h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Where I live, in KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, February is the hottest month of the year.
Temperatures often reach 30 or 32 deg, and it can get quite humid.
We are at the end of our rainy season, and looking forward to April/May, our autumn, and June/July/August, our winter.
By contrast to February, we can get frost in July. Last year we had black frost, which decimated my garden! Even indigineous plants, said to be frost hardy, succumbed. Succulents burst and died as the sap in them froze, and the garden looked liked it had been blasted with a flame thrower.
However, we will be in Feruary tomorrow, and back to watering the garden, if it doesn't rain. The grass has been cut, it grows so fast this time of year, and takes a whole day to cut, as there is so much of it.
Would I trade for a Northern February - NO WAY!

It is hot and across here in the tropics of eastern Oz it is a great month for fishing and swimming or surfing, white sand, warm blue green water (about 24 c) and plenty of sun, average temp a comfortable 30 c.

I'm in complete agreement with my fellow Southern Hemisphere friend.

February is a blessing to be enjoyed in all it's warmth

I have to wade in from the Northern Hemisphere....February is chilly here in Northwest Canada. This week we had temps in the minus 30s and 40s but clear beautiful blue skies, lovely crisp snow. I love winter!

Is that fahrenheit or celsius?
I'll take the blue skies but you may have an enjoy those temp's, brrrrr.

Celsius of course! But at these tmps, it doesn't matter. I think cold temps have to be easier to take than some of your warm temps. We have furnaces and warm clothes..

Furnaces + warm clothes versus board shorts and warm surf...now which will I choose?

Seriously though, your weather sounds almost scary to me, I've never felt snow and I have one maybe two pairs of long pants somewhere but their hardly ever used and I don't own a jumper or a cardigan or a coat or anything like that.
Are you stuck inside all the time snuggling round your furnace?

We don't have furnaces, but we do have aircon! We also have blue skies, but are looking forward to some rain clouds soon, it's building uo for another storm.
Not as heavy as the one two weeks ago, I hope. We had hailstones as big as golf balls (and just as hard) and 80ml of rain, all in two hours!

You know it depends on the person. Some people hibernate. I don't mind the cold but it used to really scare me when I first immmigrated here. Below minus twenty we do modify our activities but other than that we just deal with it...plug in our cars, wear extra layers, ski, skate, walk the dogs. One of my dogs is an Australian Shepherd...he has two coats and is difficult to get inside even at -40. And snow is soooo cool!

I would be a little frightened by the high temps you deal with. I was in Greece in 1987 and we saw temps of 47C and it was scary. Being young and stupid at the time, we drank too much and have lots of those...hmmm...pictures. The hottest I have seen in Edmonton is 36C...and that's only for maybe a week a year.

You only own two pairs of long pants? I think that is awesome but what do you wear to work?

Why shorts of course and a short sleeve shirt and a hat to keep the sun off, I don't work in an office (as so many here seem to do).

47c is a bit extreme I'll admit and when you have constant temps in the high 30's, then you know it wont be long till a bushfire starts somewhere and nearly every year lives and houses and stock are all bbq'ed.

But just like you everyone learns to deal with the extremes and our country can get pretty extreme at times, if it keeps raining today we will be in for our second major flood in a month, yet 3 days ago I was knee deep in surf catching fish in 32 degree heat.


'Australian Shepherd' ? Didn't know there was such a beastie, only ever heard of German one's

These postings are getting interesting, with the hot versus the cold climate debate.
My two children were both born in what was Rhodesia, which is a little nearer the equator than South Africa.
My daughter now lives in Bergen, Norway, and my son in Vancouver, Canada. Neither had seem snow before they went to their respective new homes, but have both adapted. After nearly 30 years, I am not surprised.
I was born in the UK, but have spent half ny life in Africa, and this s where I want to stay. I spent 1981-2003 in the UK and Ireland, but don't miss the weather one little bit!
It's great not to need more than a thin skirt and cotton t-shirt! (too old for shorts!)

Never to old for shorts 4dogs! Our Pops is 83 and he wanders around in them 7 days a week
You'd have similar weather of course to parts of Australia. I start looking for warm clothes when the temp hits 20, brrrrr, I hate the cold.
Mind you, I'm in the north and not the much colder south of the country, at least it is in winter anyway.

25 to 32 all year round is fine and if you build your house the right way and plant the right sort of garden then you don't need polluting reverse cycle air conditioning but I will own up to owning a pool

Of course having air con is a personal choice and I meant no offence 4dogs. Just an opinion of mine that's all.

First of all, I have to agree you are never too old to wear shorts! I wear shorts as long as possible every year. Unfortunately, I have to wear pants to work because I am a concrete girl. But it's jeans and a tshirt so not so bad.

And I have airconditioning but I only put it on when it is +30C. I personally don't mind the heat but my monsters (children) complain.

Where did you live in Ireland fourdogs? I'm from Dublin....left in 1983. I also lived in the UK from 1986 through 1987 in Berkshire. Loved it there!

The Australian shepherd is an american breed. I'm not really sure why they call it Australian. His name is Storm and I think he is the perfect dog. Really easy going, gentle. His partner is a border colly and she is a little more high strung, but also a good dog. We always had German Shepherds growing up.

Here's a little weather report from here:
" Rain periods, heavy at times. Isolated thunderstorms. Light to moderate northeast winds."

Now what this actually means is that the temp is 30c the humidity is 95 % and in the last 24 hours we have had 320 ml of rain, about 13 inches or so. A minor flood warning is issued and it may well change into a major flood warning.
So at the moment anyone who was not used to this sort of weather would probably say it's humid and hot and run screaming to the nearest air con.
Sometimes my principles win out over compassionate sense, for air con would surely be the place to be sitting out this thick, thick air.

What I'd love to know is how long it takes a northerner to acclimatise to the southern climes and the reversal of seasons and it would be the same for a southern dweller moving into the north.

Christmas would seem odd if it was freezing cold, the exact opposite of what we know and love down here.

I'd imagine that the seasons is what a person would miss the most if they moved away to an locale where they were reversed.

Ah, yes Shepherds are nice dogs, we had one once but sadly it tasted blood and we had to shoot it, our fault too which just doubled the hurt

I lived in Kerry, just outside Killarney. I worked in Killarney. We had a 200 year old farmhouse with a bit of land, and my husband raised hens for free-range organic egg production. We had to return to the UK when his mother got feeble.

I don't wear shorts, as I think shorts of a woman "of a certain age" look damned silly! My doctor wears shorts in his surgery and for hospital visits and house calls, though; he must be close to 60.

I like small dogs; I have two Jack Russells, both SPCA rescue dogs, we got Rosa as a pup. She has a full-length tail. Oscar is our latest JR, he was in a bad way, nervous and terribly skinny, but you should see him now! full of bounce, and with a permanent grin. Unfortunately his tail has been docked. I am glad to say that this barbaric practice is to be made illegal later this year.

My other two dogs are Dachsies; Trotsky came from the SPCA as a fully grown dog, he is brown,and is unusual in that he has one blue eye. He is a little gentleman. Caspar is black and tan. I bought hom as a pup for a friend's little girl. He lived with me, as she is a single parnt, and cannot afford to keep a dog, but the little girl sees him often. Sometimes I take him with me when I fetch her from school, and she tells everyone "This is MY dog!"

You can see my dogs on www.doggysnaps.co.uk. My "kennel" is called Palm Tree.

Sorry, that's www.doggysnaps.com

Fourdogs, Your dogs are beautiful! My brother had a jack russell named Frankie. He was so smart and energetic.

Keith, are you flooded? That seems really scary. I will be keeping you in my thoughts.

It's funny but Canadians say the same about Christmas in reverse...that it is strange without snow. Christmas is christmas wherever you are.

Yep exactly, home is where the heart is.
No, we're not flooded thankfully, well at the moment anyway but nature has decided to throw some hailstones the size of oranges at us and knock down a whole lotta trees and take the odd roof off or two.

We've had double our normal amount of monthly rain in 4 days so far and the radar is showing these big nasty storms just a few valleys away actually...big rumbles and you can feel the barometer drop as we go from 95% humidity downwards.

My dog knows something, he's hanging round my feet as I get dinner prepared and he ain't begging for a change.

Bogey the Maltese Terrorist he is called, a truly pugnacious pest of a dog looking the part of a true punk at the moment. I took to his long dreadlocked locks on the weekend and hacked away with a pair of sewing scissors at this matted mess and out of sheer perversity I left one ear long and the feathers on his tail stand replete in all their splendour.
The rest of him looks like a lawnmower got him.
A more horrible picture of a dog you could not see and it matches his personality to a tee..lol