Airport shut down because of excessive heat...

[Duncan Edwards]

I know the old comment is the heat in Arizona is a "dry heat," but I will tell you that, when it gets up to 110 degrees or above, you don't care if it's a dry heat. It's HOT!

I'm currently fighting a major plumbing issue at home and spent yesterday into the night under the house in a very low crawl space digging up a sewer line. It was hot, stagnant, stinky, and after some hours, claustrophobic. I'm so dehydrated right now I feel like crap but can't sleep. It's a miserable feeling but I've been worse before. Having not had time to get acclimated I ran on a surprise 80 degree day once in early March and for the last few miles of the run I was with my favorite dog. Problem was the dog had been dead for several years and I didn't see a problem with that at the time but I knew something wasn't right. Fortunately the Gatorade wasn't far away but I felt rotten for a couple of days. A lot of it has to do with your age and what you get used to. I can now honestly say I'm too old for this shit. Literally.

[Lomax]

I can tell you that in my hometown in Arizona on the Colorado River, we hit 129 degrees Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. I've lived here for 21 years, and I have never seen it this hot.

Personally, I start to suffer when it reaches 75 - and enter full panic mode at 85. I remember a few years back an entire week at 95+ (I think it touched 100 a couple of times). I didn't enjoy it a bit.

I remember learning at school that the larger the landmass the greater the extremes of temperature in both summer and winter (yes, England can notoriously be shut down by one inch of snow...). I'm really grateful that I live on an island.


Incidentally - in my entire life, I've never lived or worked in a building with air-conditioning.

[schlamm]

it has a cumulative effect over time, it got down to a bone chilling 91 overnight and will return to the 110+ range once again today....
the only caveat is the possibility of some ass kicking storms later, will bring humidity into the mix but also kill the string of 110 or higher days

Good luck with the plumbing, that is one subject and skill I sincerely suck at

[bbjohn]

For what it's worth, my dad spent summers in Phoenix and in Orlando, Florida. However, he said the most miserable summers he ever spent were in St. Louis. It's easy to see why. St. Louis is in a valley where they don't get a lot of wind. You have high humidity, high temperatures, and a lot of stagnant air. It's the perfect combination for a rotten place in the summer.

Can you imagine playing baseball in the afternoons in that kind of environment? For years, the Cardinals (along with the Browns until they moved to Baltimore after 1953 season) did just that. It's easy to see why St. Louis became an early place where night baseball was accepted.

The second Busch Stadium opened in 1966, and the All-Star Game was held there. The temperature on the field at game time was 105 degrees Fahrenheit. I read several hundred people had to be treated for heat-related medical emergencies. When asked what he thought about the new ballpark, Casey Stengel remarked, "It sure holds the heat well."

- Big Bad John