The obvious answer, of course, is that we don’t really know. If Seattle, America’s capital of comfortable summers, can swelter more than Atlanta, Washington and New York (Seattle’s new high of 108F, or 42C, now tops the hottest temperatures ever observed in each of these cities), what does this mean for the rest of the nation? Will 110s soon invade the eastern seaboard? Will 120s become commonplace in Los Angeles? When a city ringed by evergreen trees and lakes galore sizzles like the desert south-west, it’s disconcerting. When a city like Seattle, nestled up against the cool waters of Puget Sound, bakes in triple-digit heat for three days in a row, it’s not a good sign. The heat wave gripping our part of the country has gone from significant to sickening. And for pete’s sake, this is day three of the 100s. A 10-minute stroll feels like a 20-minute run. Stepping outside feels like stepping into a sauna. All across the city, a stifling heat blankets the air, interspersed with the low drumming of over-worked fans and the occasional creaky air conditioner (if you’re among the 44% of Seattleites who happen to own one). Neighborhood streets, which normally would be filled with the sounds of children laughing and playing, have become ghost towns. And just like that, Seattle has done in the span of three days what it previously took 125 years to accomplish: logging three 100-degree days. And it was over 100 yesterday and the day before, too. As I write this, sunset is an hour away and it’s still 100F (38C). This was Seattle, after all.Īnd then came June 2021. Even more fortunately, we told ourselves, we’d just endured a once-in-a-lifetime heat wave, the likes of which we’d never see again. 103 degrees? How was our proudly un-air-conditioned town supposed to sleep? How could we cool off at night if there was no marine air to open our windows to?įortunately, the temperature fell each day after that, with highs dipping below 70F (21C) by the first week of August. Near the end of July, the mercury spent two days hovering in the mid-90s, taunting Seattleites with the potential for triple-digit heat before making good on its promise and soaring to 103 on day three. And for the next 15 years, our summertime weather by and large stayed the same: cool mornings under a deck of clouds, and sunny afternoons under room-temperature skies. The answer? In the previous 90 years of record-keeping, it had happened just once before, in the summer of 1941. In 1994, the summer after I finished third grade, the temperature in Seattle briefly reached the century mark on a hot July afternoon, catching forecasters off guard and sending local media outlets scrambling to unearth when – if ever – such a feat had occurred in the past.
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