This is always a dreary day, here in the UAE.

The first day in 2014 when we realized, with horror … “oh, my … it’s time to turn on the air-conditioner.”

March 8.

Ack.

Summer seems to be eternal here. I’ve written about it many times. Six solid months of it, for sure. May, June, July, August, September, October. It will be hot for those six months. No getting around it.

But March and November … can be “not-awful”.

In fact, during those six months listed above, we like to believe March will give us a bit of lingering “winter” (which here means highs in the 70s) … and that November will finally bring relief from blistering sun — when it generally does not.

March is sort of  key. Weather history indicates the average high will be 83, and that’s fine. Not as dreamily embraceable as what we had in December, January and February, when the weather in the UAE is nearly perfect. But it is supposed to be a slow build-up to April, when the average high suddenly is 91.

So much for the slow build-up.

It was mid-80s today, which is a bit too high to sleep comfortably, and next week we’re looking at a steady climb into the 90s.

Sun! Sun! Sun! Too much sun! And all that entails, turning this country into one flat frying pan.

The AC had been off and the windows open for three full months. And, honest to goodness, we had a few days where we had to close the windows because it was a bit too cool. (A colleague, in his first winter here, asked how to turn on the heat in his apartment, a question that drew smiles from those in the room, who know there is no heat in homes here.)

That’s so over, now.

It’s not even mid-March and we’re already over 90.  That means the AC will be running, off and on, from this point forward, and by April it will run 24/7 for the next half-year.

So, this early March heat, the AC blowing on March 8 … it means the Endless Summer is going to be at least seven months long, this year, with a good chance of eight, if November doesn’t cooperate …

And that’s just depressing.