"We cannot work' - why Gulf summer feels even hotter than usual,"

Pausing from his work at an outdoor carpark in Dubai, the Egyptian migrant says the United Arab Emirates' furnace-like summer feels even hotter this year.

"This summer is a little more difficult than other years," says Genedi, who shines cars for about 25 dirhams ($6.80) a time in temperatures that pass 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) each day.

"Between noon and 3pm or 3:30pm, we simply cannot work."...

Genedi is right that this summer seems unusually hot. Apart from last week being identified as the hottest ever recorded worldwide, a wave of humidity has been suffocating the Gulf.

"People have been left wondering if the temperatures are even higher" than usual, Ahmed Habib of the UAE's National Centre of Meteorology told AFP...

The Gulf's extreme heat and high humidity are a dangerous mix as in such conditions the human body struggles to cool itself by evaporating sweat on the skin...

Intense heat and humidity is already a daily reality for many in the Gulf, not least the thousands of mostly South Asian delivery motorcyclists who criss-cross its cities carrying food and other packages.

"Our profession is a difficult one," one of them, Mohammad Rajab, from Egypt, told AFP in a Dubai street that was vacant apart from other riders.

"We always try to avoid the direct glare of the sun."