The overnight low barely dipped into the 60s. There’s little wind and few clouds. It’s cold this morning in Honolulu.
Today will be another picture perfect day in paradise, save for the chill early this morning. Perhaps I’m getting to old to appreciate what really cold weather is like to folks into that sort of thing. Frankly, anything into the 60s is chilly, brisk, almost autumn without the leaves.
It’s been a few years since I traveled to the mainland during anything but the warmth of summer. The coldest weather I’ve run into in that span has been a trip to the summit of Mt. Haleakala on Maui, and a morning motorcycle ride through Manoa Valley. Oh, and sticking my hand in the freezer to grab a cup full of ice. That’s cold, too.
I doubt that blood actually thins after years of living in a warm climate, devoid of exposure to the extreme weather of the mainland. If Dallas in August is warm enough to make the blood boil, then why can’t it be considered a cold night in Honolulu when the temperature dips into the 60s?
Cold, just as it is with hot, is relative. One man’s hamburger is another man’s steak. Our bodies are sensitive to a change in temperature of just a few degrees. Ditto for sensitivity to humidity. Even Hawaii’s weather, so consistent to people from Michigan and points elsewhere, changes unexpectedly and with noticeable results.
We can feel Kona winds, even when there’s not much wind. The difference between a really hot Honolulu day where the temperature barely touches 90-degrees, and a very comfortable trade wind day of 84 is nominal yet noticeable.
I pity the poor folks of Chicago who see temperatures ranges of 50-degrees in a day. So, just as 110-degrees in Las Vegas isn’t really hot, when it’s a cold day in paradise, it’s a relative cold.
That is a VERY good point! I used to work in the boiler room in the Navy. Normal temp was about 110-120. We were off the coast of Korea in the winter and people were laughing at us because we put on our winter gear, the temp had dropped to 70 in the fire room. It was freezing to us. Anyway i liked your relativity comment and thought i would share.
I worked in Japan while in the army, mostly on Hokkaido, northern Japan, where it was colder than anything a welldigger can’t cover up. When I left Hokkaido for Tokyo and a ride back to Hawaii I was sweating like a pig in Tokyo’s 50-degree weather. Meanwhile a whole plane load of GI’s from Viet Nam were freezing their buns off in the same 50-degree weather. It’s all relative.
Looked out the back window and the thermometer showed a balmy -24 degrees with a windchill factor of
- 45. The HIGH today will be -7. Kinda makes me thankful for global warming to take the chill out of the air.
Greg
Minnesota
After living in Hawaii for 25 years I’d forgotten about how much the weather can change on the mainland. My family recently took a trip to Disney World in Orlando and although most of the time there the weather was very much like Hawaii’s, the last couple of days it dipped into the 30′s and 40′s. Brrrr!