It's starting to cool, BUT...

@phendrick Lack of working AC (or, in some places, adequate water) will be an increasingly common cause of summer fatalities among folks my age and older. It’s not like a lot of us weren’t (and aren’t) part of the problem, but the climate shift doesn’t care about that one way or the other.

@werehatrack My mother’s family was from Buffalo, NY, area. We drove there from Dallas about annually, including during some summers. Our brand new 1959 Pontiac had factory air conditioning. Most residents there had never seen such and they liked riding with us on excursions.
In later years, vehicles with AC became much more prevalent there (as did pickup trucks). I don’t believe it is an option on new vehicles there any longer.

Their inside air conditioning (esp. in older homes) was still catching up last I was there, though. Most did have basements, though, where they tended to keep the more perishable groceries (other than refrigerated items).

@phendrick Note that the 6F increase is just an average. The reality might feel much more unpleasant than that.

Examples:

1. +100 degree warmer summer and -100 degree colder winter sums up to 0 increase, but is really unpleasant.

2. 6F average increase for a year = 12F increase for half a year or a 24F increase for a season or a 72F increase for a month, or a 312F increase for a week, or a 72F increase for two months on each even day.
   This does not feel nice.

A good measure might be a number of days above 90, above 100, above 110 etc.

@Ark_kun Your remarks.

1. Good point. Except for that is not the way it is working. Let’s use some more realistic numbers than what you gave. With “global warming”, a 0.2 degree rise during the summer is more likely to be followed by a 0.2 degree RISE during the winter also, not a 0.2 degree decrease. Of course, there are local exceptions to this, by both location and period. (And that is why they try to look at averages over the whole globe, and over decades or more.)

2. ?? Hunh? What period is each “average” you listed taken over? (And, I guess you are assuming zero increase for other adjacent periods?)
   But if you have averaged a 12% increase over a year, you have then averaged a 12% increase for each month or for each day. That’s the way averages work.

By your logic, again with no period base mentioned, if you “average” spending $100 more for groceries for a year, you are averaging spending $1200 more for a groceries a month? Wut?

I do agree that looking at trends in consecutive days over a certain temperature might be telling. E.g., locally here, in July 1971 one day we started a streak of close to 1100 consecutive days of NOT reaching triple digits.

But this summer, July - August 2023, we had a streak of more than 50 days of HAVING 100+ days. (I know it reached 44, with about two more weeks worth predicted, then I quit paying attention.) [Then it rained some a couple days ago and we had following days of not quite reaching 100.] So this needs watching, to see if it is a trend.

But you got me thinking about the NASA “averaging” techniques. If I have time, I’ll try to delve into more specifics.

Side note: A couple years ago we had a winter streak of two weeks of well-below freezing temperatures, along with a LOT of snow. Extremely
unusual here in this south central area of Texas. Makes the whole “averaging” and trend analysis business much more elusive.

@phendrick I remember trips as a kid in a full sized van pulling an apache tent top trailer where we had all the windows open on the highway to try to cool down. I forget the actual phrase used then but it was something like 55 air conditioning. There were wing windows back then too. Those I miss. It was nice to have air blowing on your face without having the big window open, or using it instead of defroster for the windshield.

@phendrick

It’s the rise in ocean temps that’s long concerned me. Took a bunch of energy to do a bit of that.

@Kidsandliz We referred to it as a “460” air conditioner.
Four windows down at 60 miles an hour. (The state speed limit for many years, before the Interstates.)

Yeah, I liked the “wing” windows, as you called them. They were great for ventilation. Also, back then I was a smoker (before I reached “maturity”), and the one on the driver’s side was a great place to flick the ashes without having them blow back in your face.
If I had them now, I would use them, for the ventilation. I never heard any reason given for why they were eliminated; figured it was cost-savings.

I once owned a Mazda RX-7 and the “moon roof” was a good alternative.

@f00l Definitely. Has a lot of scientists worried also, because it really affects the microscopic plant life => the smaller fish => the larger fish => us. In other words, the whole food chain.
Similar affects in small inland bodies of water leading to increased algae growth and promotes a lot of growth in various invasive species that came from warmer climates.

@phendrick @werehatrack This is why more communities are issuing heat warnings and promoting going to controlled climate shelters for folks w/o adequate cooling resources.

That said, where water supplies are adequate, drawing and cooling off in a cool/cold tap water bath is an apparently underused resource for staying cool, or at least to treat overheating.

Medically, we are seeing some increase in warm water infections in NY and other northern states, which are typically usually very rare here- think brain-eating amoebae and flesh-eating bacteria [Vibrio spp]. Definitely not a good side-effect of climate change.

@PhysAssist @werehatrack

think brain-eating amoebae

Actually, I’d rather not.
OTOH, if it becomes my problem, I guess I couldn’t.

@f00l @phendrick And the temp rise in the ocean affects the currents which mix the water and sends warmer water north and cooler water south, etc. That will be a marine life crisis.

@Kidsandliz @phendrick
TTTT, I never felt like those wing windows were at all effective, except for some limited effect when my 'rents were still smokers, during which time the wing windows were useful for them to vent [some of] their smoke out of of the car without too much cold air coming in [in winter].
We lived in Buffalo and Rochester growing up and never had AC in any of our cars until I was in my later teens, and that was only because it was an undeletable “option” on the package and vehicle they wanted.
Now days, I think I would perish without AC in my car- especially after the car has spent all day in the unmitigated summer [+ late spring to mid-fall any more] sun.
I do have a reflective sunscreen to put in the front windshield, but it doesn’t really seem to make much difference honestly- and I have tried several different ones/styles without much apparent effect.

@phendrick @werehatrack I have stopped swimming in unchlorinated [or otherwise untreated[ water completely, and have never used tap water for nasal/sinus irrigation [and I don’t have a Neti pot]- because there have been a few cases diagnosed incident to these activities, as well as the slightly higher number of cases contracted from swimming in ponds and lakes.

@Kidsandliz Thought about wing windows last week and how much I miss them.

@phendrick @PhysAssist And there is a documented issue with encysted nasties of various types that can survive the water treatment measures. It’s a hazard on the same level as a lightning strike in most of the country, but the problem is that unlike the kZZZZAP!, you don’t know it’s a possibility until the eventuality bites you.

@werehatrack
Exactly, but most, if not all of them do have some sanitation/disinfection method that works to remove, disable, or otherwise nullify them…

@PhysAssist My last line of defense is an under-sink filter setup to the separate tap we draw drinking water from. If I ever get around to running the plumbing for the icemaker in the big fridge, I will need to add the same kind of filtering there. The inline cartridges are better than nothing but not terribly effective. For now, we make ice manually in trays filled from the drinking tap.

@werehatrack We have well water, with a UV sanitizer and Iron/sulfur filter, and have not had any evidence of contamination to any tests in 30 years here.
I would neither drink nor swim in our pond water these days, although I used to do so 30 years ago.

@f00l I guess “throwing shade” on someone will now be a good thing?

I haven’t gone barefoot much since my teen years, but occasionally step outside my house that way for quick things, like getting the mail. A few days ago, while we were still in the just under 110 F actual temperature stage, I decided to relocate a watering hose and went out barefoot and actually burned my feet enough to be uncomfortable on the grass, which I have kept green, despite the water bill.

I was quite surprised, and can see how those issues with the pavement could occur. I long ago quit walking my dog during summer afternoons.

And, as my OP article stated, this is just going to be getting worse, and affecting a lot more of the country. People will have to learn to adapt pretty quickly.

@f00l Speaking of watering the grass, the Dallas Morning News had an article recently about the effects of the current heat wave on house foundations. Anyone with concern about the integrity of their homes should read this.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/weather/2023/08/24/how-does-excessive-prolonged-heat-affect-homes-in-north-texas/
[A paywall pops up pretty quickly, unless you are registered…]

@f00l @phendrick Houston put their next level of drought restrictions into effect this week, banning several kinds of water usage (watering lawns during the day at all, with only two days per week when they can be watered at night, and runoff to the curb NOT permitted, etc). They also warned that because surface water sources were running low and groundwater sources can’t be expanded, pressure levels may fall as inflow fails to match demand; people need to be alert for emergency water usage curtailments beyond the ones announced.

I doubt that the lawns in River Oaks will be parched in any way.