We exited the arrivals hall of Dubai International Airport at about 10:30 tonight. Ah, the UAE in late July!

t was still 108 degrees Fahrenheit, and humid, and walking into the night was like sliding into a warm bathtub — right up to the sensation that brought to mind trying to breath warm water.

But a bigger shock was in store after the 95-mile drive back to Abu Dhabi completed our 24-hour door to door trip.

We walked into the apartment, and it was not at all dissimilar from emerging from DXB: hot, still, heavy air.

We went directly to the thermostat and the temperature read 26.5 Celsius — or about 80 Fahrenheit. The highest reading we have witnessed in the apartment since arriving in November.

We turned down the thermostat to 21 and … nothing.

We got air coming out of the vents, but it was essentially the same temperature as the room. No cool air. At all. Not in the first minute, not in the 60th.

The air-conditioner was not working, and in the UAE that is an alarming situation.

When you are in a very stuffy and enclosed space, and cracking the windows would allow inside even hotter air, the notion of not being able to breathe becomes palpable.

You think of all those senior citizens in, say, Europe, who die during heat waves because they overheat and dehydrate because they have no AC.

Because it was midnight, we couldn’t exactly complain to management.

So we went retro. We turned up the oscillating fan in the bedroom, we used cold rags on our foreheads, we perched atop the bed, not in it.

I woke up in a warm sweat, after less than four hours. It was just too hot to continue sleeping. And I was jet-lagged, too.

In the morning, we checked with the management, and the guy in the office said it was a building-wide problem and had been going on for four days.

Which is unacceptable in a modern tower. If not outright dangerous, it certainly is thoroughly uncomfortable.

Allegedly, the problem will be fixed on Monday. It had better be. I am not a fan of so much hot air.