hottest day ever...

Seattle is known for its lush green surroundings, cold clear water, and temperate weather... except today. Today we set a new record for the hottest date in Seattle history: 102 degrees. Our normal high temperature for this date is 76. We'll be lucky if the low temperature is 76 tonight. The challenge for people (and pets) here is the inability to escape from the heat. The vast majority of homes have no air conditioning. Even many small businesses have no air conditioning. Those that have air conditioning are discovering that their systems can't keep up with this much heat, or are succumbing to power outages as demand races upward. My dentist's office called yesterday to warn me that they have to postpone my cleaning; the power was out.

Our house has pretty good insulation, so we close it up at about 10:00 a.m. (when the outside temp begins to exceed the ambient temperature in the house) and leave it closed up while the temperature races upward. We’ll keep it closed until the temps cool back down tonight – probably after 7 p.m. Currently, it's about 82 in the house (at 3:45 p.m.) and will probably climb to 84 before the afternoon is over.

Then we’ll throw open every window and turn on the whole-house ventilation system. Our furnace includes a whole-house mode that pulls in outside air to flush radon gas, which is common in the Pacific Northwest, out of the house. In the case of warm weather, it will also pull cooler air from outside and reduce the house temperature quickly.

It’s been a year of interesting weather – far more snow storms than usual, and a “real” summer. I wonder what’s next.