So Hot, So Dry, So Early - Midwest Facing Intensity Of Heat, Drought Unseen Since 1930s

[hatrack]

EDIT

Temperature records are being broken and residents are suffering in what Keeney called a "corridor of extreme heat," generally through Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and into western Kentucky. Heat records are being shattered as are records for the number of days in a row the temperature has hit 100 or higher, he said.

Take St. Louis, for example. The last time the city was this hot for this long was in 1936, said Keeney, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Central Region Headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. Then, the city recorded 13 days in a row of temperatures 100 degrees Fahrenheit or over. That devastating heat wave of the mid-'30s killed thousands of people and destroyed many crops.

The culprit in the current wave is a dome of high pressure that has been hovering over the eastern part of the U.S., said NWS spokesman Pat Slattery in an interview with The Times on Friday. "It's kicked the jet stream way to north, in some places into Canada, so there’s no way for the normal rotation of weather systems to get here into the middle of the country, which would bring us some moisture. So drought becomes more and more a major factor."

Gregg Steele, a farmer for 35 years, has acreage in Missouri's Ray County and has been watching as the heat and drought have damaged his crops. "It hasn't been this hot here this long since the '30s," Steele, of Richmond, Mo., said Friday in a phone interview. On Thursday, it was 105 degrees, he said, and it's been 10 days with no sign of rain.

EDIT

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-midwest-heat-relief-20120706,0,5668282.story

[CoffeeCat]

1. I'm in Iowa...

...and it's been horrendously hot for the past two weeks. Prior to these hot weeks, there was very little rain. Everything
is very dry.

I got into my car yesterday, and the digital temperature reading was 110. That's outside - not inside - of the car. It's crazy!!!
All you can do is stay inside or go to the pool. My husband and I walked the dog around the block today and it was hard to breath. The heat is just suffocating!

It's been unbearably hot like this for 2 weeks and counting.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. The heat & humidity here keep me nauseated.

Our heat indexes have been 110-112-115....due to humidity.
Walking outside is like getting punched, even tho I keep the house close to 80 indoors.
The nausea reaction is most unpleasant.
Not fun.
I cannot imagine how anyone can handle it where you are, esp. without A/C.

[Gregorian]

2. If we know we're causing a problem, why do we keep doing it.

A group of people are all driving up here from the Bay Area this weekend just to ride their bikes. And the guy who called me yesterday to let me know they were coming is flying to Easter Island to go look at the heads.



At what point do we change our behavior? When summer temps reach 120F? 130F?

People seem to be looking outside of their own behavior for a solution. You are the solution. But the solution means sacrifice. And I dare anyone to argue that it isn't.

[alterfurz]

4. "We'll keep doing what we do until we can't...

...and then we won't." -- James Kunstler

People only change from inspiration, or desperation. -- Jesse Jackson