The sun is a mass of incandescent gas

Over the years I've tried to come up with various ways of explaining exactly how hot Doha is in the summer. Like: I shower in water from the cold tap, and sometimes it's uncomfortably warm. Or: on the most humid days, water vapor in the air condenses on your skin when you go outside, so you are soaked in dew before you even have a chance to sweat.

Now I have a new story, in three parts:

1. When it's this hot (it has cooled down a lot in the last month, but it's still 100 degrees every day) you can't go outside very much. As a result, I have developed a significant Vitamin D deficiency.
2. Because nobody goes outside at this time of the year, Vitamin D deficiencies are apparently common -- so common that the country has run out of prescription-strength supplements. I have therefore been prescribed 15 minutes of sunbathing every day.
3. So far I sunbathed 17 minutes Saturday and 15 minutes Sunday. And today... I have a mild sunburn.

So that's Doha in September for you: sunny enough that the amount of sunlight necessary to synthesize Vitamin D is more than my pathetic Anglo-Saxon skin can handle.