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by liedra
5801 days ago
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Yeah, certainly throws that Aussie mainstay "between 11 and 3 sit under a tree" out, and that's a dangerous move if you do live in Australia. Since moving to the northern hemisphere I really feel as though the sun here is less intense, but I'm also a lot further north (Belgium) than I was south (Sydney) of the equator, or so the longer summer days seem to imply. It certainly doesn't feel as though it will bake your skin off like it did back home, though old habits die hard and I still go out slathered in cream :) |
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I only got sunburnt once in Europe, and that was after being the sun all day with no sunscreen or hat. It took literally hours to get sunburnt. Here, I think 30 minutes is about all the average Australian can take, and for a recent arrival from Europe, 15 minutes will do them in, and 2 or 3 hours will put them in hospital.
My personal theory is that there is a lot more airborne pollution in Europe, and because of all the air traffic a lot of high-level cloud gets laid down by planes. You'll note the sky is never as deep blue as it is in Australia. I also think that because of the tilt in the Earth's axis, the SH summers receive a more directly overhead sun than even on the summer solstice in most of Europe. Finally my theory rounds out that, in Europe, periods of hot sunny weather seem to coincide with long periods of stable weather with little wind, when the pollution quicklyk builds. In Australia, in summer (in much of the country) the really hot days come during the thunderstorm period, when the high wind and heavy rain blows all the pollution away, and the next day is scorchingly hot.
Of course, all just random theories but based on a lot of observation.