Around this time every year my daughter and I fly East to visit family in hot and humid Philadelphia, and spend a week or so baking in the sun at the Jersey shore… which is really kinda stupid, because this time of year is typically the most beautiful time to be in Seattle. Warm, sunny days, low humidity, cool nights. Not too hot, not too cold. Perfect weather.
So 102 in the shade? I mean… WTF?!
Yup, welcome to not just the hottest day of the year, or the hottest day for this date, but the hottest day in Seattle ever… both the highest high and the highest low (71 degrees) recorded for any day of the year since records started being kept back in 1891. And also, one of the most humid days I’ve experienced in my 17 years in Seattle.
This. Really. Sucks.
I never thought I’d say this, but I can’t wait until we head East next week to get a break from Seattle’s oppressive heat and humidity.
UPDATE:
The National Weather Service just reported that it hit 104 degrees at Boeing Field at 5:53 PM.
A few years ago, I was in London for it’s hottest day on record. Now I’m in Seattle, for it’s hottest day (my office is 94 degrees right now).
The temperature doesn’t bother me much. The fact that these two cities half a world apart have within a few years of each other reached all time highs kind of worries me.
But, Goldy, it’s a record. I mean, it’s not often blokes like me get to experience a record.
what humidity?
are you smoking weed again? We have had barely any humidity during this stretch of heat…
@3 With 20% humidity perhaps Goldy’s just exercising his literary license. 103 degrees the last I checked! Thank goodness for the low humidity!
Haywood @3,
From meteorologist Cliff Mass:
So there.
Dude… for the first time in my memory it is hotter in Seattle than the Tri-Cities. Unfuckingbelievable!!!!
Sunny and 73 here!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
@5…if you and the weather blogger dude(LMFAO) think this is “oppressive humidity”, then you guys are bigger pussies than I thought.
My god, people in washington are biggest, most pussified weather complainers in the nation.
Grow a sack for gods sake.
Hey, 8
You must be hanging around wingies, who, as is their lot, complain about everything. My wife and dog are out swimming in the Sound, happy as clams. Wingies, like you, are whining. Did I ever suggest that you could just bite me?
@9…by your rather twisted and unique logic, I guess that means Goldy is a “wingie”(whatever the fuck that is) also…..
way to look the fool…….
bite you? why, your wife not putting out? uummm, no thanks – I dont do queer thing. just sayin…..
@8 is right
70% humidity isn’t humid.
a day at 95 or 104 isn’t hot.
75% of our nation gets a whole week this hot every summer, and 65% or our nation gets a month over 95 degrees with 85-95% humidity.
try to love the outdoors ok?
and shut off the a.c., you’re changing the climate!
How about some environmentalism when it isn’t cheap?
Blow me @8,
“weather blogger dude(LMFAO)”…? Cliff Mass is the region’s preeminent meteorologist. He just so happens to also have a blog.
winger @11,
It’s hot and humid for Seattle… and who the hell here has air conditioning?
It will take a major suburban forest fire in their back yards – with a water shortage limiting firefighters’ ability to quell it – for cave dwellers Shires, Monson and Medved to acknowledge climate change is affecting weather patterns around the world.
Haywood, why is it the most rabid homophobes always seem to spend the most wind talkin’ about “sacks?”
Is it a Larry Craig thing?
Just askin’.
@14…..more rhetorical gibberish? oh, let me guess, your suffering from this “oppressive heat and humidity”….go complain with Goldy. Have any of you people ever been to eastern washington? pussies…wwhhaaaaa, its hot outside….LMFAO……
Thank god the guys and gals in Iraq arent a bunch of weather pussies like you all…
Low here tonite==39 degrees
Hi tomorrow==82
Ahhhhhhhhhhh
Hey, how are all you Metrosexuals holdin’ up?
You folks seem a migh fragile.
How good does the Urban stench smell today…you know, that distinct Bum Stench on the busses. The smell of exhaust permeating downtown.
You folks do not know what country livin’ is like….it’s fabulous.
PS–
Y’all need oxygen tanks and Mitchum deodorent.
I hardly listen to the radio since Goldy was canned.
Shires has a show right now?
That’s sick. That guy is such a dumbass even though he doesn’t tick me off nearly to the degree of Medved and that ugly pipsqueak Monson.
Ok blatherwatch has got me up to speed. Feeling good that Monson is finally getting something of a comeuppance.
In other news this “pro-abstinence” Republican loses control:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....46641.html
with a 22 year old. I understand pictures are involved. Ick..
What “family values”. Freak..
104 degrees at Boeing Field? That’s nothing. The news wire reports a South Carolina woman caught a man having sex with her horse. He didn’t go anywhere; she stuck a shotgun in his face and held him until the police arrived. This guy was arrested 2 years ago for doing the same thing with the same horse. I wonder if he’s a Republican? Hey, I’m not saying he is, I’m just asking.
I just returned from a week in the Garden State. It felt hot there (90) and humid, but there was air conditioning everywhere, diners, and good pizza.
Then I come back to Seattle, a place where it’s too hot to move.
@7 Very kind of you to air condition the goat shed, C. The goats thank you.
Hey, other than our dog (a chow mix with lots of fur) being quite uncomfortable, I can handle this. Hell, I’m headed to Mexico next week, so I’m just getting acclimated. No whining from this puppy.
@11 Statistically speaking, you’re technically correct, but what you’re not taking into account is that people who live in areas that get this kind of humid heat are acclimatized to it and the onset of the hot, humid weather usually is gradual. A change in weather as abrupt as this would give anyone, anywhere in the country, problems.
@22 Hey, let’s be honest, this weather is uncomfortable. Why pussyfoot around about it, just because some swaggering wingnuts want you to believe they’re REAL TOUGH GUYS?!! Ha!!! Let me say something here — unless these trolls have worn a flak jacket, steel helmet, and field pack in 120-degree heat in Vietnam or Iraq, they don’t know what “hot” is and are just blowing smoke through their asses.
Rabbit,
I’ve been reading a posthumous collection of Updike’s short stories. Great shit. My father recently told me his library includes about everything Updike ever wrote. He is about Updike’s age, if Updike happened to still be living. Any chance you (your moniker in mind) read a bit of the man’s work?
Hey Rog,
Natasha Chart got married! I had my suspicions when she moved to Pennsylvania.
http://openleft.com/diary/1416.....te-wedding
I haven’t read anything of hers in a long while but at one time she was a blogging machine.. It just poured out of her.
@25 Some. How could anyone who cares about literature not read Updike? It’s been a while, though.
@25 (continued) The most recent novel I’ve read is “The Painter of Battles” by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Our wingnut friends need not bother with it because it’ll be totally wasted on them. To my educated friends, I’ll simply say “read it,” and if you do, I believe you’ll thank me for bringing this Spanish writer to your attention. This book is special, and so is this author’s literary craftsmanship.
@26 Cool! I wish them a lifetime of happiness together.
Ever wonder how hot brimstone really gets? Just saying…not that i want to research it or anything.
#8,
Typical Republican. Do as I say, not as I do. Those rules apply to you all, not to me.
Combining the topics of local politics and weather: I got some campaign literature (~8.5″ x 11″ light cardboard) from Robert Rosencrantz in the mail yesterday. He’s running for the Seattle City Council position #8. I am thankful for this because the flier makes a really good fan. I would have perished from the heat yesterday without it.
@30 Don’t worry, you’re eventually gonna get a first-hand look-see.
@31 But he didn’t have unmarried sex! He’s married, and so is the intern — just not to each other, that’s all.
#34. Oh I see. You are so right! I’m so glad to see another repubublican standing up for the ideals of the marriage, by having an affair, and only resigning after he got caught.
35: At least he’s resigning. But then, he’s in a safe Republican seat, so they can just plug another Republican into the slot.
Up to now, it seems that only the Democratic politicians who were caught in marital infidelity resigned (Gov. Spitzer, D-NY). Edwards (D-NC) was no longer in office, so he didn’t have anything from which to resign.
In contrast, current Republican office-holders either:
(a) finish their terms after backing out of promises to resign (Sen. Larry Craig, R-ID), or
(b) stay in office and hope it’s all forgotten by the time they run for re-election, such as:
Sen. David Vitter R-LA,
Gov. Mark Sanford R-S.C.,
Sen. John Ensign R-Nev.
As for the humidity:
I agree that the humidity is A LITTLE higher than normal for the area. But compared with the the eastern half of the country, it’s hardly worth mentioning.
But I’m sure that despite the fact that our weather is making national headlines, a lot of the country is simply shrugging and brushing off suggestions that a rise in temperature above 100 degrees is newsworthy. But as has been mentioned repeatedly, three factors contribute to the hardship associated with those higher temperatures:
(a) very few homes have air conditioners.
(b) we don’t have the haze which somewhat filters the sun in the eastern half of the U.S. It’s easy to get sunburned here, even in normal summer temperatures, and the high temperatures we are currently experiencing add dehydration and heat stroke to the mix.
(c) we aren’t acclimated to it (although it doesn’t take that long to do so).
in washington we’re special because our 100 degree days are different than the 100 degree days in Dallas and New Orleans and Washington DC and New York City and EVERYONE over there has air conditioning and our 50% humidity is worse then their 90% humidity, you see
thus our hardship is worthy, whereas the street pavers working in Atlanta in the summer and the postal workers walking around DC in the summer and the people farming and digging ditches in Dallas all summer — man they got it easy compared to our hardship.
We, we, we deserve special sympathy and props, it’s all about us and our unique hardship, boo hoo.
38: Well, the hardest job I ever heard of was the guy glueing down the “turtles” (bumps on the lane lines of highways) on a Texas highway, in the middle of summer. If you’ve ever driven a Texas highway in the middle of summer without an air conditioner, you would know what I’m talking about.
My own father spent a summer post-WWII on a crew digging holes for power poles (dug by hand) in south Alabama. Not a job I would want, either.
Random notes…
The last I heard, the market penetration of residential air conditioning in this area is 13%.
According to my radio this morning, We’re within sight of:
– The longest stretch of 90-plus degree days on record
– Longest drought on record
We justt swung into an El Ninyo (phonetic spelling) period, which means much warmer and drier weather. This winter should have a really light snowfall. Typically in these years central California gets pounded by winter storms.
Guess what? Our soldiers in Iraq complain about the heat.
40: It’s one thing to complain about the current heat wave. Usually we only get two or three days in the upper 80’s, which occurs sometime in August. But this heat wave looks like it will be two weeks of 85 degree plus temperatures.
AND IT’S ONLY JULY!!!!! We still have the entire month of August to go, the month in which we USUALLY get our hot weather.
Which brings about the possibility that this is JUST A HINT of hotter weather to come. Could August bring us a week or two of 95 deg. + temperature???? If so, maybe it could spark a revival of the local fishing economy. Why go to Westport to fish for scarce salmon, when we can fish for swordfish in the Puget Sound!!!!
17. YLB spews:
At least Goldy had a job to be “canned” from Mr. Between Jobs!!
Perhaps that’s why YLB doesn’t get a job.
He fears being canned…therefore, if he stays unemployed, he can’t get canned!
What a genius YLB!
RHP:
Whew! I feel for you. I’ve visited family in Texas in summer and working on hot roads in summer doesn’t sound like fun.
My grandfather laid train track his whole life in Texas for Santa Fe. I think he started in the mid 20’s and did that for about 40 years. Way back in the day they drove the railroad spikes in by hand with sledge hammers in teams of 2 or 3 guys.
He was a very kind and gentle man, but he was strong as an ox and had hands of stone.