Hot weather

[Mobuck]

Headlines, headlines, headlines. Folks it's not any (or not that much) hotter now than it was 20, 40, or 100 years ago. The Weather Channel was making a big deal of how hot it is/will be for folks who work outside(postal workers, farmers, and utility workers). Sure, it's HOT but making a headline of it isn't going to change that. In fact, the heat may be more tolerable now than a few decades back due to greatly improved fabrics and A/C in farm equipment and vehicles.

 

[contender]

You are correct. The weather is pretty much the same as it has been for centuries.

What's different is two things.
One, we now have A/C that allows us to be "more comfortable" in our daily activities.
Two, the weather folks are not much different than regular media types. They have to dramatize every little event,, to try & "sell" themselves.
And since we do have A/C,, people have evolved to where hotter temps, effect us a bit more. We have now grown up in an environment where our bodies are not quite as tough & adaptable to such extremes.
So, the weather broadcasters can't change the weather,, nor can they predict it accurately,, (because God is still in control,) so they have become actors to dramatize every little event,,,! Unless it's about perfect,, they need to make stuff seem really bad to make themselves appear important.

 

[toysoldier]

If things are the same, why have gardening catalogs changed the planting zone charts? Plants don't give a flying ____ about politics, junk science, or anything but actual growing conditions.

 

[Cholo]

It's called marketing. They want to titillate you to feel that you need more. The Weather Channel started doing it 15-20 years ago. They used to only name hurricanes and maybe tropical storms. Then they started naming snow storms. Winter storm Timmy dumped over 1/4" of snow on International Falls, MN overnight causing some cars to spin their tires on Main St. Temperatures are expected to plummet into the low 30's tonight prompting a weather advisory for (name 5 county's).

Locally it's ever worse! They have Storm Alerts every day! One a couple of days ago: Wind advisory alert for the Channel 3 viewing area. High winds (anything over 5mph) are expected this afternoon mainly to the east of I-75. Chances of high winds--5%. And this! Storm Alert! Asphalt temperatures are expected to climb to 140* by mid afternoon!

It's all just marketing. It appeals to those whose hair is constantly on fire because of all of the We're all gonna die reports. I had to block the station because of all the doom and gloom reporting about everything. They're in heaven reporting all the fear about the WooFloo. They would have you believe that all mankind will cease to exist by Sept. if mask mandates are not followed 100% of the time by 100% of the people, and then you have only a 3.29% chance of surviving.

Marketing. You need us to keep you informed. Riight...

 

[Mobuck]

Not a "gardener" so can't answer for certainty but I'd offer that selective plant breeding (the original GMO) has helped certain plant species evolve to handle slightly different temperature zones.
Soybeans were once upon a time a crop of "the South" but by way of selectively breeding in certain traits, soybeans have moved north hundreds of miles.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

There is no doubt some areas of the country are getting warmer per year, on average, than others. The data and science is pretty clear. That is about as conservative as I can get.

Average temperature change in every state over the past 100 years
https://thestacker.com/stories/3382/average-temperature-change-every-state-over-past-100-years

In Missouri it is only about 1/2 of a degree warmer in the last 100 years so maybe that is why you are not noticing the change. In other states it is as much as 3 degrees in the same time period.

...and yes warm temps are bad for human health. Heat spells kill many people per year, they also cause more fires and drought.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Folks it's not any (or not that much) hotter now than it was 20, 40, or 100 years ago.

Do you mean they have nothing to talk about, so they go nutzoo over a degree or
two change?! - - - Can't speak to your situation, but that is sure true around Phoenix!

They even have an "Excessive Heat Warning" now. The only problem there is the
temperature that triggers that warning. It can vary from 110 to 115 degrees. :shock:
This year we will set an "all time record" for days above 110 degrees. Normal is
around twenty some and by the end of this next week we will be above thirty.

The other one that I find a farce is the "monsoon" here. Usually it runs from the
beginning of July to around mid September. This year we had ONE rain storm that
produced point zero two inches, since the end of May. This year it is about as dry
as a popcorn fart.

The weather guessers seem to go apoplectic over a "cool down" of two degrees!
What a farce! - - - I will mention that Phoenix has way more than a few TV broadcast
channels, but they "share" any remote broadcasts and seem to share data. I say
that because when I brought up the weather guesser's asking US what was going
to happen ("will it rain tomorrow") and then pushing it off further in the broadcast,
one of the weather people (he is a member of this forum) asked why I was upset
at them asking us what it was going to do. WOW! That changed for the Phoenix
basin in a few days. It's gradually changing back. HORSE FEATHERS!!

IMO, it's a matter of their handling everything as a PANIC that they create one
when there is nothing. (OH MY, I'm about to put this in the wrong sub forum) :roll:

 

[hittman]

Climate change, global warming, etc. ------ highjacked by socialists for a political agenda. Nothing more; nothing less.

I'd rather see posts about Bigfoot or UFOs. They bring less discord.

Professional wrestling on the other hand is NOT fake. :lol:

 

[Bull Barrel]

I love how they say the high temp will be, lets say 98°.
Then they issue a heat warning. Isn't a forecast temp of 98° a heat warning?

 

[blackhawknj]

Been living here in Central NJ since 1961, in the Summer of 1966 we had several 100 degree days, one bank had a digital thermometer display, I recall a 104 degree day.
Summer of 1975 I attended ROTC Advanced Camp at Fort Bragg, there was a heat wave, I saw one cadet from my school as we were leaving, he was a Vietnam vet, said he had passed out twice, was drinking 9-12 canteens of water a day.
In 1896 a killer heat wave hit NYC-1,500 deaths.
June 28, 1778-the Battle of Monmouth was fought in 90 degree heat.
Here in the Northeast we had a prolonged drought, hot summers 1961-1967, it was blamed on atmospheric nuclear testing which was ended by treaty in 1963.
There was the British sci-fi movie, "The Day the Earth caught Fire" (1962), nuclear testing knocked the Earth out of its orbit, sending it closer to the Sun.
Nobody remembers the heat waves because they don't photograph well.
Pp

 

[Ale-8(1)]

I'm beyond three-score-and-ten. Growing up, I recall hot weather. It was "normal". Summer jobs usually involved "custom yard services" and a custom bailing crew. Hot? Yep. My folks finally installed a window air-conditioner when I was in like eighth grade, but it couldn't really cool an entire two-story house.When I got a real job later on, it was in an air-conditioned office where the management apparently wanted to be sure we appreciated it and kept the temp dialed down to like seventy degrees or less. This was fine until five o'clock when we had to leave that meat cooler and go out into the hottest part of the midwest 95 degrees/humidity. System shock, every day!

I finally moved into a house with central air about the time I turned forty, and was never without it thereafter. Yep, pretty nice, but we kept it no cooler than like 77/80 degrees, the dehumidifying abilities of central air made that just fine.

Now, when I find it necessary to do yard work in the summer, I simply admit I'm gonna get all hot and sweaty so I hydrate properly and quit for the day when it seems right. I refuse to "hibernate" in the AC all summer just because I could. Fortunately, my wife is a serious gardner and shares my thoughts on summertime work approaches and AC settings.

What I appreciate the most about AC is being able to get a good night's sleep without lying in a puddle of sweat. :wink:

 

[Bob Wright]

Big difference now and back "in the day" is the way folks dress. We always wore, and I still do, a long sleeved shirt, jeans, and a straw hat. My clothes are good quality cotton. Cotton absorbs the perspiration, hangs loosely and through evaporation, cools the wearer. The hat, not a cap, shades my face, neck and shoulders from the sun's rays.

So, get wringing wet, take rest breaks, drink plenty of water, and get the job done.


And, years ago, I had a woman tell me this:

She was having her house painted, when she noticed her painter was getting red in the face and seemed to have difficulty walking. She made him come down from the ladder, and sit in the shade at the patio table, and fixed him a pitcher of Lynchburg Lemonade.

I said, "Ma'am, that was the last thing he needed!"

Bob Wright

 

[Fox Mike]

As I have often told people in my area, that complain about the heat. It is Maryland, it is summer, it is near the Chesapeake Bay, it is hot and humid. Deal with it.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Is ALL the ice up North melting yet so that shipping can pass through between the oceans?
Didn't that happen back in the 20"s some time or maybe earllier.

 

[Paul B]

"The other one that I find a farce is the "monsoon" here. Usually it runs from the
beginning of July to around mid September. This year we had ONE rain storm that
produced point zero two inches, since the end of May. This year it is about as dry
as a popcorn fart."

Well, officially the monsoon season starts June 15th and ends September 15th, plus or minus a few days. So far this year, I'll agree it's been a nonsoon for sure. it happens every once in a while, like about every five to seven years. As for rainfall, a lot depends on the "El Ninio" vs the "La Ninia". IIRC, the El Ninio means we get rain and La Ninia means we don't.
FWIW, raining or not, we still have a monsoon. A monsoon is nothing more that a seasonal change in the winds aloft. If they bring moisture we get rain. If not, we get the "nonsoon."
We've had thunderstorms forecast just about every day for over a month. We've had two forecast by a 10% chance and it ten percented all over us.
As far as forecasting weather, those who make comments regarding the accuracy should try doing it for a living. I did it for 33 years before deciding to retire. I could have gone another five years but 33 years of rotating shift work takes a toll, not only on the old bod but in a marriage and family life. Plainly put, I flat out got tired. Long live the monsoon/nonsoon, it's all we got to gripe about.
Paul B.

 

[blackhawknj]

I am an awful sweat hog and I am not overweight and out of shape, so I like to see the cool weather when I can sleep without A/C. I have found plain old water is the best rehydration, keep a jug in my ice box, top it off every night.
I wonder if too many years of too easy living and putting on the pounds are affecting people's ability to deal with heat. I look at pictures from the 1920s to the 1950s, people look fairly trim and lean, slender, during the war years people had to walk more, when TV came in there were complaints that kids were glued to the tube instead of out playing games. In WWII people were rejected for being underweight and for a lot of young men army chow was the first time many got a properly balanced-and filling-meal. All the stories of the DI following the overweight recruit down the chow line started in the 1960s it seems.

 

[Mobuck]

"I wonder if too many years of too easy living and putting on the pounds are affecting people's ability to deal with heat."

Just my opinion but my really big problems started during/after I had LYME disease. That was about 15 years ago and it's getting worse as I age. When the temps and/or the humidity get above 80*, I have real problems maintaining body temp and easily get too hot. I used to brag about working hard enough to sweat through my shirt by 9AM. Now, that happens within a few minutes of doing simple chores.

 

[Pat-inCO]

As far as forecasting weather, those who make comments regarding
the accuracy should try doing it for a living.

The "problem" with current forecasters is that they think if they add zeros to the
number(leading or trailing), it will suddenly become ennobled, and therefore more
accurate. - - - That's a lot like the people that were managing the copier (similar to
Xerox) that the company I am retired from, did. The standing joke was "measure it
with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, and cut it with an axe." - - - Accuracy can NOT
be added without better measurements. When you are measuring something that is
not fully understood, with inaccurate tools, and then shove it through a computer,
the computer will not increase accuracy!

THE best weather person I've ever seen was "Weatherman Bowman" of Denver
Channel 2, WAY back when. He would provide a forecast for tomorrow, then a
"looks like" estimate for the next day and an "average or above average, or below
average" for the third day. He was seldom wrong!

Now the talking heads, because of computers, think they can give SEVEN day
forecasts (that started in Denver Channel 7, just before Bowman retired). :shock:

When you ask the weather guessers about the changes in day to day forecasts,
they consistently whine about how fast the weather changes. GEE, REALLY?!
Then don't urinate on my leg and tell me it's raining!

 

[Dave P.]

I wonder if too many years of too easy living and putting on the pounds are affecting people's ability to deal with heat.

Very much so, healthy humans are very heat adaptive, takes about two to three weeks of exposure and effort.
That said, we still can't shed heat fast enough to work as hard in hot weather compared to cold.
I'm pretty fit for an old guy and regularly run a trail loop of 15 miles, been using it for the last 5 years.
I do my "easy" ( another word for slow ) runs on it. I run it in just a bit under two and a half hours, hold
just under ten minutes per mile pace. On a nice cool 60 degree no sun low humidity day my heart rate will
average about 132 for the run. Low 90s with sun and humidity same pace is no longer easy and heart
rate will be about 155 at the same pace.
The bigger you are the harder it is to cool down, I find even ten pounds or so personally make a difference.
That's a big reason why the worlds best men marathoners are about 5 foot six and weigh in at under 130 pounds.
Their ideal race temp is in the mid 40s.
Dave

 

[Pat-inCO]

That's a big reason why the worlds best men marathoners are
about 5 foot six and weigh in at under 130 pounds.

Several years back the senior men's marathon champion (he lived in Boulder CO)
went out for his morning run (IIRC fifteen miles). He was in the weight/height range
you said, and did the morning run virtually every day. When he was not back in his
usual time, they waited a while and then went looking for him. They found him on
the trail, dead at 55 years old.

I agree that regular exercise helps immensely, presuming you want to live past forty.
I prefer a good walk. One that takes an hour to an hour and one half. Note that is
not a stroll, but a good pace that you can maintain. Everything that I read tells me
that it takes twenty minutes for the walk to do you any good, so five minutes here
and five minutes there only makes sure your heart is still pumping. :wink:

 

[Dave P.]

I prefer a good walk. One that takes an hour to an hour and one half. Note that is
not a stroll, but a good pace that you can maintain. Everything that I read tells me
that it takes twenty minutes for the walk to do you any good, so five minutes here
and five minutes there only makes sure your heart is still pumping. :wink:

I've been lifelong friends with a woman who taught at University of Michigan, she
used me as a lab rat 40 some years ago and some of her doctoral students have
since. Also worked some with Barry Franklin at Beaumont hospital and they all agree
with what you've read.
They claim you only need to hit about 60-65% of max heart rate for about 30 minutes to
get big benefits in cardio fitness.
A lot of science shows all kinds of disease being reduced by regular exercise.
Present day Americans taken as a whole have got to be about the fattest, laziest
people on the planet.
I know so many people who are always complaining about their physical problems....
if they just got up and moved some they might be amazed.
Dave

 

[Mobuck]

I also knew a "runner" who exactly fit that 5'6"/130# description. I figured he was the healthiest man I knew UNTIL he suffered a fatal heart attack. He was driving to work after his morning run and it wasn't determined as to whether the heart attack or subsequent accident actually killed him. Single man, no kids, no other close family and the local LEO didn't care that much.
I "jogged" 1/2 mile yesterday and wasn't short of breath at all. Downhill most of the way. Rain on the horizon and I was that far from cover. New hip hurts significantly this morning. On the other hand, that was the first time I'd moved faster than a brisk walk in 13 months.

 

[Dave P.]

I "jogged" 1/2 mile yesterday and wasn't short of breath at all. Downhill most of the way. Rain on the horizon and I was that far from cover. New hip hurts significantly this morning. On the other hand, that was the first time I'd moved faster than a brisk walk in 13 months.

Has your new hip gotten to the point where it hurts less now then before you had it replaced?
I know you weren't real pleased with it a while back.
Dave

 

[Pat-inCO]

I had a few things happen overnight (I won't bore you with details) and I was outside
at 03:30 . . . 90 degrees. By the time I got back inside I was thinking "I don't
remember it being THAT hot before". :shock:

This morning I had a few things to do outside, got them done and again thought
"I don't remember it being THIS hot before" (91 degrees).

This Summer is kicking my butt. I moved in here in July 2018. HOT seemed an
understatement. Last Summer seemed less of a problem. This summer I can not
go outside without immediately sweating, then it takes five to fifteen minutes to
cool back down.

I guess olde age has dun-did run me down.

OH!
THAT'S IT!
I have not done any range time . . . THIS YEAR! :shock: . :shock: . :roll:
I'll bet that's it! :wink:

 

[blume357]

"Things are so bad they've never been this bad before"

That has been the on going theme of both weather and news for years.....

Actually I finally decided two weeks ago to just call off the rest of the Summer.

 

[blackhawknj]

In the 1990s I did CW re-enacting, July 4, 1993 we did 130th Gettyburg, Pickett!s charge-99 degrees.
There was some guffawing when James Fixx-The Complete Book of Running -died of a heart attack while running, his father died young from heart problems, Fixx had been a smoker, the running gave him some more healthy years.
I tell people we could solve the problem of obesity and flabbiness among the kids, take the schools off the power grid, hook up all the computers, etc. to bicycle generators, the only way they can get power is by pedaling, the kids who are troublemakers, etc. instead of detention so many "hours of power." Same thing in the prisons.

 

[Pat-inCO]

According to the Tele-Bission last night:
1) Days above 110 degrees (was high twenties) is WAY above thirty and looks
like it will go above forty.
2) As of yesterday, we set the record for highest average temperature for an
entire Summer (with a ways to go).

The amazing part to me is that the CA coast area has been cooler than I have
seen/remember. Denver has had a few 90+ degree days, but I've seen on the
weather maps MANY days where there was more than twenty degrees difference
in temp with Phoenix; Occasionally thirty.

Our "monsoon" is now being called a NONsoon.

Gee . . . I'll bet it's called WEATHER. :shock:

I'm really interested in seeing this month's electric bill. Last month's bill, after
having the Low-E windows installed mid way in the billing month, was $50 LOWER
than last year's, and it was a higher temperature. - - - I . . . may . . . have picked
just the right time to have them installed. :wink:

 

[blackhawknj]

One of the advantages of being an apartment dweller is that if the A/C goes it's a lot easier to replace. I came home one summer night a few years ago, found the A/C in my bedroom had quit, 10-15 minutes of wrestling the old unit out of the housing, installing another unit. I was sort of irked, the unit that quit was a GE labeled made in the PRC unit. I paid good money for it-$20 at a yard sale. Got 300 days out of it. The one I am using now is a GE labeled made in Thailand unit. This is its 6th summer-$45 at a Goodwill.

 

[Cholo]

I believe most people think that extreme athletes, like marathon runners and triathletes, are really healthy and nothing could be further from the truth. I saw 25 years ago that many were dying at a relative young age, then I started reading into it.

I've been semi interested in doing some motorcycle trail riding like The Great Continental Divide Ride here in the USA. It lead me to YouTube videos of others who have done some unusual trail rides. One was thru the Sierra Madre mountains in Mexico. The rider came across a most interesting gringo who the locals called Caballo Blanco. He went by the name of Micah True (not his birth name) and he organized long distance endurance runs with the indigenous locals, and anyone in the world who wanted to compete. They were held in Urique, Chihuahua, Mexico.

When I finished this trail biking video I decided to look up this character, Micah True. He died at age 58 while running, 2 years after the video I had just finished watching. The autopsy said that it's common to extreme athletes.

Here's the Wiki link to Micah True, this race, and what lead to his death. Simply FYI:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micah_True

 

[blackhawknj]

No guarantees in this life except that we are going to leave it. I had a cousin by marriage-my favorite relative. For the 30 years or so that I knew her she was confined to a wheelchair due to MS. She made it to 90. Someone kidded me about being a regular bicyclist-at age 70, said one day they'll find me gone from heart failure. A lot worse ways to go.
Getting back to the heat, I drink more soda than I should but staying well hydrated is the first and simplest line of defense against the heat. Gatorade doesn't work for me, at 130th Gettysburg in 1993 I had Gatorade before Pickett's Charge. Since I did Union we were out in full view of the women reenactors and spectators. Not smart....