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Comment by buran77 | Hacker News Reader

To make matters worse, not all ranges and percentages on that scale are equal, whether they're the same in absolute or relative terms. Humans have a narrow relevant "operational" temperature band. Even 20 degrees between 10-30C feel like nothing compared to the 5 degrees between 37-42C.

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Not to mention that wet bulb temperature, measuring the effect of humidity, is actually the most important measure in those temperature ranges.

Humidity in London is also awful as the temperature gets closer to freezing. I found the damp cold in London to be common over the year and truly horrid (a reason to never live there).

At home (Christchurch, NZ) we often get dry cold which can be pleasant: however when we do get the occasional vile damp cold I personally call it "London cold" because it made so much impression upon me in my 20s.

Humidity in summer is just as bad. At 30 degrees C London feels stifling hot because of the humidity

‘London cold’ can be found a bit north, in Auckland.

The only upside is that your lips don’t split in winter.

I haven't experienced that (but I've only spent months in Auckland or north of Auckland).

From your comment I asked my brother and he said he agreed - something like he didn't like the Auckland 14° days that felt like 5°

Your upper band of 30C is making this Englishman sweat just thinking about it. Which I think proves your point about narrow operational temperature even further.

You’re right in principle but that’s probably the worst example you could have given. So bad an example that I think it could easily be argued to disprove your point.

For us people not living in Arabia or South Texas the difference between 37 and 42 Celsius is indeed quite important. 37 feels pretty hot, but yet livable, while 42 (and even 40 for me) means that nothing non-urgent should bring me out of the house.

And, inversely, the five degree drop from, say, 3C to -2C represents means water can and will freeze, which is another massive change in livability.

Indeed. At 3C in London, the humidity seeps into every pore and settles into your bones. Riding a bike at 3C, unless you're wearing a balaclava and a ski mask, is an exercise in pure pain, as the wetness sublimating off your face has approximately the same effect on your facial nerves as being flayed.

Ok the other hand, -2C in London is crisp and invigorating and entirely preferable in every possible way.

I moved countries just so I can experience 20C weather instead of 30C weather. It is very noticeable haha

Where I live, the current daily temperature is between 33 in the morning and hits forty something mid day, so I have very recent experience with those 5 degrees, and I completely disagree with your assessment.

Difference between 10 and 30 degrees C feels, way, way bigger than 37 to 42.

One goes from straight up cold to quite hot, while the other just goes from very hot to even more very hot.

I bet you’re casually discounting the fact that you spend most of that time with 40+C temps in an air conditioned space.

At 42 degrees your body can’t cool down and this causes a lot of deaths or even the “casual” fainting described in the article due to hyperthermia. This goes way beyond your subjective feeling.

You right in the sense that I rarely spend more than 10 minutes in either 37 nor 42 degrees at a time.

I thought this thread was discussing the subjective feelings of temperature.

I think the whole thread is to show the Celsius scale in particular but temperature degrees have different impacts in different places in general, but especially in the range supporting human life. One degree can mean nothing or be the difference between being alive or dead, depending on where that degree is on the scale and maybe other compounding factors like humidity.

Talking about relative temperature differences without anchoring to an absolute reference is meaningless. Using percentages is even worse.

I'm with you: very hot to more very hot. I think the real issue in the fainting story is that he/she had to take their coat off. 42 is just not life threatening if one knows when to take one's coat off (and drink water).

42C is eventually life threatening naked if the humidity is high enough, especially if you’re in the sun.

It just takes a long time for your body temperature to increase, thus you have a while to find a cooler spot.

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