Oh yea at a certain level of heat a fan doesn't work at all, like when it's hotter than the human body temperature :~)
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Oh yea at a certain level of heat a fan doesn't work at all, like when it's hotter than the human body temperature :~)
Much more tolerable today---now just mourning the flower garden and such. My Crocosmia had just begun blooming, now toast. This is west-facing sun scorch.
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All I can think is "wqw!!!". That is hot
The temperature drop was amazing last night. 53 degree difference. We stood outside in the breeze and almost seemed frigid :cool:
Oh no Kay, that is really sad.Quote:
Originally Posted by KayLR
116F in Portland? I can't even begin to grasp this as a former five year Portlander in the 90's. What's really scary to me - Portland is a city that is rarely all that hot so very few people have AC there as for the most part, you can skid by without it, especially since those who own their property have basements there and it's much cooler in a basement. Glad to hear that cooling is on the way. Hang in there NW folks. Living in Phoenix we just broke a record two weeks ago - the most number of 115F or higher days in a row - 6!!! (former record was 4).
But this is Phoenix. Such is not so over the top and utterly unfathomable here - in Portland 116F is almost like go out and buy lottery tickets. Your chances of winning might be something like the chances of such a hot day in Portland. Rob
PS Came back to add - if it can get up to 116F in Portland now, 9 degrees above the former all time record before this heatwave began - there's nothing to stop it from getting up to 129F in Phoenix, which would be 9 degrees above our all time high. The concept of a climate refugee no longer seems so out there to me now. I can see such happening if this warming continues. Rob
Oh no! :(Quote:
Originally Posted by KayLR
Yesterday I used my Fiat 500e electric vehicle, parked under a shady tree in my driveway, as my air conditioned office for most of the day. Worked great - comfortable seats, good stereo, cup holders, recharge outlets for my computers, lovely view.
The fact that the highest ever record, a temperature normally only seen later in the season, was broken not just by a degree or two, but by 9 degrees, is really scary.
Yep, it is. That's what I keep thinking about. Our normal is changing. Not saying we're going to continue getting these events, but we can't be shocked anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by jp1
We might see 100 degrees one or two days every summer, and often not even that, so this is definitely a change. And unless global warming allows me to grow an avocado tree in my yard, I don't welcome it. >:(
Probably pretty much doomed. Canada, yes THAT far north, also recording two days in a row of record breaking heat. Few plants and animals in the existing ecosystem in the northwest will survive enough days like this. That burnt tree is the present and more of it the future it seems to me. And that ecosystem was glorious.
But as for humanity, as if one can say the word without a certain amount of disgust at this point, life is going to pretty awful, perhaps pretty soon. And at some point it moves beyond humanities ability to even influence of course (short of a geoengineering miracle), due to feedback loops and so on. Meanwhile noone with any power in this country tries, the Biden administration moves forth with fracking and building oil pipelines.
I don't believe anyone sentient can deny that global climate change is happening. I see the debate as being between those who believe something still can be done about it and those who do not want to change/don't believe we can change our lives enough to alleviate it.
Or says, "who cares, I will be dead by then anyway". Apathy is a huge mountain to move. Even with the pandemic which is killing so many, politics, ineptitude, lack of committed resources, very poor leadership, lack of transparency, belief of invulnerability, etc., didn't move apathy until it was mandated by lockdowns. Then, self-centred individual rights activists screamed even as they demanded that healthcare and other services be continually provided. Few countries didn't suffer from this public apathy which is enemy #1.Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveinMN
Eventually like other issues impacting the 'commons', governments will need to take steps to legislate the public welfare to save our planet and life. I try to imagine the governments of the world working in concert...
I suspect it's possible natural feedback loops have reached such a tipping point it doesn't matter what we do. Just bend over and kiss your @#$# goodbye as the saying goes. Short of geoengineering, and most techy geoengineering has little chance of working.
The thing is I don't know it's beyond all amelioration, and I'm not sure vastly smarter heads than mine know due to uncertainty.
So I certainly support doing something, anything one can, about it. But the political system here is pretty much completely broken on the national level (and not all that great on other levels either).
Although DeSantis and FL Republicans did this:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-jo...le-to-the-keys
DeSantis!! It doesn't mean I want him for our next president (although there is a real gap that a real eco-fascist could fill), but this is far more amazing than anything going on in states that are considered far more progressive (snort, all climate bills in CA are failing with a Dem supermajority)
121 degrees in Canada
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/to...ave/ar-AALv0aT
that's why I say quite likely doomed. But I'm your average midlife 40 something Gen Xer. Thus I have lived a fairly long life. Some not far from my cohort like my bfs friends have quite young kids.
When people say "who cares" they are really saying "I don't want to sacrifice anything to prevent this from happening."
It's like the smoker or the drinker who says "we all have to die from something, right?"
I am not hopeful things can stabilize, let alone turn around, before much of it becomes irreversible. I am thankful for all the people who are out there doing regenerative agriculture and trying to bring some wildlife back from extinction, and so many other things like that, but I think our whole system is contraindicated for effecting real change and therein lies the rub.
It's just plane hot! And there's no break. Some mornings we barely get into the 70s. 100s every day for 2w now and the next 7d as well.
It's all just hot! I suspect I'll get no food from the garden. Tons of flowers on my tomato plants, but those usually drop above 95F rather than fruit.
Have I said it's just hot?
We've been back to the normal 79-80 for a day or so.
On 6/28 when the temperature in eastern Oregon rose above 110F, nestling birds bailed out. Swainson's and Cooper's hawks, for example, with a body temperature of 110F, found the temperature within the nest intolerable and leaped into the unknown. Blue Mountain Wildlife advised concerned humans to start sprinklers near young birds on the ground. http://www.bluemountainwildlife.org
There is something about having grand-kids that makes one think about what we are leaving them to deal with.
Death count in Washington and Oregon is preliminary, because there likely are some people who have not been found after their death, for example, elderly persons who live alone or persons experiencing homelessness.
Year to date 7/8/2021 the state departments of health reported 78 dead in Washington and 107 dead in Oregon due to heat-related issues. The specific cause of death may include hyperthermia (overheating), or more frequently an underlying cardiac or respiratory condition that is exacerbated by heat.
For comparison, in WA in the 5 years 2015-2020 there were 39 deaths due to heat-related issues.
That is so sad. Be careful, everyone!
And now smoke from the wildfires is settling in cities on the east coast…
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/21/10188...000-miles-away
maybe it will get more media attention, ok the heat dome got media attention, but there is an east coast bias in what gets covered.
Now what we really need is a heat dome over D.C., heat dome went to the wrong Washington, maybe it would improve our congress, maybe Manchin (Rage Against the Manchin) would stop being in the pockets of big coal, well probably not, but nice to think about.
These wildfires converging with climate change makes me think of the nun I had in Catholic school who said that the 3rd secret that the Virgin Mary gave the young shepherds at Fatima was that the world would be destroyed by fire. I don't think that this was the secret, which was revealed in 2000 so that nun must have made it up, but it's one of those childhood things that sticks in your mind for a long time, and now it actually seems relevant.
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice...Quote:
Originally Posted by ApatheticNoMore
We're having haze. Weather guy says it is from the fires out west. We're in piedmont Maryland. About an hour and a half from DC.I dreamed that the woods behind our house were exploding in fire.
The smoke is mostly going around us. So Carson city is full of smoke and 35 miles away and we have mostly been fine. I can walk the dogs most days. It’s weird.
It was really hazy this morning. The news stations are saying it is because we are getting smoke from both Canada and the west coast. Health warnings have been issued.
Double whammy for us, too. We've had health warnings for the past few days but they've expired. Blu-ish sky here once again.Quote:
Originally Posted by frugal-one
Fire and Smoke Map of the USA and Canada gives a view of the smoke plumes as well as the air quality at ground level. The data is updated every 15 minutes. Color-coded dots on the map indicate where smoke is unhealthy (and green dots where the air quality is OK.)
http://www.airnow.gov
Interesting. I'm in the green, but apparently just barely right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by dado potato
Thanks for posting this!