Brutal Heat Wave coming

[LeeRevell]

Figured this warning should go into the Safety subforum.  For y'all out west and in the PNW areas, watch your temps!  Gonna be bad for a week or more, from what he is saying......

http://www.weather.com/news/weather/video/record-breaking-temperatures-for-the-west

 

[sparky1]

upper 90's here in southern Va.

 

[East]

Looks like it's going to stick around the upper 60s to lower 80s here in NE Ohio for the next 10 days. This seems backwards, usually this part of the country is getting 90-100F while the pacific northwest is staying relatively livable around this time of the year. Stay safe.

 

[John_Camping]

Looks like the south bay is going into the upper 80's-low 90's starting thursday, I should retreat to SF high 60's forecast there.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Not particularly relevant to our situation, but I see they are having a killer heat wave in India and Pakistan.  Temperatures in some places hitting 120 degrees, and reports of 600 dead from the heat in Pakistan.

Just a reminder that you've got to be really careful about high heat.

Regards
John

 

[gramakittycat]

Over 100 the past 2 days here in New Mexico

 

[SoulRaven]

There's a HUGE factor regarding heatwaves in areas typically unprepared for warm weather. Namely, the availability of shade. Around noon today I literally drove for 45 minutes seeking a shady parking spot and found none. Zilch. Nada. Best I could find were a few barely partial shady spots. This is where there are trees, stores, restaurants. But nothing is built or permitted to grow with shade in mind, so you can have an entire parking lot all the way around a massive mall (as I discovered last week) without a single spot containing shade.

Not one.

What. The. Heck.

When your van doesn't have even cabin air conditioning or a roof vent, and stealth is essential for personal safety...AND no shade is available....options to keep cool are very slim.

This week will be hard. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[One Awesome Inch]

Bad timing for me as I will moving into my van permanently in a little over a week. However, what I have found helps is to park in a spot where I can open my rear door or doors. Then roll down the front windows, and open my partition door. This usually gives me a nice cooling breeze thru the van.

 

[akrvbob]

Globally, as of the end of May this has been the hottest first 5 months since record-keeping began in 1888. Last year, 2014, was globally the hottest year ever recorded and so far this year is hotter.

Washington State is in for a really TERRIBLE year because the winter was so warm all their snow fell as rain instead of snow. All that rain just ran off into the rivers and into the ocean so this spring they was only 15% of their normal snow-pack. The Governor of WA has already declared a drought emergency and so this heat wave will just make that really bad.

Just a few extra degrees of warming means WA state is running out of water even though they got a normal amount of precipitation
Bob
.

 

[offroad]

Also southeast USA has been getting some 10 to 20 degree higher, for last two weeks. Heat Index because we have humidity pushes close to 110 every day. Hope to see a break soon.

 

[SoulRaven]

There's a HUGE factor regarding heatwaves in areas typically unprepared for warm weather. Namely, the availability of shade. Around noon today I literally drove for 45 minutes seeking a shady parking spot and found none. Zilch. Nada. Best I could find were a few barely partial shady spots. This is where there are trees, stores, restaurants. But nothing is built or permitted to grow with shade in mind, so you can have an entire parking lot all the way around a massive mall (as I discovered last week) without a single spot containing shade.

Not one.

What. The. Heck.

When your van doesn't have even cabin air conditioning or a roof vent, and stealth is essential for personal safety...AND no shade is available....options to keep cool are very slim.

This week will be hard. Thanks for the heads up.

Bitty,

I can't quite seem to recall whether you said you were in Portland or Seattle...

Regardless, if you can't find shade, think parking garage.  A lot of the hospitals have them, and nobody will bother you during the day, and they're free.

 

[SoulRaven]

Perhaps it's time to remind everybody about 12v A/C units. They use water, with or without ice, and the ones using a heater core for the heat exchanger work in any humidity, and actually dehumidify the air.

I fired mine up today for the first time this year, in anticipation of the coming heat wave. I used only water, no ice. 95f outside, and I shut the van up on purpose and parked in the sun. 115f inside when I turned on the A/C. 30 minutes, it was down to 75f, and at 45 minutes down to 65f, when I shut it down and went back and parked in the shade.

I really didn't need it today, because I was fine in the shade with my windows open and a fan, but I wanted to test it before I needed it, just in case.

These A/C units are pretty cheap and easy to make, one of the local news channels even posted directions on how to build a simpler version for I think they said $18, cooler and all. If the heat is going to bother you, you really need to build one right away.

I saw a different design of an ice powered cooler last week, that is simpler and shouldn't add any humidity too. Only power needed is for a 12v fan. It was kind of the typical 12v ice cooler idea, except they put the ice in a sealed container. I can't tell you how good they work for sure, but a pet rescue in FL made a bunch of them for their pet transport vehicles to keep the pets comfortable.

You're going to be running a fan anyway, so that design wouldn't use one bit more power.

Stay Cool out there my friends!

 

[BigT]

Supposed to reach 104 in Sacramento today.

 

[wagoneer]

West central California coast we get our natural fog cooler. Overbearing at times but returning from the Nevada heat a welcome sight. Stay safe

 

[GotSmart]

Lightning and heavy rains in the Midwest.  92 forecast today which means swamp like humidity.

 

[compassrose]

There's a HUGE factor regarding heatwaves in areas typically unprepared for warm weather. Namely, the availability of shade. Around noon today I literally drove for 45 minutes seeking a shady parking spot and found none. Zilch. Nada. Best I could find were a few barely partial shady spots. This is where there are trees, stores, restaurants. But nothing is built or permitted to grow with shade in mind, so you can have an entire parking lot all the way around a massive mall (as I discovered last week) without a single spot containing shade.

Does anyone besides me recall parking lots and roads that were light gray rather than deep dark "asphalt black"? It didn't seem like the parking lots were that hot. I mean they were hot but not melt the soles off your shoes hot. And I grew up in FL without air conditioning.

With all the "green" talk out there, you would think they would pass commercial building codes that would state for every X sf a parking lot had to have X number of trees situated to where they cast maximum shade.

But if people were truly concerned with energy conservation & global change, they would simply plant more trees. Plants clean the air, lower the temps ( both global & ambient) and clean the water. I would like to see parking lots with N/S running medians that had trees in them (but not lawn grass). So everyone could have a shot at parking in the shade. But I also think all cars should have those little deflectors so you can leave your windows slightly cracked open when parked to help keep the heat from building up so much. Which reminds me, I got to install the new ones I just bought for my Jeep today.

I have often wondered why the solution to anything enviromental is to throw money at it (expensive, high tech solutions) rather than low tech, often inexpensive to implement and maintain solutions. Rhetorical question. As soon as I wrote I knew the answer. Trees in parking lots mean less parking spots and fewer customers. Throwing money at a problem means special interest groups aren't moving $$ into places they shouldn't be moving $$ into (payoffs).

 

[John_Camping]

Trees in parking lots mean less parking spots and fewer customers.

This isn't true. There are a number of parking lots in the south bay area that have trees, and there is no reduction of parking spaces. The trees are placed in little diamonds where 4 spaces intersect. The problem is the added up front cost to creating the lot and the time it takes an effective shade tree to grow. While it in no way prevents a company with foresight from adding them, it's a simple reason most haven't.

 

[Canine]

Off Grid.Color me skeptical.

 

[SoulRaven]

Regardless, if you can't find shade, think parking garage.  A lot of the hospitals have them, and nobody will bother you during the day, and they're free.

Tried them already. The parking garages in Seattle are typically not tall enough to accommodate a full size van. At least, that's been my experience so far.

 

[GotSmart]

Tried them already. The parking garages in Seattle are typically not tall enough to accommodate a full size van. At least, that's been my experience so far.

I can understand a High Top not fitting, but building standards mandate a standard truck or van should fit.  I did a google search, and for example the numbers I found for LA vary between 6'10" on up.  Measure your van and write it down on your visor.