Humidity

The seasons in Chad go something like this:

• Windy / Dusty (January – March)
• Hot (April – June)
• Rainy (July – September)
• Humid (October)
• Cool * (November – December)

The months are only a rough indication and from year-to-year the actual start and end times of each season can vary by several weeks.

At the moment we are coming towards the end of the rainy season (it hasn’t rained now for over a week in N’Djamena, although one of our pilots had to fly around a big storm in the east of the country earlier this week) and the humidity levels are rising.

I think this is probably my least favourite season. The hot season is pretty intense with temperatures rising into the mid to high 40s C but it is a dry heat and air-conditioning, fans and cold showers make it possible to cool down a bit.

I find the high humidity levels (above 80% on some days according to the BBC weather website) drain my energy levels and make my head feel all fuzzy. Somehow the available ‘cooling devices’ don’t seem to have the same affect they have during the hot season.

There are other ways you can tell it’s humid:

• The laundry takes all day to dry, rather than the usual couple of hours
• Even though your clothes are washed, dried and ironed they still feel just that little bit damp when you take them out of the wardrobe
• Towels always feel slightly damp, never quite drying out between the morning and evening shower
• All the wooden doors are warped, which means that opening or closing a cupboard door involves a lot of effort and slamming
• The salt and pepper are damp so your meals are either under or over seasoned. Either you think you’ve seasoned the food but actually nothing came out when you shook the container or you shake extra hard and it all comes out in a mad rush making the food inedible

I’m glad that it’s the shortest season – for me it can’t end soon enough.

* This is a relative term – it’s ‘cool’ compared to most of the rest of the year but it’s actually quite ‘hot’ by UK standards.