It all depends on what you're used to.
Outsiders basked in the "comfortable" heat in the city centre as ACT temperatures steamed into the 30s over the weekend.
Saturday reached 30 in the middle of Saturday afternoon, and went a little higher in the middle of Sunday afternoon but stayed well short of unbearable 40.
But for tourists and students from truly hot places, it was all just a breeze.
"I come from Brisbane where it was stinking hot so this is comfortable," Ron Webster said.
He was in town to see the mummies at the National Museum of Australia but was exploring Civic in what seemed to him like a balmy Canberra summer afternoon.
"Brisbane has a beautiful climate except in January and February when it gets really sticky. I'm not even sweating here."
Eloise Griffiths had lived in the far north. "In Darwin, you just hop from building to building," she said.
But Canberra heat was "comfortable".
"It's much easier with the kids (Harvey, three, and born in Darwin; Roger, born in Canberra just under a year ago).
The relative coolness of Canberra was easier for her eldest child because "you can release him into the back yard".
And people from some other countries were incredulous at the idea that this weekend was hot.
"I'm from Tokyo, and Tokyo is crazily hot in summer," ANU student Kei Yamada said as he finished his up-market ice-cream on a stick.
"I'm actually OK with this because it's dry," his German companion Anna Mueller said outside the Canberra Centre.
"It's drier than what I'm used to in Berlin."
But for Canberrans, there had to be refuge from heat, and it came in the forms of water, ice and air-conditioning.
The ice-cream shops (gelateria if you wish) were packed.
Emma Suitor (peach sorbet in a cup) "loved" the heat. "I love it because I'm always cold here. Canberra is too cold.
Her friend Katrina Garlic (Ferrero Rocher chocolate ice-cream in a tub) wasn't so sure about the jump in temperatures: "It's sticky and you can't get comfortable."
She was referring to the recent unseasonable high humidity at night.
"I have a very good air-conditioner. Air-conditioning is the best thing that's ever been invented."
Which took the Canberra Times' intrepid reporter inside to the Canberra Centre which was packed with people taking refuge in the cool, air-conditioned environment.
And contemplating how to cope outside, away from the AC.
"We are going to the Cotter to swim and cool down," Angie Dreese said as she headed out with her bags and children Hugo and Samson.
Even outside in the city centre, cold water was the answer.
King O'Malley's sprayed a fine, cold mist over drinkers and diners on the benches under parasols. Inside was air-conditioned.
"People really love the mister. People request it from 11am on," manager Anna Rickwood said.
Harry Cohen (cold Guinness) said the cool-spray mister "makes me feel cooler and it keeps people hydrated".
The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts cooler days this week, falling to a maximum of 27 on Monday and then down to a max of 23 on Thursday and 22 on Saturday.
