That's hot

The purpose the heat index and the wind chill serve is simple: In places like Midwest, where every farmer has an outside thermometer -- but not necessarily a barometer or a wind gauge -- those measures give a far more accurate readout of whether it is safe to work outside.

 

100 degrees is Vegas feels way different than 100 degrees in central Florida. The same way -40 with a 25MPH wind feels waaaaaay colder than -40.

 

For instance:

http://www.startribune.com/local/125895693.html

Minnesota did not break any temperature records this week. But cattle were dropping dead in the fields -- enough that the carcass processors could not take many of them.

95 with a dewpoint higher than 80 is a public health hazard.

95 with a low dewpoint, not so much.

 

At 8:20 this morning, it was 85 degrees with 96% humidity. By now it is near 100. I really don't ever care what the temp is. All I care about is how damn hot it feels. And it feels really, really hot.

 

My 12-year-old daughter is at camp in southwest Michigan this week, just in time for megaheat. Wonderful. We haven't gotten word that she's sick or has dropped dead, so we're encouraged by that. She was supposed to be doing athletics outside all week (it's a church camp, actually), but I wonder if they've spent the whole week in Lake Michigan.

 

I get to go home to western Kansas twice a year to see my parents. 105 in southeast Kansas with 60-percent humidity does feels different than 105 with 30-percent humidity in southwest Kansas. It's the difference between being steamed and being roasted. They're equally dangerous but for different reasons. The heat and wind chill indexes are meant to convey the level of danger to being exposed to the conditions but I have my doubts as to whether or not the average Joe really understands what it means.

All I know is this: I get to sit outside from about noon to 8 p.m. for four days straight this weekend while covering a state baseball tournament. The highs the next four days are supposed to be 101, 99, 97 and 99. Water and sun block will be the chief weapons in my arsenal against the heat. For the most part, the humidity has been unusually low here, so it won't be as bad as it could be but it still isn't good.

 

San Antonio's been hot, hot ... with the third worst drought in city history this summer.
We did, however, get three hours of rain on Tuesday and it was a God-send.
Man did we need it.
Aquifer levels had dropped severely and we've been on water restrictions for months.
It was hot again yesterday but cooled off today right now.

 

This is where I think the confusion comes in heat index and wind chill. They shouldn't say it feels like 110. They should say it has the effects of 110.

Working hard when it's 95 with high humidity is as bad, if not worse, than 100 with low humidity.

But what I want to avoid this weekend is dehydration. I may not be doing a lot of running around at this tournament and I'll be sitting in shade but I'll still be outside, sweating. And the first time I got dehydrated was when I was standing on the roof of the press box filming a football game in college. I wasn't doing a lot of moving but I was sweating a lot and didn't have any water. Sometime in the third quarter, I noticed I had stopped sweating and took it as a bad sign, so I went down and got some water. One of the trainers later told me my instinct was right.

 

We're not too far from D.C., and when I walked out of the house today, it literally felt like someone threw a wet blanket on me. The humidity is as bad as any I've experienced, and I've spent my share of stifling summer days next to oceans and gigantic lakes. Luckily, our plucky A/C unit kicks ass.

 

Well, thank you, Roosevelt. What's the weather like out there?


It's hot! Damn hot! Real hot! Hottest things is my shorts. I could cook things in it. A little crotch pot cooking.

Well, tell me what it feels like.

Fool, it's hot! I told you again! Were you born on the sun? It's damn hot! It's so damn hot, I saw little guys, their orange robes burst into flames. It's that hot! Do you know what I'm talking about?

What do you think it's going to be like tonight?

It's gonna be hot and wet! That's nice if you're with a lady, but ain't no good if you in the jungle!

Thank you, Roosevelt.

 

"First of all, don't make fun of the weather here, and don't say the weather is the same all the time here. Because it's not. In fact, it's two degrees colder today than yesterday."

"Two degrees colder, me without my muff."

 

Is this the part where I do a snarky post about how climate change is very real?

Because whenever there's a cold snap, the climate change deniers come out of the woodwork to make their ignorant-ass snarky jokes.