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According to Wikipedia, “a monsoon is a rainy season which lasts for several months and has lasting climatic effects“. What you may ask is the Austrian monsoon? Well, if it lasts, I’ll have to make a Wikipedia entry that goes something like this:

An Austrian monsoon is that crazy hot humid weather that needed to get to India (where it can last for several months), but somehow got lost between the Alps where it had sudden outbursts of flooding rain, interspersed with long periods of excruciating, don’t-know-what-else-to-wear, humid, icky heat.

There, I have said it! After all, why did I come to the Alpenrepublik? To watch those palm trees grow? To grow coconuts? As much fun as that sounds, nope, I came here to enjoy the COOLNESS of the mountains. Granted the mountains are just a tiny bit far away from Vienna, but still, the tropics were even further away last time I checked. Here is an article about the latest storm in Austria, about two weeks ago: http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2927985

Why this is such a big deal? Well, you read in the news about all the climate changes, about how islands are drowned, how bees die, how glacier lakes simply disappear, but you never think this will affect you in any direct way. Sure you know that somehow your children will have to deal with this, but surely not you. I don’t mean to be selfish, but that is how I think about it most of the time, since I don’t have a solution to the climate issue. I already use water and other ressources wisely, don’t drive a car, don’t waste space, I don’t mean to brag, but I really try and do all that I can and what makes sense living in a city. Sure, I would love to be self sufficient, like some pioneers, but I am tied to the rat race like most of us.

My point is that this weird weather, even here in good old, “nothing ever happens here” Austria, is scary. They don’t have AC here, only in select new buildings. And even there, it does not run all the time. AC is a very expensive commodity here, since energy bills are thrice the amount they are in the US. Austrians are good about saving energy, except for their love of cars (which is another story). But with the summers getting hotter and hotter, how will life at the office be? No one in the US can imagine how it is to sit in front of your computer for 10 hours a day while your brain is floating in a 90° F soup. Well, with Austrians being so laissez faire about work, I guess it’s OK if you are not quite there while you work. But I am digressing again….

Meanwhile it has cooled down and I’m sitting here in my office with a sweater on, in July! Sunday it will be hot again, so hot that everyone who is still in Vienna for the summer will be looking for a spot at the pool. Monday will be the hottest, of course, so everyone can enjoy sauna at the office, and then a big drop in temperatures will ensure that I wear a sweater again on Tuesday. And so it goes on and on….Meanwhile the scientists insist that in 50 years there will be no snow left in the Alps. If this keeps up, I believe them!