The NA Heatwave

[Rath Darkblade]

...wow. It hit the news down here that huge swathes of the western USA and Canada are sweltering through some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded. Some places are seeing over 120 F (nearly 50 C). The Washington Post reports there will be a fourth major heat-wave this weekend, and The BBC says wildfires are raging in the western US. 116 people have died in Oregon, at least 78 in Washington and one in Idaho (according to wikipedia).

This is not normal for the US/Canada, is it? I mean, I know you've seen some sweltering summers, but these types of temperatures seem extreme, to say the least.

Aussie summers can be pretty brutal too, but I don't think I've seen similar summer temperatures here since at least 2003 or so.

I know this probably sounds obvious, and I don't mean to sound like anyone's mum or anything -- but please, stay indoors if you can and drink lots of water. If you have pets (and I'm sure some of you do), make sure your pets have lots to drink too.

Please stay safe!

[notbobsmith]

This is not normal for the US/Canada, is it? I mean, I know you've seen some sweltering summers, but these types of temperatures seem extreme, to say the least.

Definitely not for the Pacific North West. They broke an all time record set in 1961. Here in the North East, we rarely break 100 F, but we had a heat wave (>90 F for 3 or more days) last month which is unusual for June.

[DeadPoolX]

It was about a week ago or two, but yeah, British Columbia was hit with a major heat wave. We actually hit 41 C (105.8 F) in Victoria, BC, and that wasn't even the hottest record in BC itself. I think the town of Lytton (no relation to the fictional city in the first three PQ games) held that record hitting 49.6 C (121.3 F), which actually broke the record for the highest temperature in all of Canada.

To make matters worse, most homes (free-standing houses, townhouses, condos, and apartments) don't have air conditioning because it's rarely needed. So Maia and I had to endure 41 C without AC. Just to add to the misery, it wasn't just one day with a super-high temperature, it was almost a week. Fortunately, not every single day was 41 C, but the days leading up to that were around 35 C to 39 C (95 F to 102.2 F), which is already unbelievably hot without AC. The nights were warm too, so nothing — the air, the ground, our condo building, etc. — really had time to cool off.

There was a massive run on portable air conditioning units (the kind where the unit sits in your home but the hose attaches to your window) and fans to the point where they were sold out everywhere. Maia and I were lucky in that we reserved a really powerful fan. Apparently, Canadian Tire (which sounds like it's a purely automotive store, but it's more like a slightly nicer Walmart) had people stampeding and getting really angry at the salespeople because fans were sold out on store shelves.

Maia and I briefly considered getting a hotel room (those have AC!), but because of COVID we decided against it. I haven't received my second vaccine dose yet (and I'm in a high risk group due to asthma), and Maia hasn't even received her first vaccine dose. That said, if the heat had continued, we would've been forced to do that and hope whatever hotel we chose was following COVID regulations.

At this point the temperatures have return to normal at or around 23 C (73.4 F), but we're still looking at buying a portable AC unit (our condo's strata won't allow window AC units and there's no infrastructure for central AC) because meteorologists have been saying that this sort of weather may become more commonplace. Not to the point where we might see it every year, but it's entirely plausible it could occur every five to ten years.

[Rath Darkblade]

Yes, I read on wikipedia about the Lytton record. Apparently Lytton is almost completely destroyed. That's what wiki says, anyway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lytton_wildfire

Having no AC in this heat is insane. I have two fans (one ceiling fan and one portable) plus an AC-unit. (I don't need them except in summer, but hey).

Good to hear you and Maia are OK, DPX.

...people stampeding and getting really angry at the salespeople because fans were sold out on store shelves.

Sigh. Some people go crazy because they think it'll get them better service. Needless to say, it hardly ever does (or shouldn't).

What can the salespeople do - go to the oh-so-magical 'back room' and bring more fans? "Here's one we were saving for ourselves." (That's #25 in the list of things that does not happen).