<p>In my childhood growing up in the Great Northwest I never saw a fan or an AC unit</p>
<p>On the west side of the mountains, July weather was pretty indistiquishable from March, and it **never **went for months with no rain, or days of 90+ temps.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the temp is but it was well over 100 in our backyard.
I don’t usually check the temp, but last night I slept on the porch swing , but when I went to hunt down our fan- I found out that it didn’t work. ( haven’t tried using it for a few years)
Our elderly dog is really suffering & I guess I will be out looking for a fan as soon as the delivery trucks get there.</p>
<p>Luckily my younger D who is on Vashon right now, has learned her lesson of staying hydrated and says that she is a " mean counselor" who is always after her kids with scare stories of what happens when you don’t drink enough fluids.</p>
<p>bookiemom, at least we have power! I hear a generator going in the neighbor’s yard… And there is a power outage somewhere south - Tacoma? Lake Chelan area is burning again… Sigh.</p>
<p>KING5 reports temperatures as high as 108 today! :eek:</p>
<p>I can’t imagine what you folks in the Pacific Northwest are going through—and with most people being without AC?!:eek: My God! Are you hearing reports of many heat related deaths? I certainly hope you’ll all experience a break from this very soon.</p>
<p>It all makes you less prone to question the global warming phenomenon, because planetary weather does indeed seem to be more and more unstable, doesn’t it? Here in Virginia, July is usually extremely hot with a period of at least two weeks during which temps hover right around 100 degrees. This July, we’ve had temps averaging in the 80’s. Unheard of, I tell you. Today, we topped out at a whopping 94 (about the hottest it’s been all month). The humidity is still quite high however. Unless the Chesapeake Bay and The Atlantic Ocean dry up, I think we’ll always have that.</p>
<p>I was in Seattle 2 weeks ago. It was 80 and sunny and beautiful! And the natives were complaining it was too hot! I can’t imagine what it’s like at the moment. Without air conditioning, 100 can be deadly. In 1995 I was living in Chicago (where temps in the 90s are not unusual) when we had a heat wave - a week in the 100s. Hundreds of people (mostly elderly and poor) died. It was horrendous! </p>
<p>We survived the night somewhat OK, it was 87 degrees inside the house when we went to sleep. My cats were stretched like furry rugs on the tiles by the fireplace, the dog was a happy garage camper, with a wet blankie and a personal fan.</p>
<p>Today the saga continues. It is 7 am, and it is already 80 degrees outside. It feels very nice and refreshing, but we might see 100 again. I feel very sorry for people in poor health. I guarantee we will hear about heat-related deaths soon. So sad…</p>
<p>Ulterior motive for asking…I’m planning a family vacation to Seattle/San Juan Islands the week of Aug. 16. I assume the hotels in Seattle will be air conditioned, but probably not the smaller inns and such at Friday Harbor. Maybe we should just do a day trip to the islands…</p>
<p>This always happens to me when I plan vacations. I envision visiting in picture-perfect conditions and inevitably end up with the freak snow storm, the four-day deluge, or the record-breaking heat wave. Tell me it’s going to be over soon.</p>
<p>It was so hot in our house (Seattle) that the heat-sensor of our fire alarm system was triggered repeatedly yesterday, first a few times around 5:00 and then again after midnight. I’m glad we were home to keep the fire trucks from being dispatched.</p>
<p>PNW hot is a different hot from those who live east of the Rockies. I can be next to a large body of water in the PNW and the hot is tolerable. In the “east” hot would mean being sucked dry from the mosquitoes, and being in a steam room.</p>
<p>For years, statisticians were perplexed as to why, from the beginning of record keeping, the number of births that were far fewer during winter/spring compared to summer/fall/early winter, became more of a flat graph…especially in the south. The eureka moment came when it was realized the advent of air conditioning correlated with the equalizing of births per month. Simple reason ;)</p>
<p>Our local television weather dude said the Seattle temp record was previously 100, but was broken by three degrees. Official temps are still kept at SEA-TAC, right?</p>
<p>Meanwhile here in DC we’ve only had nine 90 degree days this Summer…</p>
<p>To all my homies back on Puget Sound, where are weathermen Ray Ramsey and Harry Wapler when you really need them? Steve Poole over at KOMO-TV must be absolutely giddy about these “novel” weather conditions.</p>
<p>CrewDad, that’s our “county”, not “country” And that’s one of the two wealthier counties in Western WA, so I’m sure people south and north of us are even less fortunate to own one (we don’t).</p>
<p>dudedad, yes, the all-time high record of 100 degrees has been broken by 3 degrees. On the Eastside, temperatures were as high as 108. And a bunch of students at UW recorded temperatures of asphalt on campus - 120-150 degrees :eek: probably, hot enough to fry an egg! I found a dried slug on the concrete path leading to my front porch - to a gardener, that’s a beautiful sight!</p>
<p>Wow, down here in Texas it’s not supposed to even hit 90 today. Another big thunderstorm at dawn this morning. </p>
<p>Hope everyone is checking on elderly neighbors and relatives. I remember, growing up near Seattle, how I would be broiling in my upstairs bedroom the few times the temp would get into the upper 90’s .</p>
<p>I grew up in the burbs ( in * Bridle Trails* ), we didn’t have a horse but we had mature conifers. The house never got hot enough to need a fan or to sleep outside.</p>
<p>In Seattle, fewer trees- we get * a lot* of sun and a lot more asphalt to absorb the heat. However- I remember many Julys where it rained/was grey most of the month.</p>
<p>Usually we have pretty temperate weather- although since our south facing windows don’t open ( we were trying to save money :rolleyes: ) and the bulk of the windows face west- it can be pretty warm in the afternoon/evening.</p>
<p>San Francisco fog sounds pretty good, but my plan was to have D take the dog, down to Portland- however, as Portland gets even more consistently scorching weather than Seattle, I may have her stay with grandma and her air conditioning instead</p>
<p>My dd is in Seattle on business this week. Some bozo insisted that they walk about a mile across a huge parking lot within the corp. complex instead of calling for the shuttle when it was at least 100. She ended up with heat rash, blisters, and a close brush with heat exhaustion. We had a little chat that evening about not being too intimidated to speak up when it comes to health and safety.</p>
And that’s one of the two wealthier counties in Western WA, so I’m sure people south and north of us are even less fortunate to own one (we don’t).</p>
), we didn’t have a horse but we had mature conifers. The house never got hot enough to need a fan or to sleep outside.</p>