As the mercury began to inch up into the middle thirties yesterday, it became very apparent that tempers in general are beginning to fray on this sun drenched island of ours.

Aside from the obvious fact that such heat stress can be dangerous, especially for the elderly or the very young, the yearly phenomenon of heat induced road rage and ‘driving in the shade’ became very apparent.

Facebook was flooded with comments of people having been cut up on the road, sworn at, been pulled out on and more. The experience of the day was reported on The Malta Independent’s news portal after two motorists came to blows, looking like complete idiots in the process. It all stemmed from a very slight bumper to bumper crash, where normally, parties would have had a quick look at their bumpers and driven off.

But not in this heat. Tempers frayed and the two men made a spectacle of themselves. One lost his flip flops, the other lost his sunglasses and the good old push and shove, reminiscent of the ridiculous ‘fight’ scene in Bridget Jones’ diary. Then, just as quickly as it broke out, it broke up. The point in all this is that road rage is just not worth it. The US recently aired a commercial about road rage, showing a man cutting someone off in a car with darkened windows. He pulls up, bangs on the bonnet and the other motorist gets out of the car. It turns out to be former world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield. The point made was that you don’t know who is in the other car and what they are capable of.

It’s just simply not worth it.  Road rage aside, the Health Department has issued a warning about the heat stress index. People have been advised to keep as hydrated as possible. High alcohol intake in this weather is also not advisable, especially in light of tempers being frayed. People have also been advised to wear loose and light clothing and to avoid being out in the sun from 10am to late afternoon. Another issue to note is the current trend of sunburn art. People place a stencil on themselves and cover the rest of their body with sunscreen or vice versa. Then they proceed to bake in  the sun to have their sunburn ‘tattoo’ in place. This is highly dangerous. Not only are people exposing themselves to the effects of sun and heat stroke, but they are also putting themselves at risk of melanoma cancer.

So in short, the best advice that can be given in this blast of heat is to keep cool, keep one’s cool, stay out of the sun and drink lots of water.