Postcard from Bishkek

The weather forecast for today is good … sunny with temperatures into the thirties.  Mind you, that’s not altogether surprising.  After all, it is July, summertime, and when I first came here I was promised something like three hundred days of sunshine a year.   We never seem to make it, however, and although I am not sure how they define a “sunny day”, I am told that the average is just over two hundred and seventy days of sunshine a year.

That promise of sunshine was one of the things that caught my attention when I was asked if I wanted to come out here to help a friend open an office in the newly independent country, some sixteen years ago.  It wasn’t by any means a deciding factor.  I am not a great one for sunbathing, and I don’t like extreme temperatures of any sort; hot or cold.  On the other hand, a sunny day always makes you feel better, more optimistic, especially when the British climate is so changeable amd such that it can be overcast and rain virtually any day.

In Kyrgyzstan, the weather this year has been decidedly English – that is: changeable.  Indeed, during the Spring we had a standing joke in the office … “the sun is out today, I suppose that means it will snow tomorrow.”  We seem to have entered a cycle where, after two or three days of soaring temperatures, there has been a swing to downpours, thunder and hail.  A friend of mine who lives in a small town about half an hour from Bishkek tells me that, a couple of weeks ago, they experienced a hailstorm that resembled a tornado.  All the crops in her garden were flattened; the vine tree was uprooted and a branch of an apple tree came crashing down on her roof.  She only moved to this small town a couple of years ago, but some of her neighbours assured her that they had seen nothing like it before, “not in fifty years!”.

In recent years, of course, Europe has seen some very warm summer weather.  A couple of years ago, France  saw an outbreak of heat related deaths and last week some thirty towns and cities in France saw record temperatures.  Moscow also saw record temperatures last year and a friend of mine who was in Moscow at the time told me several “horror stories” about “baking” in the car whilst it was stuck in traffic jams.

High temperatures can present serious problems.  High temperatures can be good for ice cream sales, but I remember being taken as a schoolboy on a school trip to visit the Cadbury’s Chocolate factory in Bourneville, just outside Birmingham.  It was very interesting and we all welcomed the chance to get out of the classroom, but  it was also a bit of a disappointment because the factory had come to a standstill.  It was too hot, or so we were told, for making chocolate bars as they would not set after rolled out from the machinery.

Every year I receive a newsletter from a Health and Safety consultancy service about the precautions that we should advise our staff to take to avoid health problems associated with extreme Hot Weather.

Those problems can arise here in Kyrgyzstan, where summer days can be very hot and the sun can be very strong, as anywhere else on the globe.  From relaxing on sandy beaches on the shores of Lake Issyk Kul to trekking in high mountain jailoos or climbing lofty mountain summits, sun protection is essential.  It sometimes surprises people to learn that altitude is an important factor which affects the intensity of the power of the sun.  For every 1,000 feet above sea level, ultra violet radiation increases about five to six percent.

At the very least, a bad case of sunburn causes pain, discomfort and dehydration – and has ruined many holidays in the sun.  I know, because I have sensitive skin which burns easily. In more serious cases the sun’s rays can cause skin cancer, which has emerged as a major health issue around the world and is by far the most common cancer in the United States.  That’s another problem for me, because I have vitiligo and I have to cover up the patches where my skin lacks pigmentation.  I do know the Australian campaign, “Slip, Slap, Slop” – “Slip on on a T-shirt, Slap on a hat and slop on some sun cream”, but to be honest, at my age I don’t often go about bare chested, I am not used to wearing a hat and I simply forget to rub in sun cream, so I often find myself caught out and regretting my carelessness for several days after only a few hours in the sun.

Tags: Advice, Calendar, Health, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan