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oh my God, you're hot!

dianeseattle

dianeseattle

Member
So it's almost 7pm here in Seattle and it's still 101° F. I am accustomed to hot climates because even though I'm a native Seattleite, I did spend 30 years living in central Washington, where temperatures routinely hit the low 100s from about the 4th of July until Labor Day.

I also lived in Los Angeles for three years and until that happened I never even knew what humidity was! Wow! I used to take my top sheet and get it wet in the bathtub at night and then wring out the excess water and run back in my bedroom and just let it float down on top of me, icy cold covering my naked body.

We're having a 5-day long heatwave here but I just have tools I use, since I don't have air conditioning. Only 50% of the homes in Seattle have air conditioning because we so rarely need it.

Here's how I stay cool: I stand under the shower for a few seconds until all my clothes are wet. Then I towel off and go sit down in the path of my fan, which is blowing across the room. I actually almost start freezing sometimes.

Anyone else here who doesn't have air conditioning and are in a heat wave in your neighborhood? What do you do to stay cool or at least comfortable?
 
I saw on the news that you were having a heat wave. You are very creative Diane keeping yourself cool! We don't have central air but do have 3 units that pretty well manage to keep our house cool enough. While it's not particular good for the teeth, I like to chomp on ice cubes. :D
 
I feel for you Diane as I sit on my couch with air conditioning going . It must really suck . I hate the heat . Summertime I’m either inside with the air conditioner ,inside a nice cold movie theater like I was today or i go swimming in our pool which isn’t going to happen for a couple of months because we’re having the pool remodeled .Anyway we’re going to get the heat in a couple of days with thunderstorms and humidity and probably fires as usual .
 
When I was working we didn’t have air conditioning in the bedroom only in the living room of our apartment. I used to get home home from work at 3 in the morning take a cold shower didn dry off just went to bed wet with a fan blowing on me . My wife hated it cause the bed would be soaked sometime but I didn’t care it felt so cool for about 15 minutes maybe
 
In a way, this is nothing. I used to live in central Washington and on one 100+ day, as I walked across an asphalt parking lot, I left footprints as if it were mud. Now THAT'S hot!

I'm really okay. The only thing I hate about a heatwave is that I can't do housework. Two minutes of cleaning=TWO HOURS of sitting down, recovering.

I exaggerate. I pace myself, but I ponder the fact that many people die in heat, in my age group. Also, honest to god, one minute of knowing hundreds of people are dead or dying in a collapsed condo in Florida, or five people in a hot-air balloon crashed to earth and died, my problems are miniscule.

I love the support I get here. It helps balance the senseless horrors others face.
 
So, I'm hearing on the news, both nationally and locally, that we should expect temperatures of 110 or 111 on Monday. Tomorrow is supposed to be like today which is a 101 degree day. But I'm fine. I have Incorporated my spray bottle into my routine and I spray my body and the fan cool off my wet skin.

I have been in places where I experienced temperatures up to 114. One of those places is Death Valley, in California. And the other is central Washington, of course.

I've always been a water Drinker because I love water and I do not love calories, so I don't drink juice with any sugar in it. In fact I don't drink juice at all unless I put it in a tall glass of ice with about a third juice and 2/3 seltzer. But I honestly vastly prefer water to every other beverage.
 
Was 108 in the Portland area today and it's supposed to be 5-10 degrees warmer tomorrow and Monday. My all-time high was 129 in the Arabian Desert, and I saw 120 in Death Valley a couple of times After spending time in Saudi Arabia I swore I'd never complain about the heat again, but this is getting close. We live on property outside the city and have A/C and a creek big enough to swim in, so we are pretty lucky.

We're getting up at 5am to water everything, and we put up shade clothes over our tomato plants and some other plants we didn't want to fry too early. The triple digits are supposed to fade away after Tuesday, I think, but it will still be in the 90s and toasty for this time of year here. It's usually in the 70s.
 
I don’t have a/c my house is all electric except for the stove. I have a fan in the window that blows over my legs while I sleep. My pool is my choice to cool,off. The weather here has been cool and stormy. I worked on the pool during the hot days, we have clothes that you wet ( you can even put them in freezer) then wrap around your neck to cool,off. It does help bring body temp down.
 
My bedsheet is in the tub, soon to be soaked and wrung out. But I just filled a spray bottle with water and some vinegar.

I also have homemade cold compresses in my freezer. They're just socks filled with beans, but they work.

Once I had a sunburn so bad (in L.A.) that I had to go to the emergency room. They treated me with cloths soaked with water and vinegar and told me to take a vinegar bath at home.

The relief was instantaneous.

Try it if you get sunburned. It works.

That's why I have my vinegar/water bottle here at my side. I actually got sunburned yesterday and the spray bottle takes the pain away.

Just one more amazing thing vinegar can do.

Oh, I remember that an icepack on the back of the neck also helps cool the whole body.

I was wrong about the temp. It's 102 right now. And the news is now predicting 116 for Monday. I'll believe it when I see it. Seattle newscasters are wrong about 99 percent of the time.

Unfortunately, they just sealed the asphalt parking lot last week. So it's radiating heat even now.

Just took my body temp and its 99.6°F.

I would kill for a swimming pool. Might walk down to the creek tomorrow.
 
Stay cooooool everyone!!!!!!!!
3996
 
Well, nothing worked. After all my misting and spraying and dunking, I lay in bed scorching until 3a.m. Finally got back up so I could get back to my living room fan. I've been awake since 24 hours ago.

The GMA Sunday weather report has current temp at 101. Later today, maybe 108. Monday, now as high as 116. This is a weird phenom that has something to do with air as it comes down the mountains. It's never happened in my lifetime. The terrifying thing is that with all the trees, the whole state could literally be wall-to-wall fire.

I'm used to seeing weather maps showing tornadoes and hurricanes and flooding east of the Mississippi. Now all the weather maps are focused on the PNW.

There's nothing anyone can do but survive it. They say heat is the leading cause of weather-related death.

There really is a stream, Longfellow Creek, less than two blocks from me. I'm going to see if there's any water in it today. Sometimes it's dry.

At least two more days of this. Do you believe in global warming? A woman on tv said she was expecting this, but not for another decade.
 
Wowsers. I've experienced 115 in Arizona but it's a dry heat after all! Do you have the humidity with that heat Diane? That is really torture if you do. I sure hope it doesn't get as high as they are predicting and that there are no fires. Maybe take a ride in the car with the A/C blasting? Please stay safe.
 
Hello everyone,

I’m in Northeast Portland and this heat is so not okay! We don’t have central air but we do have multiple window air conditioners. They cost a lot more to run as even the energy star ones are not as efficient as good insulation and central air. My biggest fear is our electrical grid is not designed for all these a/c units blasting in Oregon. I’m afraid of losing power in the city.

My house (built in 1949) has such awful insulation that the walls in our main bedroom get hot in anything over 90. We just closed up the upstairs and have slept in the living room the last two nights. We aren’t even allowing the cats to go into the upstairs rooms. We are lucky we have two big shade trees on our lot. Most people in our neighborhood don’t even have that.

Diane, thank you so much for the vinegar tip! I had no idea about that. I could have used that info a few time in my life when I burned very badly too. I’m pretty fair skinned and covered in freckles from my Irish grandfather. Since I shaved my head (my solution to my thinning hair) I’ve been very careful to put sunscreen on my scalp every day, even in winter.

Diane, do you have any options to get out of the heat for a few hours? Go to a movie, wander an indoor mall, something? You sound like the heat is getting unbearable at your place. Here in Oregon, they lifted all capacity limits in those places to allow people to get cool. Even the buses have capacity lifted so people aren’t standing outside waiting for longer.

If anyone needs pet cooling tricks or need ways to know if your cats are dehydrated (very common in cats!) just poke me! Our house is very animal experienced in these matters. Cats, dogs, rabbits, birds, other small furry mammals, we’ve done it all or know some one who has! Our only gap is fish and reptiles. However, we have a fish expert friend and reptiles are much more adaptable to heat.

Stay cool everyone in the heat zones. Be safe everyone!

Everyone sends a wave from the Jonah household!
 
I'm also worried about the power grid. I think it'll go down. We're only midway through this catastrophe. I'll take numerous lukewarm baths and sit around in my bathing suit. But I think people should stay home unless they need to go out, because there are emergency and municipal vehicles that need the roads.

Kid, you're gonna get hit even harder today, according to the weather forecasts I've been devouring today. Try to get your food and water together right away and put it someplace safe. You may not have cooking or refrigeration access later. Then just lay low. You're actually in one of the most vulnerable areas up here.

Prepare now as if there'd be a blackout later. I'm with ya. We'll make it, but only if we treat this like the worst heatwave in recorded history, which it is.
 
Oh I’m a big prepper. I assume the grid is going to go out no matter the weather. I am, admittedly, a bit of a “we are all doomed” kind of guy. I grew up in the Northern California Bay Area, literally on the San Andreas fault line. We had seismologists mapping it through my backyard. I kinda took earthquake preparedness and ran with it into a place where I am actually stocked to be a neighborhood disaster hub. Since my spouse is a nurse practitioner we even have a good medical kit.

We have plenty to keep us going. We also have freshly rotated water in the basement which means it is somewhat cooler. We are doing our part with blackout curtains, lights off, and only running the absolute minimum of appliances. The ceiling fans help too.

I’m on my 2 week pre-op diet so eating isn’t really on my agenda. I don’t really want to drink warm protein shakes but I can if I have to. My partners both have food available that doesn’t require cooking. We also have a propane grill to cook on or my camp stove once the sun goes down and they can go outside.

I’m off to check the seal around the downstairs window a/c units!
 
Yeah, I only drink bottled water because I have a lead allergy. As soon as a jug is empty, I fill it with tap water and store it with the others, for emergencies. I hate being without emergency supplies. And I hike, so I have those essential things, too. My backpack is always hanging from my storage room door with survival supplies. But water is more important than food.:cool:
 
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