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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMidwest can't get any relief from oppressive heat
DETROIT When the air conditioner stopped in Ashley Jackson's Southfield, Mich., home, so too did normal conversations and nightly rest.
"Inside the house it was 91 degrees. ... I wasn't talking to anybody. Nobody was talking to anybody," said Jackson, 23, who works as a short-order cook in Detroit. "We mostly slept, but it was hard to sleep because of the heat. I probably got about four hours of sleep each night."
St. Louis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago and several other Midwest cities already have broken heat records this week or are on the verge of doing so. And with even low temperatures setting record highs, some residents have no means of relief, day or night.
The National Weather Service said the record-breaking heat that has baked the nation's midsection for several days was slowly moving into the mid-Atlantic states and Northeast. Excessive-heat warnings remained in place Friday for all of Iowa, Indiana and Illinois as well as much of Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Kentucky. ............(more)
The complete piece is at: http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20120706/US.Heat.Wave/?cid=hero_media
midnight
(26,624 posts)marmar
(77,285 posts)...... I fear the 4 p.m. temp.
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)but with the humidity it feels like 93.
marmar
(77,285 posts)...... it reads 91 right now.
pansypoo53219
(21,108 posts)we don't have AC. i stayed up to 7 trying to get the house cool as possible for today. it didn't get under 90 w/ a fan in the window. what is aug gonna be like?!?
and could we get some RAIN!
and my cats insist on MY LAP!
midnight
(26,624 posts)You poor dear... This heat is over the top hot here in Milwaukee. One radio station warned it's a burn off your face hot outside...
A visitor from Minnesota told me a few people just dropped dead last week...
I saw clouds last evening and was hoping for the rain we need, but they seem to have moved on....
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)Recently this feels more like Bastrop TX than WI.
spinbaby
(15,122 posts)It's drier than a popcorn fart here in Pittsburgh. In the late 80s we had fires that had a suffocating smoky haze hanging over the landscape for weeks it seemed. I'm betting we see that again.
antigone382
(3,682 posts)I feel very fortunate to be living in a well-insulated house. I can open the windows at night and close them during the day, and keeping the fans running is enough to keep the temperature bearable. It's a major problem that most buildings cannot passively contribute to a tolerably comfortable interior temperature this way. Heating and cooling inefficiently constructed buildings is a *major* user of energy, and by extension a source of the carbon emissions that are creating these problems. We need to spread the German Passive House movement so that it becomes the standard in construction and renovation.
Of course, I'm from the South, so I consider 91 to be unpleasant but bearable. I know it is much harder for people who aren't adapted to those temperatures...they do about as well as I do in 12 degree weather.
DCKit
(18,541 posts)antigone382
(3,682 posts)I can tell you what I know about energy efficient building...which ain't much, but I get by...or I'd be glad to learn from whatever you know.
a la izquierda
(11,816 posts)part of which was during the wretched rainy season. It wasn't so bad with no A/C. The floors are all tile, the walls are stucco. I was never so hot as I was last weekend, when we had no power in Columbus, OH. Brutal.
Likewise, we had no heating in the winter save for some space heaters and wool blankets. The tile floor kept the heat, as did the stucco walls.
antigone382
(3,682 posts)At least when it's dry. During the rainy season, were there problems with condensation on the tile or stucco? The big challenge for building in humid climates, as I understand it, is balancing the temperature regulating effects of insulation/adequate thermal mass with the need to prevent condensation and mold. I'd be interested to see how vernacular building methods in the Southwest held up to all the rain.
nobodyspecial
(2,286 posts)When it doesn't cool down at all at night, the heat just keeps building and by day three or four, you are miserable. However, basements are pretty magical.
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)and it wasn't that terribly bad.
We had rain on and off that night and in the morning so it stayed pretty cool. I closed up the house when I went to work in the morning and it was still fairly cool in the afternoon. My house is pretty much surrounded by large trees so it takes more than one hot day to heat it up.
It could have been worse. People in small apartments and people with houses that are in full sun would be much worse off than I.
I sure am glad my power is back though. It is going to be ~100 today and I know some people around here are still doing without.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Auggie
(31,351 posts)Seems to be a much cooler summer than usual -- more coastal fog. As hot air rises in the San Joaquin Valley and Nevada deserts, the resulting vacuum draws in moist air from the Pacific. Around 5:00 pm the wind really picks up. By 8:00 pm it's actually chilly.
SalviaBlue
(2,927 posts)brutally hot by now. We have not had any really hot days yet and at night it is really nice.
Everything is topsy-turvy.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)It's been cool. But it's also been pretty humid which isn't normal.
Auggie
(31,351 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I admit this as I sit in the swelter of heat AND humidity in the South...sigh.
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)95 today.
I have 2 fans going.
AngryOldDem
(14,065 posts)Tomorrow will be 104, with heat indexes close to 115.
They're saying the heat should break Sunday, but there is still little to no rain chances in the forecast.
It will be in the 80s for most of next week, but late in the week, the high will be 90. I don't know what happens after that.
This is the hottest summer in my lifetime.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)The fourth of July was worse, with a heat index of 119.
I work outside every day regardless of the weather and its brutal.
uppityperson
(115,687 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(116,670 posts)It's only 82 now (down from a balmy 101). Aahhhhhhh.
Siwsan
(26,517 posts)We hit 100 at 3:45.
It is rough when your AC goes out, as I well know. At least I'm getting rid of that excess water weight.
patrice
(47,992 posts)with the heat. No night breezes either.
slackmaster
(60,567 posts)It's pretty cool out here.