> Over here, a "sauna" is very hot, and of variable humidity. Water can
> be splashed on to coals to increase humidity (and temperature, for
> some reason).
The rocks are called coals in England?? The things you learn...
But the "increase in temperature" you feel is infact an effect of the rising humidity. Water conducts heat well (you can burn your hands in water that's only 20 C over bodytemp). Dry air conducts heat very badly, so you can sit comfortably in a dry sauna with a temperature over the boilingpoint of water (for a while, anyway), but when you throw water on the "kiuas" (the pile of hot rocks) you rapidly raise the humidity, and all of the sudden the heat starts to get conducted to your skin.
Tolerances to this vary, of course. There are these scary grandfathers in Finland who insist that a sauna is over 100 C, and _then_ proceed to throw buckets of water on the rocks!!
Hmm... should I shut up about this cultural oddity?
-Adept : who misses his parents sauna
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