1. This past week, I was out and about in Wiesbaden/Mainz....last week of July...and it's just shocking the dress/attire. Everyone is dressed for fall weather....temperature in mid-day was around 16-to-18 C (61 to 64 F). Drizzle or rain falling.
It's been this way since the 2nd week of July, and if you follow the next fourteen-day forecast....more of the same. Light rain and cool temperatures expected through mid-August.
Other than 4 serious days of heat (at 30 to 32 C.....which is not really that hot)....this has been the mildest summer in decades in central Germany.
What changed? The jet stream.
That AC unit of mine? It's been cranked up three days for the whole summer. My neighbor's pool? They probably had around 15 days of decent weather to use it.
2. That ship potentially sinking near the north coast of Germany/Netherlands? Well....the fire seems to have finally gone out.
There is disagreement about what to do now (attempt to bring it to a port is believed to be the next episode). Cost of removing the burnt cars and dealing with the toxic issues? You can figure this will go up to a billion Euro by the end. Already there is talk of insurance going up in a massive way, if transporting E-cars.
Authorities now say there were 500 E-cars onboard this ship....not 25.
As for towing into any German port? Well....I would imagine every possible lawsuit will occur, and make this near impossible to occur.
3. AfD Party holding a weekend conference....their tenth anniversary of existence.
If you'd said ten years ago that they'd be near 20-percent on polling....most people would have laughed. The original design and 'brand'? Anti-Euro.....go back to the Deutsche Mark (DM).
4. Last night (Friday), in Augsburg....some mid-60s German guy went into an apartment building and shot five (two are dead). No motivation given. Guy was eventually arrested by the police.
5. Reportedly, German airlines are tasking lawyers now to examine civil cases against the Last Generation activists....if they move ahead, this could get into the millions for damages. 48 flights were cancelled, and that will add up for compensation.
2 comments:
I'm glad you had a light Summer. The one in Karlsruhe was miserably hot this year. The worst it's been since the 8-9 years I been here. And I come from the Outback, and when it even bothered me. When I was in Phoenix, AZ for work it reminded me of home. And I found the heat here harder to deal with due to the humidity.
2003 was the massive 'hot' summer in Germany, for roughly five weeks, it was miserable. My condo (top of the house) was never cooling off at night, so you barely slept. That was the summer in France, where 30,000 people died from heat in some way (I think the German numbers were in the 2,000 range).
Up to this year, I'd say there are two types of summers in Germany. There's the typical 20 days of 32 C (90 F)...with these spread around and never more than 3 of such hot days in a row. Then there's the extreme side where you have 30 to 40 days of 32 C (90 F) plus temperatures, where you have a full week, then some mid-20s week, then repeat with five to seven hot days. I can handle the heat, but I went and bought a portable AC unit for ultra-hot days, added four fans to the house to draw in cool evening temperatures...shutting the windows/shutters by 10 AM, and sipping ice drink all afternoon.
My four years of Tucson and three years of Panama life probably helped to adjust to the heat. I'm not a fan of extreme summers.
I'll just say this is the most moderate summer ever in the 'valley'....total drought for 4 months, moderate temperature the whole time, maybe three brief 'mist' rains. Then past five weeks...rains each day, temp going 18 to 24 C, breezy, fall-like conditions, lawn coming back to life. Next 14-day forecast from regional weather folks? Same thing...no change.
The beer-garden folks are the ones now suffering, with limited customers.
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