Breaking Records

Yesterday was the hottest day in San Francisco’s history, or at least in the 143 years they have been recording the temperature. It reached 108* in some parts of the city. It was only a few degrees warmer on the peninsula, which is usually a lot hotter than up here.

This morning it’s already 90* at only 9:30am. Looking at weather.underground, the temps in Oakland (the East Bay) and Concord (inland East Bay) are almost 10 degrees cooler. Usually they have much higher temps than San Francisco. This weather pattern is so, so weird.

A 100 degree day is hot anywhere, but you have to remember than in SF, almost no one has air conditioning. Most people don’t even have fans, at least not very good ones. We don’t usually need them! In SF we open a window to enjoy a cool breeze, we don’t have to create one with electricity. For us, 90* is an insanely hot day in the middle of a record heat wave, 108* is totally unheard of.

Right now my house feels like an oven and it’s only going to get worse. We have a birthday party at someone’s house (UGH!) and then we’ll just be hunkering down and trying to stay hydrated. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be in the 80’s, but today was supposed to cap out at 90 and it’s already reached that so I don’t have a lot of hope that tomorrow will be much cooler.

I know this is not a big deal when compared to the historic flooding in Texas. It’s just so disconcerting to see these extreme weather patterns all over the country: polar vortexes, 500-year floods, historic highs. Hard not to feel like we’re headed toward Armageddon.

 

4 Comments

  1. It was 101 for us! Like you said, no AC. Schools around here are not equipped for that kind of heat.

  2. Saturday my area hit 112, as sun set it was still 106 and air quality was ‘unhealthy for everyone not just sensitive people’. There was a visible haze inside my house. In pre-air quality control years I have stood behind polluting buses and trucks that created less polluted air.
    Looking out a window in SF on Saturday at 7am, I saw Mother Nature glowering like a dystopian force just starting to express it’s opinion about changes in climate.
    I am deeply grateful the power grid has held so far.
    They say the hottest day are behind us now though heat in general will continue until about Sept 15.
    Please be active in writing your elected officials. Please support the EPA’s traditional agenda. Please support the right to equality, life, education, opportunity for all people. Thank you.

  3. It worries me to no end how people deny climate change. My girlfriends and I had unknowingly planned a weekend away at a beach house on the peninsula for this weekend so I escaped the east bay and got a breeze. I felt bad leaving my family in the heat without ac though. This kind of stuff will only get worse. It’s so scary. šŸ™

  4. So crazy. Chicago has had an odd summer as it has been cooler than normal. We maybe hit 90 degrees for three days this summer? Definitely no days even close to 100. It’s been rather pleasant.

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