Today's weather: Same as yesterday's

My decision to move to Phnom Penh was the right one. However, my timing could have been better. April is the hottest month here. For the folks back home, you know how every summer there's a stretch of a week or two where it gets so hot it's hard to breathe? Days when the weather is so miserable that just walking from your house to your car is enough to sap your will to live? Cambodia in April is like that every day. And every night, for that matter.

It's always hot here, although it does cool off a bit in December and January. I was teaching a lesson about weather vocabulary. I asked the students how cold it gets. They said 23 degrees Celsius, or about 74 degrees Fahrenheit. I suppose I should start storing provisions for the brutal Cambodian winter.

Here's a chart showing the average temperatures and number of rainy days for each month:

	Avg max temp C/F	Avg min temp C/F	Rainy days
Nov	30/86	22/72	9
Dec	30/86	21/70	3
Jan	31/88	20/68	1
Feb	32/90	21/70	2
Mar	34/93	24/75	4
Apr	35/95	25/77	6
May	35/95	25/77	16
Jun	33/91	24/75	18
Jul	33/91	24/75	19
Aug	32/90	25/77	19
Sep	31/88	25/77	19
Oct	31/88	24/75	17

The average high temperature never gets lower than 86 degrees, but in January it can get down to a frosty 68 degrees. Glad I saved that yak wool sweater I bought in Nepal!

There are two seasons here, the dry season and the wet season. It's pretty obvious from the chart which months fall into which season. As hot as it is here now it's a dry heat, which is surprising considering this is Southeast Asia. That's starting to change. Soon it will be the rainy season. For half the year there is a downpour just about every day. Last night I had plans to go out but stayed in because it was raining. It was the type of storm that chews up and spits out umbrellas. It was so loud I couldn't hear my television.

Note that the average temperatures are the same for April and May. It might be stinking hot now, but next month it will be just as hot and rainy and humid. If anyone is planning to visit me here, next month is not the time to do it.