The Big Heat

This film noir, directed by Fritz Lang in 1953, is infamous for the scene in which Lee Marvin assaults Gloria Grahame with a pot of boiling coffee. But I’m referring to the remarkable week of sunny weather with unbroken blue skies that we’ve just had in Northern Ireland. With temperatures of 25 degrees and over, it was more akin to what you’d find in the Canary Islands. In truth, NI only has two real seasons: it’s either ‘boilin’ or ‘freezin’, with the latter holding the upper hand for most of the year. ‘Boilin’ usually puts in an appearance for a day or two at best, before cool conditions return. But this last week has been exceptional and has done wonders for retailers of sunscreen and ice-cream. Indeed the heat built up so much in the house that we had to keep the curtains closed all day. Even so, it was still uncomfortably warm at night. Had the heatwave gone on, we would have needed to commence the Spanish practices of having a siesta and eating at 9 pm. Today our normal summer weather has returned: overcast skies, drizzly rain and only fleeting glimpses of the sun.

I realize that most of Western Europe and Southern England have been suffering from intense heat for many weeks. But the weather is very different here. We don’t have any glaciers to melt, our rivers have not run dry and the grass is still green. Unbroken blue skies and sunshine all of the time sounds lovely. But in fact it becomes burdensome and tedious. I lived in California in 1992 and ended up looking forward to the periodic rainstorms. This taught me that it’s variation in the weather that makes life interesting. It also probably shapes the culture and norms of these islands. I’m just owning up to enjoying a week of bright sunshine amidst the months of overcast skies.