<p>^Yup, the Coachella Valley now uses special asphalt because in the summer it would literally become gooey and like a tar pit.</p>
<p>I feel your pain! Two summers ago DH took a day off work to tend to our pets because he was afraid that they would not survive the heat wave (109 degrees in our house - I did not know our thermostat could display triple digits :eek:). The cats had to be dunked in the sink filled with cold water every 20-30 min - H said he has never seen cats who were so happy to be soaked!</p>
<p>It is a totally different picture today - barely 60 degrees and drizzly. I wore my trench coat to work today, but I drew the line at pulling the boots out of the closet. If you are tired of the heat, please some and visit Seattle!</p>
<p>This thread illustrates why I really need to win the lottery and buy a summer home in Maine, Seattle, or San Francisco.</p>
<p>90s today and through the end of the week, when it will hit 98. I always wonder why I don’t do more things in the summer, and then when summer hits, I remember – the heat and humidity sap all the life out of you. </p>
<p>Ideally, my next house will be half-underground–naturally cool, and insulated in the winter. Because I can’t think of a single climate where you get cooler summers without miserable winters.</p>
<p>Approximately very hot</p>
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<p>And I’m looking out my window at the overgrown ground cover, and when it cools off I’ll no doubt wonder why I didn’t get out there and trim it sooner… Between the heat and the bugs, it will just have to wait!</p>
<p>And yes, it’s way too hot here.</p>
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<p>DC is like a steam room on the high setting today, and it’s supposed to get worse :(</p>
<p>Not only was it unbearably hot here, but the cooling system broke down for much of the University on Monday and Tuesday. The hospital, animals, and heat sensitive experiments and equipment had top priority for the remaining cool air. The system started coming back on-line yesterday afternoon. Pretty tolerable right now. [Wednesday</a> update: Air conditioning relief arrives (July 20, 2011)](<a href=“http://www.news.wisc.edu/19571]Wednesday”>Air conditioning reported at normal levels). We expect a high of 97 today. Heat index already over a 100. This is not exactly a fair trade-off for the days of minus 12 or so we had last winter.</p>
<p>As for DC, we lived in the city and the suburbs for 30 years. There were months when every day seemed to be 90 degree plus and 90 percent plus humidity during the summer. Some nights the air was so thick I thought I need a knife to cut way out of the front door to walk the dog. I used to joke that there were basically 14 good days a year in DC</p>
<p>tsdad - we were in Madison over the weekend. By Sunday, most retailers had moved their merchandise inside for Maxwell Street Days. </p>
<p>Our air temp is 100 right now here in the Chicago 'burbs.</p>
<p>Not only hot but the air quality is horrible. Makes it very difficult to breath. This is what bothers me the most.</p>
<p>Terwitt:</p>
<p>We are planning to spend the weekend at our place in River North and head off to the Oak St. Beach for the morning assuming no rain. Has Lake Michigan in the city warmed up enough to swim in yet?</p>
<p>Well, when it’s 100° out, yes, it’s warm enough to swim in! It’s the fog that you have to worry about, although that seems to have disappeared for now. I take back my first statement. My Weather Bug now says 101°. </p>
<p>We had about ⅓" of rain overnight.</p>
<p>We’re at 96 in the western Chicago suburbs. I woke up this morning to the sound of - nothing; power failure. Luckily it only lasted 5 minutes this time (we had 48 and 11 hour outages after the two recent thunderstorms). As soon as the power was back I started checking local hotels to see who would take cats just in case.</p>
<p>Just hit 100 in semi rural central Ohio - probably hotter in Columbus.</p>
<p>Marilyn, did you have storms roll through last night around 2:30? It was a welcome sound!</p>
<p>Teriwitt - I didn’t hear any storms and don’t think there was any residual water so maybe they missed us. With the problems Com Ed has been having, I’m not that eager to have storms around here! We do have a US representative, several newscasters and CEO’s in our village, so I think we get priority for restoration! That’s my theory, anyhow.</p>
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<p>Parts of California perhaps?</p>
<p>Ugh. I spoke too soon. We lost power about 20 minutes ago. My phone battery has about 20% left. </p>
<p>We were without power for about 36 hours after last week’s storm.</p>
<p>Boo… furnace needs the blower and “wheel” replaced, and the AC guy has to come back tomorrow to do it. Sigh… off to the movies and sleeping in the basement again tonight.</p>
<p>whew… back on. Only a little more than an hour.</p>