May May Be The Cruellest Month

 More Weather Drama 
  Happy Victoria Day! We had a cool and cloudy April and just finally experienced a warm and sunny day, and another one is predicted. The forecast also calls for complaints with which we will be deluged. They have already begun, even though it is warm, not hot. 

Try to make it through another excruciating day if you can. That's it. I have said enough about this subject. See, for example, The Human Suffering Index. 

Post Script:
   For those of you south of our border, 22°Celsius is about 72°Fahrenheit, but up here it feels like  it's 90 F. 

WEATHER Feelings

"BUT, IT FEELS LIKE...." 
   The screen shot above was taken on the 24th of April when we returned from the south where we had ventured in search of warm breezes and some colour -- other than grey. If you are familiar with Fahrenheit you may recognize that the predicted temperature that day was below 50, although you should notice that it was going to feel even cooler, before things begin to feel much hotter. Apparently the weather in any season is now intolerable for many who feel it is too hot or cold. My complaint is not with the weather and it is a complaint with which you are familiar.
   Since I am not yet in blogging mode and far more important things should be undertaken, I will present here past pronouncements related to this subject. Out of fear of repeating myself, I went looking for them and you might as well benefit from my research since Mulcahy's Miscellany has no index. Besides, some of the posts contain better writing by other people. This list is not exhaustive and more weather-related items are found in, for example, the very popular feature "Beyond the Palewall." I need to remember this if I am low on subject matter and tempted to bring up the weather again.

"The Human Suffering Index" 
   The HSI sums things up pretty well as does the illustration by Edward Munch which you will recognize. Also included is, "The Dead of Winter" which helpfully includes a typically contrarian argument about the virtues of Fahrenheit over Celsius" for reporting the temperatures we feel. 

"The Wind Chill" is about it and also the "HUMIDEX," both of which are typically exaggerated as these quotations indicate:
"But why does every winter day have to be described as colder than it really is? Listen to the radio and count how often the announcer says: “ … but it’s going to feel like …” Increasingly I’m even hearing wind chill given more prominence than the actual temperature."
and:
"Here’s an example. On one day in a recent summer, I found Detroit and next-door Windsor with temperatures near 28 C. The Weather Network gave Detroit a “feels like” reading of 30.5. But in Windsor, Environment Canada had a humidex of 38."

"Weather Statement" includes an illustration which indicates that the "Summer" in Canada occupies only a tiny bit of our calendar and that soon we will be saying, "So Long Summer." 

The Bonus: The Answer to the Question, "What is a "Nice Day?"
"Have A Nice Day."

Post Script: Things Could Be Worse

All that is needed is another man and a horse.

 

  To make you feel better, I will suggest that you would feel worse if you were to wake up in Lahore, Pakistan, which is illustrated above and described below (from, the Washington Post, April 22, 2024, "As the Concrete World Comes Apart, I Hope For More Flowers in the Cracks," Mohsin, Hamid:)

"The first thing that strikes me about the world is that it is has become poisonous. We cannot breathe. From November until February, the blue sky is hidden behind a low ceiling of gray. This is not from clouds but from smoke. It is uncanny to take a flight in these months, to burst only seconds after takeoff into the blindingly bright light and see not a city but a gray blanket below. The cooler months used to be months of outdoor sports and running around with my cousins and shielding eyes with the blades of our hands from the sun. Now they are months when the land receives too little heat to push the smoke into the heavens, and so it settles all over the riverine plains, prevented from proceeding north by the mass of the Himalayas, choking us.
My children are not permitted to do outdoor sports in these months. Indoors, they sleep to the whirring sound of air purifiers, machines I had not imagined until recently. When we played in the winter as children, we would quench our thirst by working the shaft of the hand-pump in my grandparents’ house. Now, our children do not go out to play. The hand-pumps are all dry. We have depleted the aquifer. A machine bore is required to obtain water from hundreds of meters down, and that water too has been contaminated. Our world has become poisonous: The fireflies are gone, the children cough like smokers, the water is full of heavy metals. The economic miracle we have been promised has arrived, and it is a miracle of despoliation."

News From Elsewhere

  The weather has turned and I am back at the terminal, for now. While I think of something to write about, I will update you on some stories you may have missed while dealing with the death of the Queen.

Let's Start With Leicester

    Leicester is a city in the country where the Queen reigned. Recently it has experienced some riots and those rioting were primarily Muslims and Hindus. It’s not cricket to suggest that the riots were caused by the cricket match between India and Pakistan, but that appears to have been the catalyst for the violence that began on August 28th and which continued into September. Some have blamed the Hindus, some the Muslims and all have blamed the Internet since misinformation can be shared as quickly as a virus. 

  A source-or-two will be provided below, but the headline in this one suggests that even Canadians should be interested in the local Leicester punch-up: "Leicester Riots a Warning That Violence in UK Can Be Sparked by Global Events, Experts Say Calls for New Measures to Prevent Sectarian Troubles in Other Countries Seeping into Neighbourhoods Here," 

Independent, Sept. 22, 2022

And Then There is Sweden

   Even here in Canada, or at least in southern Ontario, we tend to look up to Sweden, so this headline was surprising: "Gun Violence Epidemic Looms Large Over a Swedish Election." The results of the election were even more surprising: "Anti-immigrant Party Helps Defeat Sweden’s Government." 

Giorgia Meloni

And Now There is Italy

   This news has not happened yet, but it likely will as this headline indicates: 

"Italy Election Set to Crown Meloni Head of Most Right-wing Govt Since WW2," By Crispian Balmer, Reuters, Sept. 22, 2022.

ROME, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Italy's parliamentary election on Sunday could make history, giving the country its first female prime minister at the head of its most right-wing government since World War Two.

What About Canada?

   Although Pierre Poilievre  is now the Leader of the Official Opposition and there is some evidence that Canada is heading in the same direction rightward as the countries mentioned above, the headline attracting my notice was this one: "Worse Air Quality on Earth Recorded in Parts of B.C." which appeared atop the Weather Channel on August 11, and which was followed by this sentence:

"Around 3:00 pm ET on Sunday afternoon Vancouver had an air quality ranking of 199, which is the most severe ranking of all major cities on this day. Lahore, Pakistan came in second with a ranking of 161 and Dubai, United Arab Emirates came in third with a ranking of 158."

The U.S.?

  The only news of note  I could find was this:

The Bonus:

   Climate is of concern everywhere on the planet (except for Texas) and immigration is an issue in most countries. In Canada the focus now is on the potential that immigrants bring, not the potential problems that may come along as baggage.  Perhaps it is worth considering this comment by someone from south of our border, since it may apply here:

"At a time when Americans are already at odds with one another over what we might call core values — the cultural beliefs that glue our country together — it’s reasonable to worry about whether adding newcomers to the mix will complicate the task of forging a common future." From: "The Martha’s Vineyard Migrant Stunt Is Making One Truth About This Country Clear," Farah Stockman,  New York Times,  Sept. 16, 2022.

Sources:

  The headline from LeicestershireLive: 

“What Led to the Ugly Scenes of Violence and Disorder in Leicester?” Adam Moss, Sept. 19, 2022. 

"The issues behind the unrest in the east of the city are far more complex than just a cricket match....

As the country was in a period of official mourning and preparing for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, something very different was going on in one part of Leicester.

Tensions had been rising between different minority communities for quite some time, but were then brought into sharp focus after violence broke out following the India v Pakistan cricket match on Sunday, August 28. Further disorder involving members of Hindu and Muslim communities followed over the next fortnight, leading police to launch a major operation in a bid to restore calm."

Such ugly scenes are undoubtedly a mark of shame for Leicester, which is famed around the world for its diversity and regularly celebrates its multicultural nature as a source of strength and pride.

The tensions then continued into Sunday, when the city was suddenly hitting national and international headlines which had previously been dominated by the passing of the monarch. Police officers even had to be diverted from covering the funeral in London to ensure the force in Leicestershire had enough resources to cope with any situation which came their way.

   For more about the Swedish situation see: "Anti-immigrant Party Helps Defeat Sweden’s Government," David Crouch and Emily Rauhala, Washington Post, Sept. 14, 2022.

"The closely watched election has already reshaped Sweden’s political discourse, pushing anti-immigrant and tough-on-crime rhetoric into the political mainstream and deepening fears here about the polarization — or “Americanization” — of Swedish politics."

  

  The photo above does show a hazy Vancouver back in 2020 and the accompanying headline was, "Air Quality Not a Top Concern For Metro Residents, Says Survey," in the appropriately titled Delta Optimist.

WEATHER STATEMENT

     The weather is always talked about in this country and we just recently shifted the discussion from the Wind Chill to the Humidex. Since the conversations generally consist of bitching, moaning and complaining, I thought I would share the sentiments expressed about the Canadian climate by a fellow in 1866 - before both air conditioning and central heating.

“The climate is as healthy as it is delightful, at all seasons : whether in the glorious days of summer, when ruby-throated humming-birds flit from flower to flower ; in the glowing autumn, when tints of brightness unknown in other lands invest the forest with their gorgeous mantle; in the dreamy softness of that wonderful period called the "Indian summer;" or in the clear glistening winter, with its sparkling fields of pure snow, its cloudless blue skies, and merry sleigh-bells.”

Source: The Sportsman and Naturalist in Canada… Major W. Ross