Those kinds of temperatures are what one might expect for a yearly record in Phoenix, AZ.
So crazy. It was like 60 when we were there a week or so ago.
Yikes!
116 is not a record in Phoenix. That’s just Tuesday. Temps hit 118 the week we left for Maine. (We’ve seen it as high as 120 and planes grounded due to heat/spongy tarmac.)
I live in Phoenix and I was pretty shocked to see 116F in the PNW. Even in Phoenix that’s serious business. 105-110 is pretty tolerable and just another Sunday, but you really start to feel it when it gets over 115. But yes, 116 is pretty much guaranteed (I think we hit it several times already this year) and 117-118 not uncommon. I really feel for people without a/c at those temps.
I was smiling reading an article about setting your a/c “higher” to save energy. It said something like “set it to 77 instead of 75”. We keep our a/c at 80 during the day and that’s pretty tolerable. There were some years where we were trying to save money and set it even higher. We’re heat-adapted though and freeze at cooler temps.
An issue is that our bodies can’t adjust that quickly. NoCal, PNW, most temperate areas’ humans can’t withstand 100+ heat. People in AZ, NM… had decades to adjust if they weren’t born there, so that the impact on the body isn’t the same. Just like when you’ve lived in the upper Midwest 0 feels cold but doesn’t faze you, whereas to someone from the South the impact on the heart, muscles, etc, is hard. Hence, hundreds of people who died from heart attacks in the past few days.
Planting tons of trees/grassy areas in all neighborhoods, mandating energy efficient or energy neutral buildings for all new constructions, developing RD on solar energy AC seem basic first steps so we can survive.
I feel so badly for Oregonians. They are not used to that kind of heat and many don’t have AC. And the rose garden, I bet it suffered. It’s so beautiful.
People say that we in the PNW are weather wimps.
On Monday evening, when temps were falling fast, I peeked at my iPhone weather app.
102 degrees in Seattle - 45% humidity.
102 degrees in Scottsdale- 13% humidity.
The app said that the former felt like 115 degrees, and the latter - like 102 degrees.
Humidity and lack of AC make a big difference.
I bet the parts of the rose garden exposed to sun during the hottest temps of the day just fried. I have a rose bush in a very sunny spot, and no matter how much I watered it (it is VERY well mulched, too), the new shoots on the bush completely wilted. I think we will lose a ginkgo bush and a couple of conifers this summer. A giant maple in the woods next to us looks like it is about to croak.
Are you allowed to pour water on the trunk and around roots at night, or do you need to conserve water?
So far, we have not had any water usage restrictions, but if this continues, I think we will see them coming.
I hope all of you are safe or can get to a cooling center, and that the old maple tree doesn’t die.