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Heat

11/25/2017

12 Comments

 
Picture
Central Park, 1961: three women cool off by dragging a park bench into a nearby pond.


​For a whole lot of reasons, I was fully expecting to be thrilled right about now—solidly into the next-to-the-last month of the year.
 
Not only is it finally time for flannel sheets and breaking in my new Lanz of Salzburg nightgown, it means wearing an array of soft hoodies, leggings and boots.  November is when my birthday happens, too, and then there’s Thanksgiving.  Of course, that Thursday is the ultimate foodie delight, which is one of the many reasons it’s my favorite holiday.   
 
But most especially, there’s another thing I’m supposed to really happy about while looking at today’s date.
 
The weather should be cooler.
 
Except for this: it hasn’t been, and in the near future, looks like it isn’t going to be. 
 
Specifically, a lot of crazy, super-hot days assaulted our sweet beach town in October. I’d counted on this 100-degrees-multiple-times pattern ending by now, but… no.  Yes, we’ve had a few pleasant days, but nothing close to wintery cold, which for us is somewhere in the high 50s during the day, and mid-30s at night.  
 
Thinking about it, I’ve worn neither my heavy duty parka nor lighter weight jacket for a while now.  Another fact: during the last week of last month, the city 10 minutes away from us hit the national record as the hottest place in the entire country, at a staggering 108 degrees.  (We clocked in at three degrees below that.)
 
Of course, heat waves are yawningly ho-hum for those who live in the desert and other areas where three-digit summertime temperatures have long been a given. 
 
But this is a region of California where these kinds of numbers are pretty much unheard of—illustrated by a friend who attended college here in the 1980s.
 
In 1987, during the first week of October, the neighboring city mentioned above was the warmest location in the nation, with 111 degree temperatures recorded at the airport two days in a row. This occurrence was thought to be so bizarre and so extraordinary that it made the front page in our daily newspaper.  Indeed, most of us who’ve lived here for a while remember what used to be the norm: a place where a blanket of coastal fog rolled in every morning from our bay, and air conditioners, not to mention swamp coolers, simply weren’t seen.  This is further demonstrated when visitors find out that most houses, mine included, don’t boast a single ceiling fan.
 
Does this steady heat have anything to do with global warming? 
 
If I had to guess, I’d say—uh, yeah, absolutely.
 
Since knowledge is power, that’s good to know.  Still, it doesn’t solve the day-to-day dilemma of how to best cope with weeks that not very long ago, used to be 40 degrees cooler. 
 
As it turns out, lots and lots of people don’t do well when they’re hot and bothered.
 
One consequence of triple digit temperatures is heat exhaustion, which can, literally, overpower our bodies.  This condition brings dizziness, headaches and fainting; thank goodness, it can usually be treated with rest, a cool environment and drinking hydrating liquids. But heat stroke—symptoms here include high body temperature, confusion and even unconsciousness—is more serious and requires medical intervention. To illustrate the significance of prolonged heat, the 1995 heat wave in Chicago sent close to 3,500 people to hospital emergency rooms, and nearly 700 died.
 
Thankfully, days and days of unrelenting sunshine don’t usually mean a visit to the doctor.
 
But high temperatures can make us crabby—really, really crabby.
 
According to a 2012 CBS News story, a 2001 paper by University of Iowa professor Craig Anderson concluded that there are 2.6 percent more murders and assaults in the United States in the summer than in winter.  Anderson also wrote that “hot summers produce a bigger increase in violence than cooler summers.” 
 
Another study, this one from 2010 that focuses on violence in Cleveland, states that higher temperatures correlate to higher amounts of “aggressive crime”—including domestic violence and assaults that involve no weapons or serious injury.  The CBS story goes on to quote former New York City cop Eugene O’Donnell, who says that when he was on the beat, a favorite saying was, “Jack Frost is the best policeman.”
 
For me, the answer to feeling better is simply this: be a cockeyed optimist.
 
I know that sooner or later, I’ll be wearing my favorite heavy hoodies again. So with this determined mindset, I plan to hang in the coolest places I can find; look for new dinner salad recipes, and search for images of vintage winter wonderlands on my home computer. 
 
As a friend says, “I just want November weather in November!”
 
I couldn’t agree more.
 
What about you: how do you cope with heat?  I look forward to your stories and comments! 
 
P.S. Watch the effects of unrelenting heat in a riveting episode from the television classic The Twilight Zone.
In 1961’sThe Midnight Sun, the Earth has fallen out of orbit and is spinning increasingly closer to the sun.
As temperatures soar, reaching beyond 120 degrees, two women try to cope in a nearly abandoned New York City. 
​The entire show is here, at www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ee3q9.
12 Comments
Susan Jordan
11/25/2017 01:02:10 pm

It was something like the first few weeks of the quarter at Cal Poly, and there was no central air conditioning (that I remember) in the dorms (I was in Yosemite, at the entrance to campus), and we were all melting. I remember other students literally lounging in the fountain! I think a photo of that even made the Mustang Daily. It was a surprise and a misery. Now days like that are becoming all too frequent. My science, geography, agriculture, and geology professors back then, to the man (almost all of them were older, White, conservative-leaning men) said that, while climate change was a natural occurrence, human beings were also accelerating the process, and dangerously so. This was before the powers that be realized that that fact could hurt their profits; THEN it became a "political football" kicked back and forth between science and corporate interests. But I'll never forget what my crusty old professors said on the subject - and that's when I was still a Republican myself!

I miss cool weather. Hot weather actually makes me feel ill and sluggish. Hmmm...maybe I should move somewhere where it snows... :)

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Hilary Grant
11/25/2017 03:19:07 pm

I miss the cooler weather as well; when I moved here in '02, November was definitely sweater weather. And even when we did have winds this past month, they were hot and dry and with our drought, the perfect storm for fire. Regarding global warming (climate change was a phrase invented by a GOP strategist to "soften" it), I read an article not long ago that found ANOTHER article from the early 1900s on the effects of burning coal in our atmosphere. Bottom line: a dire warning... more than 100 years ago.

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Larry Grant
11/25/2017 04:42:57 pm

Not a big fan of the heat either. When I first moved to the Central Coast over 20 years ago it seemed our Los Osos/Morro Bay norm was 59 degrees and foggy. Is the climate changing at a rate comparable to the proverbial geometric progression or are we experiencing an environmental anomaly? 🤔

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Hilary Grant
11/25/2017 06:03:31 pm

I would love for this pattern to be an anomaly, but I fear that it's global warming progression. Hope I'm wrong, though. xo

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Andrea
11/25/2017 11:37:52 pm

I would love some rain! I'm trying to remember (a lot of rattling going on in this old head) when California tends to get those little micro-summers. I know that during Christmas we get one and then we get another sometime before spring. Then June Gloom sets in. I can't remember if November is prone to heatwaves. I guess I should look it up. Nevertheless, it does seem as if winter is getting so much shorter and where the heck is our fog?

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Hilary Grant
11/26/2017 11:54:42 am

That wonderful fog that used to roll in nearly every morning has all but disappeared. I know October has been prone to heat waves, but by the third week of that month, brisk fall weather has taken its place. January is usually when lots of rain hits; I'm hoping that's the case this year. And yeah, the winters do seem MUCH shorter.

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kerri fisher
11/26/2017 07:57:44 pm

I would love some rain right about now... my plants would, rather. That's one good thing about my job - with air conditioning, I often don't even know how hot it is outside. I have never enjoyed the heat, especially since I don't ever wear clothes that show my arms or legs. I do love sunning, though (in private!). Looking forward to what I like to call "soup weather".

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Hilary
11/26/2017 09:28:57 pm

Air conditioning is one of the greatest inventions of ALL TIME. Pretty much all of the schools I work in have zero AC, so I definitely feel it... in some classrooms more than others. You are a lucky ducky to not have to deal w/ it at work.. but... do you remember the heat when you lived in Georgia? Maybe you blocked it out! :)

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leslie spoon
11/27/2017 06:57:53 pm

Hilary I do not like the real hot weather. I never did even as a kid. It takes all the energy out of me and if it is real bad I start to feel sick to my stomach. I miss the fog that we use to get and so do my plants. The first winter we were here (97/98) we got about 45 inches of rain. Every year after that we have been getting less and less. The weather changes are coming real fast. I feel bad for the younger generations because they are in for some big changes! Humans need to change their ways with energy and clean things up now!

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Hilary
11/27/2017 07:34:08 pm

Yes, our little town used to be the place no one wanted to move to because of the fog. No more!

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George Marshall link
11/28/2017 01:06:19 pm

Weather report from you northern beach town neighbor in Point Arena. We are getting some cool weather now but definately it is overall much warmer. After the terrible fires in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties due to prolonged hot and dry weather, I don't think there is much room for doubt about the destructive capacities of global warming. When it gets so close theory flies out the window. Global warming is a hot item!

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Hilary
11/28/2017 04:43:36 pm

I'm hoping this particular blog post unlocked something magical... we had a steady rain the other day, and it has been markedly cooler; I even wore my Lanz nightgown last night and this morning. But this coolness has come *a full month later* than in years past. Global warming is real, and it's scary.

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    Hilary Roberts Grant

    Journalist, editor, filmmaker, foodie--and a clown! 
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