's too high you can't evaporate sweat so easily and your body can't cool down, if it's too low then skin moisture is evaporated and you can feel too cold).

    There's a few different indices and models to try account for these, the simplest again is the wind chill factor, but there are far more complicated full energy balance models too, such as the Physiological Equivalent Temperature

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10552310/#:~:text=PET%20is%20defined%20as%20the,outdoor%20conditions%20to%20be%20assessed.


  • #6
    Oneiric 3
    Registered Users Posts: 6,235 ✭✭✭Oneiric 3


    Dew point temps are often lower in warmer countries like Saudi than they are here which can affect 'feel' of temp. Also, they have a higher sun angle, which means direct sunshine is hitting less of you.

    New Moon



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  • #7
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭[Deleted User]


    Zascar wrote: »
    In Dublin when it's 20 degrees it's a glorious day and people are going to the beach. 28 and you are passing out. I'm in dubai and its 22 and feels cold. 30 feels lovely and not too hot at all.

    What's the deal?

    Same in winter. An Irish 3-5 degrees feels a lot colder than sub zero in other countries. I think it is down to how moist the air is here so that our real feel is often way colder than the actual temperature.

    I recall a Swede over for a work do a few years ago who was used to freezing conditions but could not stand a week of north easterlies we got here. Said he had never felt so cold.


  • #8
    blindsider
    Registered Users Posts: 2,014 ✭✭✭blindsider


    Polish friend of mine would take -10deg in Poland over +3deg here.

    Loves our expression "It's Baltic!" :-)


  • #9
    Gaoth Laidir
    Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Gaoth Laidir


    Zascar wrote: »
    In Dublin when it's 20 degrees it's a glorious day and people are going to the beach. 28 and you are passing out. I'm in dubai and its 22 and feels cold. 30 feels lovely and not too hot at all.

    What's the deal?

    Dublin seems hot because people strip off at the first sign of sun in March. Skangers walking along with their teeshirts off and stuffed into their tracksuit bottoms. Driving by that you'd be forgiven for thinking it must be roasting out, but step out of the car and cold breeze hits you.

    It's all in the head.


  • #10
    davidsr20
    Registered Users Posts: 768 ✭✭✭davidsr20


    Your talking about 20 degrees weather in the middle of winter lol


  • #11
    Danno
    Registered Users Posts: 8,913 ✭✭✭Danno


    Humidity is a major key to this. +3c at 92% is repugnant versus -10c at even 40% humidity.

    Ditto for Summer heat, 23c at 70% versus 31c at 30% is a total different animal to function in.

    Finally, keep in mind that in Ireland we're a fully fledged working economy from coast to coast, whether that's agriculture or fisheries across most of the island versus construction or office work in Dublin, whereas when you step off the plane on holliers, they're "there to serve you" and will have their facilities optimised to delivering that, such as AirCon, etc...

    Here we just soldier on because usually the cold or the heat will be gone by midweek and not seen for a long time more.


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  • #12
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 25,611 ✭✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Oneiric 3 wrote: »
    Dew point temps are often lower in warmer countries like Saudi than they are here which can affect 'feel' of temp. Also, they have a higher sun angle, which means direct sunshine is hitting less of you.

    Not so sure about your sun angle comment. Why is 12-3 when the sun is highest when sunburn happens most?


  • #13
    Danno
    Registered Users Posts: 8,913 ✭✭✭Danno


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Not so sure about your sun angle comment. Why is 12-3 when the sun is highest when sunburn happens most?

    Because most casper-toned Irish/UK/Northern European folk tend to lie out in the sun as opposed to stand up in it! :pac:


  • #14
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 25,611 ✭✭✭✭[Deleted User]


    Has to be humidity. That's the **** thing about Irish weather, we have a narrow window where temperatures are constant.
    I remember being in Berlin and there was snow still lying on the ground in shaded areas from about 5 days before. I was going around in a tshirt and light jacket not even zipped up, temperatures were below 0 all day but felt fine.
    Similarly on a trip to Lanzarote bar the first few seconds off the place the 30+ degree heat felt completely fine. Up in the mountains in western Canada similar, comfortable walking around in 28 degree dry heat.
    In Ireland if it's even touching 20 degrees I can't move without sweating.


  • #15
    Gaoth Laidir
    Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Gaoth Laidir


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Has to be humidity. That's the **** thing about Irish weather, we have a narrow window where temperatures are constant.
    I remember being in Berlin and there was snow still lying on the ground in shaded areas from about 5 days before. I was going around in a tshirt and light jacket not even zipped up, temperatures were below 0 all day but felt fine.
    Similarly on a trip to Lanzarote bar the first few seconds off the place the 30+ degree heat felt completely fine. Up in the mountains in western Canada similar, comfortable walking around in 28 degree dry heat.
    In Ireland if it's even touching 20 degrees I can't move without sweating.

    I think that's a bit of an oversimplification. Our humidity levels are no higher than anywhere else on warm sunny days. 25 degrees with a dewpoint of 8 is the same here as it is in Ibiza.

    What I do think is different is the lower sun angle, which heats up more of your body area than a more overhead angle. Also, generally clearer air (lower optical density) means that this lower sun's rays are proportionally stronger than somewhere more continental. This stronger sun on your skin enhances its "heat" felt as there is a larger contrast between your skin and the surrounding cooler air.


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