On the Sixth Floor’s Weather

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system.

If this were a real test, broadcasters in your area would have followed this announcement with beer.

Instead…

My sixth floor cubicle has one major flaw.

It’s frigid.

The air conditioning vent is right above my head. I look up, and that’s all I see.

The air conditioning vents seem to run around the building’s edge, right at the windows. If I move interior, away from the vents, things are appreciably warmer.

At least, that’s true on this, the northern side of the building.

On the southern side of the building, things are warmer. Much warmer.

Same basic set-up. Same positioning for air conditioning vents.

Not a frigid icebox, however.

What’s strange and curious is that where the two sides meet there’s a humid, sweltering mess. It’s like two weather systems have collided. I expect hurricanes to form there, tropical storms to rain water down, flooding the elevator shafts as waterfalls cascade to the lower floors.

I’d almost welcome that.

It would be more exciting than here, where it’s frigid. Where I sit, shivering. Where I wonder, “When is the blizzard going to strike?”

It is cold here.

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

One thought on “On the Sixth Floor’s Weather

  1. It’s almost definitely set to maintain the same temp on both sides of the building. It’s a fundemental flaw of most A/C – it’s built around the idea that temp comfort overrides relative humidity (RH). I used to work with and in controlled chambers: you could hold the temp to 20C and dial up the RH. Walk into a chamber set to 20C and 33%RH and it’d feel like Iceland. Walk into the same chamber set to 20C and 76%RH and it’d be like the tropic of cancer. Add UV heat to the mix on the south-facing side and you’ve got your microclimates.

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