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Published: August 9th 2006
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Typical summer day
Normally there are always some clouds -- just hanging around Let's talk about the weather of the past 3 months here in Austin.
This area and the weather forecast for it is normally referred to as Central Texas. If you read something about bad weather in Texas keep in mind, that the State of Texas covers an area of 268,581 sq mi (695,622 km²) or 790 miles (1'270km) in length and 660 miles (1'065km) in width. While they have downpour with flush floods in El Paso right now, which is in the far west of Texas at the border to New Mexico, we have sunny, hot and nice weather in Central Texas. You can compare the size of Texas with other countries at
wiki were you find France with 551 695 km², Germany 349 223 km² and Italy at 301 230 km². Switzerland is not even listed because that list starts at 100 000 km² only. Switzerland is found in this
list at wiki with an area of 41 290 km². *Jöööh!*
When I came to Texas at the end of April I was told that I have just missed the thunderstorm season. Well not quite. There still were a few thunderstorms in early May with one that caused even a
Some rain
But really not very often and for only a few hours normally large outage of power in some parts of the Austin area because many branches or even whole trees fell on power cables. But again the distances are enormous here and because I am staying in the northern part of Austin I only noticed the heavy rain, lightning and gusty winds. Another thunderstorm on the other hand turned into a tornado and killed a few people because it was in the middle of the night and these people couldn't be warned. But this was north of Dallas which is quite some miles away. The area of Austin is considered anyway to be fairly tornado free because of the many hills which is not beneficial for such a hose to make contact to the ground. We'll see next year, though!
If you tell someone who knows Texas that you will go there, he or she will say you one thing first -- at least everybody told me: "Well, if you like the heat?" And guess what? I like the heat indeed! As I mentioned in my first blog why I wanted to emigrate the weather is one issue. In Switzerland you have probably a couple of weeks a year where it
Deep blue sky
But not very often as well. (Including a little bushfire in the distance) is really warm or even hot -- what I call a summer. Now if people complain about the heat in Switzerland it is because it's normally so muggy at the same time, the humidity is rising with the heat because most likely it was raining a lot the days before. The land is soaked and now the sun begins to evaporate the water. The fields start to sweat and so do the people. That's the difference I've noticed here. During the night the humidity is high while it falls after noon when the sun really starts to kick in. When the sun sets the humidity rises again and the evenings are lovely outside. Although the temperatures are 85°F (29,5°C) or higher since I have arrived it is just wonderful because the air is dry and makes it really bearable and is comfortable. And since beginning of June the temperatures are always (= every single day) even higher and it's above 90°F (32°C) or sweltering around the three digits. I wouldn't like to work in the sun in the afternoon, though! I always feel a little bit sorry for these guys you see here everywhere who mow the grass on the
Sunset 1
Every day ends with a breathtaking sunset lawns. To protect their skin from the sun they all wear shirts with long sleeves. Unbelievable! Poor immigrants! There is one little thing I don't like about the warmth, though. It doesn't matter how warm or hot it is, getting in your car is never a pleasure when it was exposed to the sun.
If you want to see the temperatures for the whole period or to make a conversion between Fahrenheit and Celsius I have posted a few links at the end of this blog.
Besides the apparently always shinning sun the sky is quite different throughout the day. Although there are times when the sky is only blue steel this is something you don't see very often or for more than a few hours and mostly before noon. Normally the sky is scattered with little clouds like sheep populating the earth's ceiling and because the air is very dry you can see far away to the horizon and find hundreds of them. Sometimes it really happens that some of these little clouds come together to build a large cloud and it starts to rain in a particular small area for a few minutes or an hour.
Sunset 2
Every day ends with a sunset It may even become overcast for half a day. But soon later the sun is back again and only some spots on your car will tell you that it was raining a little bit. Time to take your ride to the car wash!
Last but not least because the air is dry and therefore the horizon wide open and there are always some clouds a marvelous sunset rounds off almost every day. If I will buy a house here I'll have to make sure that I have a good look to the west to enjoy this. Speaking about sunset. One other thing to mention here is the fact that sunset and sunrise are closer to each other in summer which also means that the length of the day is not as long as in Central Europe. Austin, TX is 30°18′01″N, 97°44′50″W which is almost the same like Cairo in Egypt or a little bit more north than the Canary Island. I will enjoy that fact in winter, though!
And I still wonder what a sunrise might look like. I never got up that early so far.
Online Conversion Austin Area in May 2006 Austin Area in June 2006 Austin Area in July 2006
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Silvia
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Sunrise
Well as I know Adrian, sun must get up very very early because Adrian is an earlybird and usually up at 06.00 am to walk his dog. So when is sunrise and when sunset?