berkeley_weather

I’m sure that most long-time hearing aid users such as myself have gone through this scenario: you’re outside, wearing your hearing aids, and the weather (sunny, 75 degrees) is great. Perhaps you’re taking a walk around your neighborhood, or you and a friend are having lunch outside. But then all of a sudden, the weather takes a nasty turn and it’s pouring rain. Since you don’t have an umbrella or a rain jacket, you scramble to find shelter. While you are doing so, you also wonder if you should take off your hearing aids, as they are (sadly) not waterproof. You consider a few important questions. Is it raining hard enough? Can you reach shelter quickly? Is it safe to take off your hearing aids?

All this is due to one rather unfortunate feature of hearing aids: they are not (generally) waterproof. Even a waterproof label might be misleading because that means a hearing aid passed a specific test, not that you can throw it in your backyard pool and expect it to work when you pick it up a month later. I’m actually planning on writing a more extensive post on the issue of hearing aids and moisture, as I’ve only briefly mentioned that topic in this blog (e.g., in this article, where I talked about touch-screen hearing aids). But I can say from my own experience that I get disappointed every time I get what is advertised as “the latest water resistant hearing aid” only to see it break down midway through a game of Ultimate Frisbee. I don’t typically have problems with rain anymore, because I’m usually prepared with an umbrella — or I just stay indoors.

Anyway, I’m happy to report that hearing aid wearers in the San Francisco Bay Area need not worry about rain. I moved in Berkeley on August 13, so it’s been almost two months. And I only remember one day when it rained. That was a few weeks ago, and it was a light drizzle at that. I brought two umbrellas and a rain jacket when I moved in, and they’re just collecting dust in my room, waiting for the next rainy day to occur. As indicated by my screenshot of the current forecast, that may not come for a while. It’s not as if the weather is scorching hot either, which might induce unusual amounts of sweat (another threat to hearing aids). It’s usually around 60 to 85 degrees here.

There was a newspaper article a few weeks ago that touched on the topic of rain in the Bay Area, so from what I can tell, I should expect more rain once it’s winter, but probably not that much. (I’m also aware that California’s in a historic drought, so I do feel guilty for being happy about the lack of rain.) Needless to say, the weather here is vastly different from the weather in Williamstown, MA. I remember when it would rain for days in September, thus ruining the Ultimate Frisbee fields. So far, the weather in Berkeley has been terrific, which is probably one of many reasons why graduate students come here from all over the world.