[brc]

No, you aren't feeling things, the sun in the Northern Hemisphere (at least Europe) is less intense, even at lower latitudes like Italy.

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.

[liedra]

I suspect you're right, especially about the pollution. When landing in a plane into Brussels (in particular) the brown blanket is quite obvious. Not so much when you're on the ground, though you're right in that the sky never seems quite as blue (though I'm willing to accept a certain amount of home bias there).