We can hate it more and more as the day goes on
I just had a small plastic pot of drawing ink explode in the kitchen.
Weather guy I follow says no relief at least through August 1. The extent of this heat wave is stunning, both in Europe and the States. TX is baking, and their power grid is, to be kind, shit. The rest of the center of the country is no better temp-wise. We are in the 90’s here, but nothing like the >110o I am seeing elsewhere. Heat stroke is a very real thing. Stay safe, folks.
As someone who has lived in the American South all their life this is spot on. Today’s high will be roughly 32C / 90F with 70% humidity. This weekend will push that to 36C / 95F. At that level of humidity evaporation doesn’t really work. Spritzing with water doesn’t do much because you are already drenched with sweat. Ice water, the occasional Gatorade, and breaks inside an air conditioned building are your best bet. Here air conditioners exert half of their energy removing the water from the air, not just cooling it down.
Ditto all of this. And IME, if you can, a cool shower followed by a soak in a tepid tub can stave off heat stroke if you feel you’ve neared the brink.
Stay safe, steamy mutants!
The Mash is a humour site. Think ‘The Onion’ but lampooning British tabloids rather than AP style.
It is and it isn’t.
Yes, it doesn’t mean much, other than ‘this is the temperature a lump of plastic gets to if you sit it on your handlebar in direct sunshine’.
On the other hand, since I’m a lump of assorted organic polymers and water it gives a very rough guide to how the weather feels when you can’t get to shade. I’ve experienced 40+°C in a Sydney summer and it was much like being in the sunshine yesterday. Not to any great precision (I certainly didn’t feel the need to record it in Fahrenheit) but it was in the ballpark.
On the gripping hand I think we do need to start warning people far more forcefully that these high temperatures are effectively much, much hotter if you’re silly enough to be out in the sunshine and I’m not seeing that message very widely in the media here. Instead it’s treated as a ‘well fancy that’ story like this one: Shapps admits rail network cannot cope with extreme heat as track hits 62C | Surrey Comet
Compelling graphic design:
Various download options for that at SVS: GISTEMP Climate Spiral
Note how the first spike comes with WW2…
a cold flannel in the dark parts of the small of the back make time make time
(Yes, if you don’t sweat, you’ll probably die in this heat. I’m sure he’s safe in whatever Royal Gulag he’s parked in.)
The current official record for air temperature was set back in 1913 at 56.7 C (134.1 F). I wonder how many years before that record is officially broken?
FTFY.
I say “beach,” but what I mean is a car park with some sand on it…
Crossposted from When the Floods Come: the Climate Change thread
Perhaps the media should reach out to MP John Hayes for comment right about now.