It be HOT: Summertime Heat

[MatthewCarman]

It's worse then this in Iraq and the soldiers there have to carry 60 pounds of body armor wherever they go. If they can survive then I think it is ok to go outside. Just drink plenty of water or gatorade. That's what the soldiers do.

I don't have my Extreme weather book at the moment but I remember the book was telling about a heat wave in the past where it was over 100 for over 100 days one Summer in Texas. There was another heat wave in the 1930's where lows did not get below 90 degrees some nights and people literally slept outside on their lawns. This is a bad heat wave but we have had worse ones in the past.

 

[Joshua Nall]

PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT GO OUT IF YOU DONT HAVE TO, YOUR RISKING YOUR LIFE.

I risk my life every day then
I saw something I have never seen before the other day, there was a Hispanic fellow pulling weeds out of some flower beds and he had a piece of card board he was holding over him for shade. He was holding that piece of card board to where it would shade his whole body with one hand and pulling weeds with the other.

I spend about 10 hours a day mowing grass, weedeating, trimming bushes, pulling weeds, edging, blowing off drive ways, parking lots. The temp here has been near 100 for for maybe 20 days this summer. Its hot but it's been hotter. My clothes will be soaked and usually drink close to 2 gallons of water. Have come in from working in extreme heat here at the house before when I was really hot and could tell it and taken my temperature, because I was curious how high my actual body temp was, and it will be over 100 degrees. Felt ok and could have kept working, but even after coming in side you'll continue to sweat a while until your body temperature gets down to around 98.6.

I never have understood all the fuss over hot weather. I don't like it but it's not the issue they make it, just another something for the weather people to talk about. There use to be no such thing as air-conditioners, and they worked all day, and yeah they slept outside...but even then they often couldn't sleep outside because of mosquitoes. Can you imagine 90 degrees with high humidity at night inside a cabin with no breeze. Folks were tough. Folks today are weenies.

Even elderly folks that die "because of the heat" often have other conditions. Some young ignorant folks may push themselves to the extreme and die from overheating, but no healthy person risks their life just by going outside. In fact you can labor all day in 100 degree heat if you drink plenty of water. It's an everyday thing for some people. Not just me, lot's of people. And I could make more money at it, if it weren't for... well, you know.

Edit: Just wanted to add that folks didn't really have lawns back then as there were no lawn mowers. They had bare dirt right around the house that they kept hoed and swept. An older fellow was just telling me the other day they also use to hoe and sweep a cemetery that I mow... That's crazy to me, that they would hoe the whole cemetery, where there would be nothing but dirt, but that is how they used to keep stuff maintained I guess.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

This summer in OKC was definitely a "two-part" episode... high dewpoints and ground moisture in early summer and dry conditions in late summer.

In the early summer, no matter what I did outside, I'd end up soaked with sweat and have to change. Dewpoint: 75. But yesterday I was outside in 100 degree heat, in the sun, breaking down boxes, and I stayed fairly dry and comfortable. It's amazing what a few degrees difference in dewpoint (or wet-bulb temperature) makes.

Tim