Thinking Cool Thoughts During the Heat Wave

Published: July 6th, 2010

Andrew Freedman

I am acutely aware that it's hot outside, since the idea of writing a blog post on the ongoing heat wave, and the heat that preceded it in June, has caused me to start sweating. Well, that and the fact that it is ridiculously hot outside. Did I mention that it's hot out? I'm not sure if I did, since the heat is making me a bit woozy.

Even if I did make note of the heat, I probably should mention it again anyway, because man, it sure is hot out.

As in, hot enough that even urban hipsters are wearing shorts instead of slim-cut jeans. Hot enough that dogs on the street are kicking up their paws every few seconds because the pavement is scalding them. Hot enough that every conversation I've had today has begun with, "Hot enough for ya?"

Frequent readers of my posts probably expect me to get all animated about how this heat wave is yet another indication of climate change's effects on our lives in the 21st century, and how this sort of thing will become more frequent and severe in coming years. There is, after all, plenty of scientific evidence pointing to increasing heat wave impacts due to climate change. I wrote about this last year, when a study by one of my colleagues at Climate Central was published, showing that warm weather records have outpaced cool weather records nationwide by a ratio of about two to one in the past decade. That study also projected an increase in the number of very warm days in D.C. during the month of August by the middle of this century...

Read more at Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang blog.