The Pacific Northwest hasn’t seen the like of this in a long time, maybe ever. The heat record was broken for many places today – and that’s ALREADY too damn hot – but we are talking about THAT record being erased tomorrow, and *THAT* record the day after that. We are talking, in a part of the USA that generally doesn’t run on domestic airconditioners, about night time temperatures over 80F for two or three straight nights. When you can’t open the windows to cool off because *it’s hotter outside than it is inside* – well – I’ll say it again, it’s too damn hot.
I have been eating salads and sandwiches, trying to avoid turning on the stove for any reason (it’s already hot enough inside the kitchen, I don’t need THAT heat on top of it). I am covering myself at night with a sheet (can’t handle anything more than that). I am not going anywhere I don’t need to go until the tarmac stops being hot enough to fry eggs on.
They compared temperatures in Seattle and Portland with places like Miami and Orlando today and dammit all we are hotter than FLORIDA right now. That ain’t right. My rhododendrons are curling in heat shock right now. Nothing is stirring out there – not air, not wildlife. This entire region is gasping for air right now. And for some parts of the state this is going to stretch into Wednesday or Thursday next week. I’ll say it again, that ain’t right.
I”m focused on surviving the next two days. My elderly mother needs help surviving it too (she lives on her own but no, she doesn’t have AC either). I have no idea if either of us will be capable of coherent thought by Monday morning, after the Sunday night they are projecting for us out here.
If you’re out here in the PNW with me… stay safe. This is not a drill, this is the real thing, right now, right here.
Welcome to climate change.
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