Temperatures aren’t deemed heat dome worthy until hitting above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. A heat map of the United States this July may as well be magenta, excluding the PNW. Ironic, considering the record-breaking heat dome that hovered for weeks in 2021 over the Cascade Range into Canada. Sunburns in this family were brutal! Heat-related illness, concrete burns, cancelled flights, car trouble, and electric overload have swamped several states. Here are ways to combat the rising mercury…
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- use an umbrella for shade
- sunscreen
- polarized sunglasses
- spray bottle
- bottled water
- popsicles
- fruit
- fans pulling air higher
Thinking Ahead: Have your bug-out bag and disaster kit ready and updated.
What’s a heat dome and why is it record-breaking?
An atmospheric bubble, like a lid to a Slurpee, traps heat over an area and compresses to the ground. Temperatures reach life-threatening levels when it can’t escape due to high pressure. Usually lasting a few days over about 10 miles, these record-breaking heat events are becoming larger, more frequent and much more dangerous… making them less and less rare.
The heat dome experienced in 2021 in Oregon was nothing like any heat experienced in Florida. Tilted closer to the sun, the third-degree sunburn on my husband’s legs were no joke. That’s with extra slathering of sunscreen! A few things we did to keep the searing heat out of our apartment with no a/c…
- hanging damp sheets to make the room smaller
- black-out curtains to block sunlight
- fan inside new sheet fort
- ice in cooler behind fan
- frozen washcloths to rotate
- Orajel on burn blisters (sterile and numbing)
- Gatorade popsicles made in ice trays
- coconut water
- cold showers or ice bath just before bed
This July alone has some record-breaking temperatures throughout the United States:
| Location | Previous Record | Record 2023 |
| Nevada | Death Valley, 134°, 1913 | Death Valley, 128° |
| Arizona | Phoenix, 122°, 1990 | Phoenix, 117° |
Trying to stay cool in this level of heat is a challenge when power consumption goes off the charts. Solar environmental architect, David Wright, explains why blocking sunlight from your home is on the top of the list. Sunlight enters glass in long wavelengths, but hitting objects changes rays to short wavelengths. Those rays bounce off glass instead of going back through. That’s what traps heat.
Thinking Ahead: Open all doors and windows when the outside temperature drops below the inside. Brick and concrete homes hold more heat, so this is really useful at night.
We aren’t the only ones shattering heat records.
NOAA, the National Atmospheric and Oceanographic Association, recorded the hottest June in 174 years of global recording. England’s Meteorological Office recorded record-breaking temperatures of the North Atlantic, nearly 3 degrees warmer since keeping track started in 1850. This scorching heat now has the largest section of permafrost on Earth melting more rapidly than ever.
Athens Greece has been on fire for months this year, now with temperatures climbing to 113°F (45°C). Tourism is shutting down for a few days to keep people from passing out in the streets. The Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS) is projecting temperatures as high as 111°F (44°C) this weekend. It hasn’t been this hot in Greece for 50 years, hundreds died in the heat wave of 1987. The entire Mediterranean is up in flames while experiencing this intense heat. The vast majority of homes in this region do not have air-conditioning.
Lights Out!
Back in the States, the power grid is doing is best to chug along with the mass amount of whirring air-conditioners. The most common problem with a/c, ironically, is when they freeze over from the coolant trying to pump through the system faster. One of the best tricks we’ve used as native Floridians is to put a pop-up canopy cover or umbrella over the a/c unit. Just that small bit of shade makes the difference from the 90+ degrees moving from outside to inside.
Texas is well known for it’s grid puttering out in any extreme heat or cold. This year, El Paso takes the prize for the record-breaker with the longest heat wave ever recorded. Cooling centers are popping up as quickly as possible, but the population is miserable at 102° today. The highest ever was 114°.
If a blackout occurred in Phoenix, Arizona, half the citizens would need to be hospitalized. This would spike the death rate over 700%, according to the Environmental Science & Technology center. The suggested temperatures to have your a/c at are between 82° and 85°, but let’s be realistic here. The backyard in the shade is higher than that with the stars out. My recommendation lands at 78 degrees for the highest, just to be able to cool the house back down easier later.
On a personal note:
My Great Uncle lives just outside Tempe, Arizona and his air-conditioning went out this week. The high was 115°, fellow area residents cooked eggs on the sidewalk. The grandkids were taken to the local trampoline park for the a/c. With a large retired community aching for relief, Arizona’s Maricopa County department of public health has opened the Justa Center, a cooling center for the elderly. The department has seen 12 heat-related deaths in just the first week of July. The National Weather Service sees temperatures getting hotter in Phoenix, Arizona over the next week. Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport hit 110° at midnight. Even the night hours are unbearable.
Thinking Ahead: Flip-flops start sticking to the concrete at 100°, so make sure you check on your puppy’s feet before going out.
Climate Change and triple-digit temperatures.
Weather events like La Niña and El Niño are now predictable and expected, but human-caused climate change has upped the ante. Sustained triple-digit temperatures didn’t become persistent until the 1930’s. Record-breaking temperatures have been recorded as early as the 1800’s, but not at these levels. The last time Earth was consistently this hot the Wooly Mammoth roamed Canada. Our fight-or-flight response was great at out-running a predator as early humans. Now it’s morphing into an adaptation for climate change.
As a Nasa scientist in the 1980’s, James Hanson sounded the first alarms about climate change. He has called us “damned fools” for not heeding his warning about rising temperatures and sea levels due to the greenhouse effect. In Arizona, the Education Department declared climate change a threat to schools two years ago. Meanwhile, in recent months, a US weather man has been threatened with death and chased from his home town for mentioning the climate crisis. It’s time for record-breaking educational turnaround.
Pre-industrial times were easily 2°C cooler than they are now. Smog and soot has insulated our atmosphere to the point of creating sweltering heat domes lasting weeks. The C19 Pandemic shutting everyone in for months cleared enough air to see parts of China covered for decades. Water pollution cleared enough to bring record-breaking numbers of wildlife back into abandoned waterways. You’d think this would snap us into our created reality and change our habits.
Meanwhile: What do we eat?
Thinking Ahead: With that in mind, here are some helpful tidbits about eating in a severe heat wave:
- durian
- pineapple
- garlic
- spicy food
- no-cook foods
- hydrating fruit like watermelon, citrus
- salted citrus drinks replace electrolytes
Cooking anytime in a heatwave sounds repulsive. This sounds bonkers, but cooking during the hottest part of the day or just before is ideal. It gives your home time to cool down before bed. No-cook meals are the best, but everyone can only tolerate snack food for so long. Deli-nights, picnic style, was what won in my home the most in my Floridian childhood. Lots of fruits, raw veggies with dip, and cold-cuts. Seasoned fruit will combine efforts for the speedy hydration.
No one wants to sweat more, but that’s the body’s natural temperature regulation. Spicy food and garlic start this up, the sweat evaporates and cools your core temperature – hence the food in India. Anything with cinnamon will lower the amount of stomach acid and release enzymes from cells, lowering body temperature. The key is to remain hydrated before you get thirsty.
Transportation Melts down along with people.
Be kind to your fellow humans, climate refugee migration has only just begun. Housing issues are a rising problem caused by extreme weather events all over the globe. This has pushed people to live in their cars. Then there are the technicians – electric, water, cable, and construction – that practically live in their vehicles. My Dad was a cable company supervisor in Orlando, Florida for years. The amount of heat exhaustion cases with his guys was overwhelming in brutal heat. Trust me, these guys won’t turn down a cool drink.
Temperatures aren’t the only record-breaking statistics. People are passing out in intersections, babies are left in hot cars, car batteries are melting. Tires need a furnace to break down, but it doesn’t keep them from exploding on the highway in 110°+. Car repairs need mechanics, another group of humanity suffering in blistering heat. Rural areas are even worse off with stores few and far between, so farmers are more likely to suffer heat-related illness. Flights are being cancelled after a plane in Arizona sat on the tarmac in 111° heat, causing 5 people to be taken to the hospital for heat-related illnesses.
Thinking Ahead: Make sure to check the seals in your car windows so you keep the cold air in.
All of this contributes to rising tempers. Coping with a heat wave is difficult enough, but when temperatures are shattered, so is patience. Law enforcement can only keep up with so much… just ask Los Angeles, CA. Even during times of celebration things can get messy… like the 4th of July. Recent activities in making fireworks in Washington state lead a resident to blowing up his entire house. Fires are fueled with enough natural issues like lightning and methane combustion, lets not add to fire-fighting problems.