So the heatwave here in the Northeast finally broke on Thursday, when the afternoon brought some fairly severe thunderstorms. Here in Somerset County in New Jersey, we even got tornado warnings, which are relatively rare.
Prior to that, it was incredibly hot. The kind of heat that people describe as "disgusting," with full humidity, so that you are almost sweating as soon as you step outside. I made a point of taking my walks fairly early in the mornings, before the peak temperatures would hit. And yet, I often was still drenched by the time that I was done.
Not fun.
Unusual weather for this region, to say the least.
Don't get me wrong: we usually have had hot days, even hot streaks, heat waves. What's changed is the number and intensity of them, as well as the severity of other weather patterns. In the United States, we saw all sorts of record hot temperatures established across the country, from the West coast to the East coast, and from the North to the South.
Here on the Eastern seaboard, oppressive heat waves have become the new normal. We had a few of serious ones so far, dating back to June. And the summer is not over yet.
The South was hit particularly hard. Here is a snippet from an article by Russ Bynum and Mike Schneider of the U.S. News (see link below):
The all-time high temperature at Tampa International Airport was broken on Sunday when the thermometer hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius). The previous record had been 99 F (37.2 C) in June 2020.
Furthermore:
The heat wave was expected to set records across Florida on Tuesday, with highs around 100 F. Heat index values in the Tampa Bay area were expected to range from 113 to 118 F (45 to 47.7 C).
Nor was it restricted to just the South or here in the Northeast. According to the same article:
Extreme heat warnings also were issued in the country’s center from New Orleans up to St. Louis, the meteorologist said. The heat index value on Tuesday was expected to reach as high as 110 F around the St. Louis area and in southwest Illinois.
That's 110 Fahrenheit in St. Louis.
Quite often, what it felt like was worse than the actual temperatures. On Tuesday in Savannah, Georgia, for example, there was a recorded temperature of 97 (36 C), but it felt like 110 F (43 C). Even for people in the Deep South, who certainly are familiar with hot weather conditions, that feels like it would be extreme.
Given all of this, mixed with the other heat waves which visited North America earlier this season (summer and, technically, very late spring), it feels like these massive heatwaves bringing record hot temperatures are the new reality. Apparently, what we can expect.
Still, many people are still in denial regarding climate change. They likely just do not want to hear about it, much less try to understand it. After all, this is scary stuff. So they often tend to turn to news sources where they are assured that they will not have to hear about it. Like, say, FOX News. The local FOX channel in St. Louis made the whole thing sound like fun, not serious at all. Here is a snippet from Joey Schneider and Kamy Smelser of Fox2 Now Missouri, which sounded lighthearted, even happy, about the whole thing (see link below):
Wednesday shaped up to be one of the hottest days of the year in St. Louis, right at the tail end of an extreme heat warning. So naturally, FOX 2 decided to make the most of it… With a little experiment!
The experiment was to see how everyday foods held up in this heat.
How adorable!
Oppressive heat experienced in St. Louis in the middle of a summer that has already seen multiple serious heat waves and many new record hot temperatures across both North America and Europe. But "naturally," the local FOX affiliate in St. Louis can be counted on to make a cute little story about it, conducting mini scientific experiments (while denying any real and serious science related to this heat) and seeing how S'mores and cookies and mozzarella sticks and pizza hold up.
Forget about the possible very dire consequences regarding climate change. Forget about how these massive, even unprecedented heat waves - which nowadays seem to occur every summer, and pretty much all across the globe - sure seems to point to the very distinct possibility that climate change is no mere Chinese hoax. Forget about how this year has seen the largest California wildfire on record, record flooding in Texas and the Northeast in recent weeks, and numerous record heatwaves all across North America and Europe.
Let's test how the food holds up in this heatwave instead. Let's make it a cutsie-wooty, fluff story that passes as news, so we don't have to worry our increasingly attention deficit brains to worry about the more serious side of this grim new reality. A feel good story that makes light of this brutal, oppressive heat that seems to grow more severe every single year.
Hard hitting news at it's finest. After decades of conservatives denying the very possibility that climate change is real, they are now taking the opportunity of all of these record heat waves all across the world to serve up even more distractions and to try and shut our brains down even more.
Doesn't it make you proud to be an American?
Below are the links to the two articles used in writing this particular blog entry:
Record-breaking heat wave scorches Southeast US by Russ Bynum and Mike Schneider of the U.S. News, Updated 7:09 PM EDT, July 29, 2025:
https://apnews.com/article/heat-wave-hot-weather-florida-southeast-6fbb7465ebaeb81ad00678e046b2c93a
Will cookies bake and s’mores melt in the St. Louis heat? FOX 2 finds out by: Joey Schneider, Kamy Smelser Posted: Jul 30, 2025 / 05:07 PM CDT Updated: Jul 30, 2025 / 06:45 PM CDT
https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/will-cookies-bake-and-smores-melt-in-the-st-louis-heat-fox-2-finds-out/
No comments:
Post a Comment