Sweating in Seoul

I have been complaining a lot lately about how hot it has been this last week, but I wasn't getting much sympathy from people back home when I told them about the 30 degrees Celsius temperatures. After all, 30 degrees is not actually that hot—heck, I dealt with a lot worse in Kuwait and the Middle East.

But after sweating through today's scorching heat (the worst day yet) I was compelled to get on the Internet and figure out just why the weather seems so intense here. Finally, I found my answer: the humidex! And wouldn't you know it, the apparent temperature humidity index is a Canadian invention! Using a formula that combines air temperature and relative humidity, the humidex is the apparent temperature, or put simply, how hot it actually feels.

Using the nifty humidex calculator available on this site, I was able to calculate today's apparent temperature in Seoul and it became clear why I have been sweating out more than my body weight in water: with an actual temperature today of 36°C and a relative humidity of 84%, the apparent temperature today was a whopping 58°C! No wonder I haven't sleeping at night! I knew I should never have taken an apartment without air-conditionning.....