Record-Setting Heat Wave in U.S. Settles in as "Silent Killer"

[SMOKE 1,426]

climate change

yes. its been happening for what 4.5 to 4.6 billion years now.

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

this is different. i've lived here for quite some time & i've never seen anything like this. by 9-10am the heat index is around 100..of course it gets worse later in the day. the cumulative effect of 100+ temps day after day is wearing on people & animals. the grass in the open fields is brown, it looks like the middle of winter.

we didn't have that heat index stuff back then.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

we didn't have that heat index stuff back then.

Of course you did. The heat index itself was always around. Nobody talked about it in that way using that term, people just complained about it being hot and humid. Same thing, different terminology.

[SMOKE 1,426]

we didn't have that heat index stuff back then.

ok..well maybe i'm getting soft as i age. this sucks!

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

Of course you did. The heat index itself was always around. Nobody talked about it in that way using that term, people just complained about it being hot and humid. Same thing, different terminology.

uh no.....

The heat index was developed in 1978 by George Winterling as the "humiture," and was adopted by the National Weather Service a year later

link

maybe that's why i was out running around in the heat in that decade.

[Amby 490]

or maybe charles is getting so old he can't remember how hot it was back then

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Their always crying about something in the lower 48. Heatwaves, floods, tornado's, mudslides, hurricanes, snow storms,... blah blah blah cry me a river. God I'm glad I live in Alaska.

Vermont is not in the red either! But it has been plenty warm to go swimming! We haven't had a heat wave since...last summer! It IS summer, right?

We did have a lot of flooding this last spring from so much snow melt, but that was not global warming, it was just "weather"

Strangest of all is Texas, I grew up in west Texas and I don't remember it ever getting that hot. It was always nice and cool at night. Brisk even.

I am taking it upon myself to implement drastic measures to reduce this increase in temperture all over the US. I expect to see solid, measurable, results in 3 months or so.

Edited July 24, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[Ban Hammer 13,352]

or maybe charles is getting so old he can't remember how hot it was back then

unlikely - i remember summer of 72 was a drought in texas - cracks in the ground were several inches across.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

unlikely - i remember summer of 72 was a drought in texas - cracks in the ground were several inches across.

Yessir. I lost a beagle in one. In 1980, 44 consecutive days above 100 degrees. 118 degrees was highest, June 10th as I recall. But the knee deep snow returned before school started so we could walk to school in the snow, uphill both ways. Then had to pick onions when we got home because at the time that was work Americans WOULD do...OK, we were Texicans, but still.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

*yawn*

nothing new to us here in North Central Texas.

[TBoneTX 45,324]

Excuse the all-caps, but this was copied from elsewhere, see man:

"SHORE IS HOT," SAID A FARMER IN FRONT OF THE GENERAL STORE, MOPPING HIS BROW, "BUT IT'S GOOD FER THE CROPS."

"IS THE HEAT REALLY GOOD FOR THE CROPS?" ASKED A TOURIST OF ANOTHER FARMER.

"WELL, STRANGER, I'LL TELL YE," REPLIED THAT FARMER. "IN SOME REAL HOT SPELL A LONG TIME AGO, SOME DURNED FOOL SAID SO, & IT WAS TOO HOT AT THE TIME FER ANYONE TO DENY IT, & THAT'S HOW THE DURNED IDEA GOT STARTED."

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

Vermont is not in the red either! But it has been plenty warm to go swimming! We haven't had a heat wave since...last summer! It IS summer, right?

:blink:

Really.

Everybody who cares please raise their hand.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

this is different. i've lived here for quite some time & i've never seen anything like this. by 9-10am the heat index is around 100..of course it gets worse later in the day. the cumulative effect of 100+ temps day after day is wearing on people & animals. the grass in the open fields is brown, it looks like the middle of winter.

Not different at all. When I was a young man, even a "kid" if you must, we started our work at 4:30 am, just about when the sun was coming up and quit by 10 am, then finished up work in the evening. According to my grandfather it had been this way since the beginning of time in Texas in summer. By 10am it was brutally hot. "Too hot to fish" even. We knew nothing of heat index, we didn't need to, it was effin' hot! I am convinced the whole tradition of siestas in Mexico is because of this. Everyone would rest up in the house in front of the "swamp cooler" (evaporative cooler) and go back to work in the evening until it got dark. I could give you the weather forecast 4 months in advance...Sunny & hot, high near 100-102. I would be right 98% of the time.

There were always grass fires here and there, no one got particularly upset about it because the grass grew back greener after the fire. Provided it didn't burn down the house or barn, it was OK. I remember one summer that "every square foot of Coleman County burned" May have been a bit of an exagerration (in Texas?) but they did have a lot of fires.

[scandal 951]

West Texas weather, Woodie Guthrie style.

I seen the wind so high that it blowed my fences down,

I've seen the wind so high that it blowed my fences down,

Buried my tractor six feet underground.

Well, it turned my farm into a pile of sand,

Yes, it turned my farm into a pile of sand,

I had to hit that road with a bottle in my hand.

I've sung this song, but I'll sing it again,

Of the place that I lived on the West Texas plains,

In the city of Pampa, the county of Gray,

And here's what all of the people there say:

CHORUS: So long, it's been good to know yuh;

So long, it's been good to know yuh;

So long, it's been good to know yuh.

This dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home,

And I got to be driftin' along.

A dust storm hit, an' it hit like thunder;

It dusted us over, an' it covered us under;

Blocked out the traffic an' blocked out the sun,

Straight for home all the people did run,

I gather the 2011 drought in Texas is pretty bad, too.

http://www.lcra.org/water/drought/index.html

The nine months from October 2010 through June 2011 have been the driest for that nine-month period in Texas since 1895, when the state began keeping rainfall records.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/10/texas-drought-2011-record_n_859902.html

Texas Drought 2011: State Endures Driest 7-Month Span On Record

[BishopM 114]

strange, i remember temps in the 100's when i was a kid in texas, but we didn't have anyone running around telling us the sky was falling.

eta: that was in the 70's, btw.

Same here when I was a kid in Texas. Back in those day (which must be ancient!) we considered a heatwave/coldspell just an act of God... Now, in our enlightened age we know it is an act of politicals and business