Re: warm weather and high dewpoints
Scott, yes it is unusual in my part of NZ, further north the RH can sit close to 100% for long times, but usually with milder temperatures. But even 25C seems hot when the RH is close to 100%. Down this far south the general rule is the higher the temperature the lower the RH. I still marvel how different the Jap/NZ climates are considering their similar size and latitude. I remember reading once that if you compare climate stats for the major population areas the Japanese cities are all colder in winter than any NZ towns in our winter, but even the coldest Japanese city is warmer in summer than even the warmest NZ city in summer. Obviously being so far away from any large landmass makes all the difference, as does our lower sea temps (locally the sea doesn't warm much more than about 22C, or drop much below 14C).
Stan and Tom, we're only 600m from the beach so it is fairly busy here (
). My closest neighbour house is only 500m away! When I was a kid the dress code at the beach was fairly casual, full naked was not at all uncommon, but this seems to have stopped over the years, possibly everyone has become more body image conscious these days. Maybe also the skin cancer risk, which is bad in NZ due to high-UV coupled with lower summer temps allowing us to be outside comfortably in mid-day sun. While we don't seem to do the naturism thing on the beach anymore the coverage area of bikinis seems to have diminished a lot over the years, which is probably not a good thing. Possibly this concern is related to the fact I've reached the age that it is my daughters in the bikinis!