Thursday, January 23, 2014

The Polar Vortex Comes to Bangkok

This winter, Michigan and many other states have experienced their lowest temperatures in 20 years. Meteorologists, or maybe just the media, have called it a Polar Vortex. But Michigan, this winter you've got nothing on Bangkok. 

In January of 2003 I visited my grandparents in Florida for a weekend. The temperatures were in the 60's and low 70's, which I of course thought was wonderful. My grandma? Not so much. One evening I was getting ready to set the table for dinner when I asked her whether we would be eating in the dining room or out on the lanai. She scoffed at me and told me we were eating inside because "It's too damn cold outside!" I thought she was crazy, but I obliged. 

Well, I spent my entire morning today wearing a big fuzzy hooded fleece. Usually winter in Bangkok is something like that feeling you get when you walk past an open refrigerator: brief, cool, but not really all that refreshing. This year, however, we've had an unseasonably long and cool winter. For weeks now we have had overnight temps in the 60's and daytime highs in the 80's, with low humidity.  I have used more Chapstick and lotion in the past 2 months than the past 2 years put together. And I'm still dry (and yes, the same thing happens every summer in the US). I haven't use the AC in who knows how long and I keep waking up expecting to find that it all disappeared overnight. Instead, I just wake up cold. 

This week I have even quit using the AC in my classroom and opted for open windows. I keep trying to open the doors as well to get a cross breeze (a room full of middle school students needs some kind of air movement) but yesterday they were asking me to close the door because it was too cold

So there I was this morning, walking to work in my wooly fleece feeling ridiculous. But later in the day I found out that this morning's 15.4C/60F was the lowest recorded temperature in Bangkok in 30 years. So now, I don't feel quite so ridiculous. Why? Because it's too damn cold outside. 

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