#ac broke and we're experiencing a record heat wave

[hdawg1995]

I hate how heat makes me so irritable. I hate how it makes my mom irritable. i hate the heat.

only bright side is we both know its just the heat.

[chimichingas]

You don't need to get out of the States to see the consequences of unusually high heat in places that aren't used to it.

Just this past month, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Northern California, and Western Nevada (as well as a huge chunk of Western Canada) suffered through a record-breaking heatwave, which immensely impacted the Pacific Northwest in particular. We're talking the *highest temperature ever measured* in Canada and the hottest June on record in North America.

In Washington, temperatures in Seattle (where I live) have risen above 100 °F a total of *three times* since 1894 (when measurement records first began). This past month, we reached three consecutive days of temperatures in that range, and it was even *worse* in the suburbs and towns farther from the coast. Cities on the other side of the Cascades, where it's a lot less temperate, reached all-time records. Minimal temperatures, especially on the West, were hotter than whole summers in previous years.

Important to note: most PNW homes don't have air conditioning-- we rely on fans during the summer. Seattle in particular has the lowest percentage of air-conditioned households of any major metro area in the country (Portland having the third-lowest itself). I saw SO many tweets from people outside the area around this time responding to complaints with "wHy DoN'T yOu JuSt TuRn On YoUr AC," which only highlights how unaware people *within our own country* are of what's considered even complaint-worthy in certain places. People were *booking hotel rooms* to make use of their ACs.

Here's another thing people don't consider: do you know how this kind of heat impacts the environment and agriculture in places that are unaccustomed to it? Ocean life along the coasts were boiling and frying in the heat-- BILLIONS of seashore animals. Orchards were effectively *cooked*, and drought conditions worsened considerably. There was an early start to wildfire season, and state emergencies in place in WA, OR, and ID due to the risk. Trees were drying up. Juvenile birds were dying in their nests. Even our mountain regions experienced unprecedented heats, which considerably accelerated glacial melts: Mount Rainier's snow cap shrunk by *30%*. This was the strongest melting episode in a century.

Now let's talk about HUMAN casualties. Just under 900 recorded deaths occured, mostly in Canada (in the five years preceding this wave, only *five* heat-related deaths were registered in BC). We broke the 100 mark in WA and OR each (for comparison: between 2017-2019, only 12 deaths were registered in OR). 1,100 people were hospitalized and nearly 2,800 emergency room visits were caused by the heat. COVID restrictions had to be waived for cooling shelters in the PNW.

Let's not forget that homeless people also exist. How do you think they fared (and are faring elsewhere) this summer?

Before you mock and disparage people who complain about heat waves (or extremely divergent weather patterns in general), *please* do a quick Google search of how the they're impacting the regions the complaints are coming from. It will literally only take you five seconds to see the flood of articles detailing their effects. *Please* inform yourself before you say things that are ignorant at best and lacking empathy at worst.

Europe is currently being burned alive and people still think climate change is a joke. It’s warmer in North Europe than in the middle eastern deserts.

Nearly all northern countries broke their decades old heat records this week.