Had an epiphany.

[Herman30]

Bought a new anorak.
Quite thin and light material, 190g/m2. 65% Poly 35% Co.
Intended use as a summer jacket.
But then I thought, hello! Why not use this as a shirt with only a string vest under. I always use a long sleeve shirt when outside in strong sunshine summertime. Don´t want to get sunburned and risk melanoma.

 

[Toddy]

When I was working outdoors, I bought North Face UV protection shirts from their factory shop down at Greenock. Basically I got them at bargain prices, so didn't mind using them when working hard, filthy, muddy, etc.,
In the end I had a dozen of them, and they have lasted surprisingly well. They're over twenty years old now and they are still sound, and they have had an incredible amount of use and hard wear. They still wash up and look good.....if I bother to iron them usually they just get hung up straight out of the tumbler dryer.

I am a fair skinned, green eyed, freckled Scot. Classic Brit colouring I suppose.
I burn if the big hot yellow ball thing even shows through the clouds for ten minutes. I didn't burn wearing these shirts I still wear them to garden in Summer or if the weather's really bright.

I reckon they were worth the full price.
They don't have hoods, but I wear a hat when working anyway so no worries on that, and the ventilation is better than with a hood up I reckon. I think that's my only caveat on your jacket, that you'll find the hood stifling hot in the sunshine.

M

 

[Herman30]

Don´t plan on using the hood unless really necessary. I use caps and boonies summertime.

 

[Toddy]

I don't take the heat well, and I have to admit that even that hood folded down round my neck would feel like I was being sweltered.

Each to their own

 

[Herman30]

I can stand being in the heat as long as it involves moving, walking or doing something. Lying down sunbathing is an absolute horror to me

 

[Corso]

looks a bit boil in the bag

cotton summer/wool winter has always worked for me

 

[Erbswurst]

Yes, for Germany it also doesn't work.
Here one needs full length zippers or button line.

 

[Herman30]

Well we have normally a lot of summer (april - june) where temperature hardly reaches +15. I live on the 63d parallell north.

 

[TLM]

There is a joke floating around that a Yankee had to spend a whole year in Finland his (!, old joke) comments afterwards were: "The white winter is not too bad but the green one is hell."

 

[Toddy]

I live at 55.8N and our summers are hardly extreme. They're still hot enough to burn our skins though, and we still need breathable and light clothing when out and about in them.

 

[TLM]

I live at 55.8N and our summers are hardly extreme.

That 7 degree difference means quite alot when comparing how the atmosphere filters UV. At the equator it means nothing the higher latitudes one goes the greater the filtering effect. Air temp does not really come into it except that if it is hot one tends to be more careful with sunburn.

I wear thin PA sunshirts when sunburn threatens.

 

[Toddy]

I think we're at crossed points here.

A sweaty jacket vs a lightweight UV protective shirt, in temperate summer climates.

UV happens despite the air temperature...witness the folks who end up sunburnt up their noses when skiing in sub zero temperatures but bright sunshine, or the people of the Himalayas and Andes.

I think the length of daylight and the angle of the sun (let alone the holes/thinning in the ozone layers) make UV very much an issue for our fair skins.
I know we need the sunshine, but at my age I can honestly tell you I wish I'd taken better care when I was younger to use more sunblock.
Our light eyes end up damaged too. I know of four ladies my age who this past two years have been told that they are developing cataracts and that it's UV damage that's the cause.

If it's warm though, the last thing we want to do is wear layers of clothing, so bare arms and legs and a reluctance to end up wearing anything that'll make us sticky with sweat, pretty much from now until late Autumn.

 

[TLM]

I think we're at crossed points here.

Not really: "I wear thin PA sunshirts when sunburn threatens."

I also wear a very wide brimmed hat during the summer and have very dark nearly total UV filtering (also most of IR too) sunglasses.

Then again vitamin D3 eaten during the winter has a surprisingly strong effect apparently protecting one's skin. Nothing like being in the shade but it all helps.

D3 is produced in the skin from cholesterol by UVB that is almost totally filtered out if the sun is below a certain angle. That angle is somewhat of a norm in our latitudes.

 

[Toddy]

.....as do I....so where does the jacket come in as a good thing in the warm ? even if it's not that warm here, a jacket in much of the summer, especially a sunny one, is most uncomfortable wear.

Vitamin D (passim, other threads) is recommended by our Government for everybody over the age of pre-school. Many of us actually get a free prescription for it. I don't think I have ever heard that it 'protects the skin' though it is necessary for general wellbeing and bone health.
Or do you mean that by taking it one can avoid the sunshine and thus the UV damage ?

Thing is though; we love the sunshine that happy light is incredibly pleasing I really don't think many would be happy to live in perpetual gloom and just take pills.

 

[demographic]

I know of four ladies my age who this past two years have been told that they are developing cataracts and that it's UV damage that's the cause.

I got one aged 38 and the things the doc said were factors were UV and blows to the eye. To be fair that one could have gone either way.

I listened to a Radio 4 programme about it round about the same time and IIRC they suggested that about 90% or people in their 60s have developed a cataract.
Seems folk in Nepal are badly affected because they're less protected by the atmosphere.
Being higher up, the sunlight being more concentrated due to the higher angle of incidence and more light reflected by snow.

Oh, and IIRC they mentioned the south pole as the ozone layer wasn't putting up much of a fight there either.

You know all the people who get older then start saying they don't like driving at night? Well, one of the things I noticed was the cataract made oncoming lights seem like I was seeing them through a misted up window. Driving to work at daft O clock wasn't nice.
After the op? Well, that took about a couple of weeks before my image cleared up which I didn't know about and to be honestat first I wondered why Id bothered to have the op.
It did clear up though and as its a long sight (fixed focus cos its plastic) lens in that eye its good for driving, needs specs for reading but so far the other eye is OK aso basically I read with my left eye and see things far away with both.

 

[Herman30]

.....as do I....so where does the jacket come in as a good thing in the warm ? even if it's not that warm here, a jacket in much of the summer, especially a sunny one, is most uncomfortable wear.

Perhaps the numbers didn´t tell you? 190g/m2 is very thin, like a safari shirt. And I rather sweat some than let the sun hit my skin. Look at how people in the desert dress. They don´t go about half naked. Loose fitting clothes covering their body = same as my new anorak.

 

[Toddy]

A loose fitting garment isn't an anorak though.

If you find it comfortable then fair enough, but even in our very temperate summer weather I think it might well prove to be too much.

I worked hard outdoors and the UV protective fibre shirt really did protect my skin, yet was breathable and easily vented from hem to throat.

Each to their own.

 

[TLM]

Each to their own.

There is that but the Finnish summer really can be quite cold not to speak about the mosquitos, the combination of 27C and some hundreds of then trying to pierce you means something protective is needed and what ever it is you get uncomfortable.

 

[Herman30]

2014, midsummer week.

Juhannus tulossa, maisema kuin jouluna! Suomessa sataa lunta etelää myöten

Suomessa nähdään tänään lumisateita, kerrotaan Ilmatieteen laitokselta.

www.is.fi