Monday, August 16, 2010

Seattle Heat Wave

When you see photos of my green, lush summer garden here in Seattle, I can assure you that is possible first because we have installed a watering system and we use it, and secondly, because while we have several months of summer draught, it isn't usually very hot here. So when we do get several days in a row of truly hot weather, over 90 degrees, we consider it a heat wave. Some of us love it and some of us don't. I'm one of those who doesn't. Saturday and Sunday the temperature rose to 95. Last November we had a new furnace and heat pump installed, which means we have central air conditioning. But we have a two story house with the living spaces down stairs and the bedrooms and office up stairs. The thermostat is in the cool downstairs, and set at about 74-75, has kept us very comfortable while we're up and awake. But at night, with the upstairs 10 degrees warmer, we still have to open windows after the sun goes down and rely on box fans in the windows to cool us for sleeping. I haven't been sleeping all that well. Today the high is 89-90. Today we decided was a good day to steam clean the living room carpet, the stairs and up stairs hallway. Tom did that this morning along with steam cleaning our recliners, which are now outside on the patio drying. We did not close up the house and turn on the air conditioning today so we could take advantage of the heat to dry the carpets. The house is warming up. I was fine most of the day, but now I'm HOT! And it's time to do my exercises, but it's too hot. I'm a wimp about heat, I know. Tomorrow will be cooler and then apparently we will get a sudden drop in temperature on Wednesday, so that by Friday the high may only be in the upper 60's. One extreme to the other. But at least I won't be hot.

14 comments:

  1. too bad you can't sleep in the basement. our air conditioner runs day and night for several months.

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  2. It was only 81 degrees here, but very humid, so I turned the a/c on. It is now down to 75 degrees with the a/c, which means I have to wear a jacket.

    It rarely goes above 90 in Honolulu, thank God. I can't imagine what you're going through. That is HOT!

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  3. The same here in the beautiful U.P. (upper peninsula) of Michigan...we had about two weeks of very humid hot weather in high80's and 90's with humidity in the 80 and 90% range which is very unusual for us! But not to worry, the cool hit us today...barely 70 degrees and very, very windy. Ahhhhhhhh.........

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  4. I'm a wimp in regards to the heat, too! That's the main reason I don't still live in Texas! And it has been just a tad hot the past couple of days. Thank goodness the "heat waves" don't last long here! Stay cool!

    Sylvia

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  5. We are wimps too and are ready for the nice "marine push" that is supposed to come in the next couple of days. No A/C here so I spend a lot of time in the lake or the basement.

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  6. Even though we have had three record-breaking days, today is noticeably cooler. We put a window fan in the back door and close everything up except the bedroom window, and it pulls the air off the cool front porch into the bedroom, making it 67-68 degrees for sleeping, which has been great! I'm also looking forward to some relief, because I also don't do well in extreme heat. We moved here to get away from it.

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  7. You are not a wimp. When it gets that hot that fast, our bodies just don't have time to acclimate. Hang in there -- fall is coming!

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  8. We're sweltering up here too, but by mid-week we'll apparently have lower-than-normal temperatures. Somewhere in between would be nice for a week or two.

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  9. Yeah it's way to hot for me too. Thank goodness for AC. MB

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  10. We have had a much hotter summer than usual here. We had three weeks of high humidity which is rarely found here. But the past couple of weeks have been cooler (70s). We don't have a.c. as we really don't need it but there were plenty of days I wished we did! We have started noticing some trees are starting to change, which is very early.

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  11. I so understand being a wimp about heat too. Perhaps it was fractionally too hot to steam clean the carpets yesterday. LOL

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  12. My niece Cheryl (above) has pretty much described Maine this summer: lots of heat and humidity. Everything that grows seems to be 2-3 weeks early: lilacs bloomed two weeks early, tomatoes are ripening 2-3 weeks early. But at least the gardens are thriving this summer. I'm wondering if winter will arrive 2-3 weeks early! One of our backyard trees has yellowing leaves that are falling already. I'm not ready to give up summer yet.

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  13. I hate the heat and this summer has been hot! Because of this, fall can't come too soon for me!!

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  14. I read in your later post that it did cool down, thank goodness. I'm a wimp about the heat also. It's been a mild summer this year which is lovely.

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