Don't know about 140 on "the coast" yesterday, but I do know for a fact that it was 118 yesterday here in Oklahoma. THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!o: At least the wind was blowing...like a friggin' hair dryer!
Death Valley wasn't too bad the times I have been there, but it was 117 once when I stayed in Gila Bend, Arizona and 118 the next day in Barstow, California. We couldn't do much of anything outdoors, the sun just beat the hell out of us.
Yeah, but I've always heard out West, it's a 'dry' heat. Like somehow, it's not quite as hot without the humidity. I'm sure you'd disagree.
I went to Phoenix once...the same year Andrew hit. I was in the military on the Air Force softball team. We...yes...WE on purpose voted to have our annual Air Force National Softball Tournament in Phoenix...in August. We thought it was a dry heat too. WRONG! Turns out, there's this thing called "monsoon season". It was 113 when we got there...and humid!! My eyes fogged up when I got off the plane! We played our games starting at 10pm...and it was miserable. We "caught a break" when Andrew came ashore in S LA. We were directed to go assist with clean up and security. After a week in Berwick following a hurricane, I couldn't figure out which place was hotter...there or Phoenix!
You don't feel as miserable in the low humidity, because you aren't soaked with sweat. But the temperature is so high and the sun so direct, not being filtered by a bunch of hazy humid air, that sunstroke or heat exhaustion can come quickly if you aren't prepared.
This thread should be archived under the heading, "Things That Posters Distract Themselves With Between Baseball and Football Season". Humidity makes all the difference. An 87 degree day in Baltimore with 60% humidity is MUCH more bearable (i.e., I can sleep without the a/c in my house) than an 87 degree day in Louisiana wiht 90% plus humidity. Ninety degrees with low- to mid-humidity is hot; it wears me out, but I can be in the heat all day and function after a day spent in it (though I'd be tired, no doubt). Ninety degrees with high humidity is unbearable...and I can only function outdoors in the early mornings and late afternoons...and then only with copious time spent inside and directly under an a/c vent.
True. The highest temperature ever recorded in the United States was 134 degrees in Death Valley, Calfornia in 1913. That was also the record for all of North America. I'm not sure what the record for the hottest day in all of Louisiana is, but I heard how the New Orleans Times-Picayune recently reported in a late June 2009 article the highest temperature in New Orleans history: 104 degrees--recorded at Audubon Park. See: Mercury hits 104 in New Orleans, hottest day on record - NOLA.com
In Baton Rouge, June 2009 was the third hottest June on record, according to Jay Grymes, WAFB Chief Meteorologist. Grymes said: "If you look at the last three weeks of June, and particularly the last half of June … that’s the hottest second half of June dating back all the way to 1930 when we have records.” Daily Reveille - Baton Rouge experiences third-hottest June in recorded history
