We’re used to 72 degrees. Jane had done a little planting in the cool of the morning and I ran the leaf blower to get the hawthorne husks off the patio and path, and that was about it…well, I did fill the green-compost garbage can with forsythia branches…but neither were that bad. Then we undertook a venture to Costco, and the temperature I swear rose while we were in there, as if the door to the desert opened, and it decided to be 90 degrees with 19% humidity. It was like walking out into a wall of heat. Jane and I have been chugging iced drinks (she–diet Mountain Dew, me—iced coffee) and unable to move.
It is gruesome out there. 90 whole degrees. It’s due to be 96 Sunday. The good news is that it’s going to start down again, but I plead we have lost our acclimation to this. We have become soft. Totally done in.
We’ve cooled down … 98 instead of 109.
Oh, glug, Tulrose! I hope that moderates soon. That’s brutal. And with Oklahoma’s frequent 40% humidity, it’s doubly bad. Straw hats. Nice straw hat with ventilation.
Air conditioning, although that’s struggling a bit.
We only had three days of 100+ degree weather last week. Our highs have not been under 90 since I don’t know when. It’s not -always- clod in Chicago. I’m going to have to break out a coat tomorrow – high is supposed to be 81.
We in Vegas have been spoiled by an unusually cool early summer, not a day over 105, well that’s coming to an end on Tuesday, we’re expecting 110 and more after that!
We’re supposed to get down into the 80s toward the middle of the week, and I see thunderboomer icons on the weather widget. Fingers are crossed that precip does indeed materialize. We were in the mid 90’s today, with 41% humidity. Would that we could make a weather treaty with the UK — agree to exchange some of our hot and sunny for some of their bucketing down rain.
It was 102 in Dayton, OH yesterday, kendo practice wasn’t as brutal as it could have been without the air conditioners running. Today promises to be about 87 with a 20% chance of thunderstorms. I bought a drip irrigation system for my flower garden out in front, but haven’t installed it yet. Maybe today, but not in 100+ heat.
Our area is considered abnormally dry at this time, further south in Ohio it’s considered to be severe to extreme drought. Projections indicate that only 39% of the soybean crop is expected to be harvested. I’m doing what I can to save water and still keep the plants alive. It isn’t looking good right now, though. A lot of work to be done on the front garden, and it being so hot, just no way.
I think the worst I ever endured was around 1996, 110 and a long unbroken string of days like that. When I was a kid, age of 9, I swore when I grew up I was going to move to International Falls, Minnesota—not that I knew a thing about the town but the weather reports. I figured any place that kept breaking records in the winter couldn’t have 100’s in the summer. We moved to Oklahoma in 1947. And we did not have air conditioning of any kind at all until about 1952. One family, down the block, that we counted wealthy, had central air—but it was mostly because they had a kid with asthma…poor kid almost never got outside. I’d visit there: they’d let other children as far as the living room, briefly; and the air felt weird, and was wonderful, but it gave you a chill.
Then we got a swamp cooler for our house—I remember the day we set it up, and that was wonderful: I spent all the time I could get away with in front of the vent, loving it when the thing would spit cold water at you—Mum had strictly forbidden me to use the fridge air to relieve my allergies.
Ultimately, of course, the mold in the straw pads on the swamp cooler made them worse, but it was still better than frying.
In about 1957 we moved, and we got an actual window unit. In 1958, we moved to a house with central air, which meant more sleep in the summers, for sure.
Beyond that, I had air conditioning, until Jane and I moved north, where air conditioning is far from universal, and central air is less so—even though Spokane summers reach the mid-nineties by July and continue it til September, often with a week into the 100’s in August: the nights, however, are significantly cooler than Oklahoma.
From 2000 to 2007 we were dependent on a single living room window unit, which during fire season and July-August, and if you have smokers below your balcony, is not an ideal situation. We got moveable units for the bedrooms, and that helped, but it didn’t stop the smokers. This house, since 2007, has central air, thank goodness. We are soooooooo happy with it.
Dearey, as we get older our skin changes, we don’t sweat as efficiently. It ain’t a matter of getting soft, though that’s also an effect of getting older.
Unfortunately, I am one of those leh-diez who does NOT sweat. Literally. Never have, even as a child. Everybody else can be drenched in sweat—and I may delicately mop my brow, nothing more. Other people suffer a temperature drop when they’re falling asleep. Not moi. Hotels provide a dozen blankets and a duvet/compforter in summer. I fold it all back and use a sheet, complaining about the heat.
It’s a pita. If I sweated, I would tolerate heat better.
I don’t think my metabolism is set up for southern climes.
WOL: It’s why I have a gas dryer. Much more efficient.
A suggestion to those who are doing laundry at home. Figure out a way to empty your washer into an outside water barrel.. Mine was designed with that in mind. I just put the hose out the window into a barrel. My neighbors have their laundry in their basement and vent out a cellar window into the bottom of a barrel. I use a small submersible sump pump, but if you have a hose connection at the base gravity works just fine. The only drawback is that if you use chlorine you have to let the water sit long enough for it to dissipate. I use a free and clear detergent with no fabric softener, bleach etc. and I think it gets rid of a lot of little bugs that love to eat summer gardens.
I’m the opposite of you, CJ. I thrive in summer and suffer all winter, which is why I will not move to join the rest of my family in New Hampshire and Vermont!
Smartcat, that’s precisely what I’ve done with mine. I have the old style jalousies on the laundry room, which felicitously is connected to the rest of the house only by our porch roof. The wash water goes out the bottom louver into several buckets, which I use on the plants I want to receive water. I do not gratuitously water my lawn; it looks wretched, but I don’t want to pay for weeds. I fluff most of my clothes for a few minutes in the dryer, then hang them out. Towels and underwear go round until they are dry, because they are two things that will become unpleasantly crunchy if air-dried.
CJ, Your comment about the swamp box brought to mind an old family anecdote. When we switched our house from evaporative to refrigerated air in the early 1960s, there was a learning curve — shortly thereafter, my mom peered at the ceiling vent and remarked, “I don’t think it’s getting any water. . .” This then became the phrase in familyspeak that meant the AC temp was perhaps set too high? (I’m allergic to molds, too, which I didn’t realize at the time was why I could breath outside, but the moment I came inside, my nose stuffed up to the point I had to breathe through my mouth, and why this situation greatly improved when we got the refrigerated AC. — I wonder if mold allergies are what cause penicillin allergy — it’s made from a mold, after all.)
Another “green” suggestion — once I turn my central air system from heat to cool, I stop using my clothes dryer and start hanging wash outside. Why have the dryer heat up the house and then have to cool it back down again with the AC? If your AC is like mine, whenever mine kicks on, the electric meter spins like a top! It’s been so hot here that I’ve started doing stealth laundry. The other day I hung up a load at 11 p.m. that was dry by midnight.
We had about ten days of horrible heat (111 heat index on the last day.) Nothing moved. It’s in the 85 to 90 range for the next few days and we’re all grateful. I could not get the area around my desk to go lower than 83f. Just not good weather.
I dragged my little bird bath, the one I usually fill with food, under the window AC where the water dropped into it. It’s been a very popular location, but bad for pictures.
I hope it doesn’t heat up again.
I bet all the beasties appreciate it. One of our outdoor faucets drips if we don’t crank it forcefully shut; I’m pretty sure both the free-range kittehs and birds drink from it, so I have a catch pan underneath for them. I’ve caught a mejiro hanging upside down from the spout and sticking his bill in.
At my former home the front spigot had a slow drip. In the 17 years I lived there I never fixed it. I kept the hose end under a (previously) much neglected “Lucky Lady” rose, eventually reviving it into a very gorgeous, sweet smelling plant. I’d take roses from it into the receptionists, secretaries at work. Worked a charm! 😉