Sushil Pathak

I have been residing here at the East Bay, California for more than 5 years and still this amazing weather pattern here never fails to amuse me.

I was born and grew up at very hot and humid climate, Chitwan district of Nepal. Chitwan being the lowland of Nepal, gets very hot in the summer. Temperature there often reached above 100, but I never got used to heat. Then I moved to Kathmandu and temperature there was a whole a lot cooler. Now, I am here at the bay area and the climate here is unique in every way.

The most unique feature being the coolness and ocean breeze throughout the year. Since we live at the coastal area, we get this chilly ocean breeze all year around so it never gets really hot. We only get a few days of above 100 temperature in the summer. Sun is usually bright but very gentle. The story is not very pleasing as we move into the inland, but right here at the coast, temperature is always cool and soothing.  It rains in the winter, which is a bit nasty, but still the temperature very rarely falls down to freezing cold. This consistency in temperature makes life a lot easier when it comes to dealing with heat and cold, particularly for the older folks. Cooler temperature throught the year also means the happier utilities bills because of less usage of electric heater and air conditioning.

Right now, summer is almost done and I can remember only 2 or 3 days of intense heat. Other than that, it’s been awesome. While east coast, Like New York and Boston are being severely roasted, story here at the coast is very pleasing. Morning is generally gloomy, followed by bright and long afternoon. Sun sets at round 8:30 and still bright till 9PM, which was very surprising for me when I first came here. By this time in Nepal, we would have already finished our dinner and tossed ourselves at bed. One nasty thing about the weather here is the allergy season that starts right after the spring. It could get very irritating and affects some people more and other less. We can see a lot of running and itchy noses, red eyes and coughs at this time. So far, my summer is being characterized by long sleep, swimming, few short trips, fewer books(half then I expected!!) and usual work. I still have like 2 more weeks before our fall semester begins. As a long and tiring semester awaits me, I am looking forward to use these free time to the fullest, perhaps by more sleeping, which is what I call, a hibernating summer!!