AMERICA - Living in an Oven

Before you complain about the weather where you live......

"Unrelenting Heat Alters Routines Across the U.S." by A. G. SULZBERGER and TIMOTHY WILLIAMS, New York Times 7/12/2011

Excerpt

When the temperature rises to three sweltering digits, it is a sure sign of a stolen summer day: Children find little joy in the outdoors, adults recoil at the work of their sweat glands and whole communities slog forward in the hope of a cooler tomorrow.

But like a hamburger flipping endlessly on a grill, each turn of a calendar page of late has brought more punishing heat to the Midwest, the South and even the ocean-cooled coasts.

The heat wave has been particularly unrelenting in Wichita, Kan., where the temperature first hit 100 this year on May 9, the earliest ever recorded. And for 20 more days, the temperature has passed that milestone — it reached 101 on Tuesday and is expected to remain near or above that mark for the next week, according to the National Weather Service.

But if you really want to know how hot it is, head to Michael Rausch’s farm outside of Wichita, where for the first time in his 57 years, he is wearing shorts as he walks his fields and milks his cows.

“I’m out there with my white legs and boots on, and it looks silly,” he said on Tuesday. “But I don’t care what people think. I’m just trying to stay cool.”

Other signs can be found at Freddy’s Frozen Custard, where the air conditioner cannot keep up with the heat and the employees cannot keep up with the orders; or at the city parks, where fully clothed adults stroll into the sprinklers alongside children because at some point, long past, cool is preferable to dry; or at baseball diamonds, where the position of catcher has been abandoned altogether rather than forcing children to don the extra gear.

“Take your hair dryer, turn it on high, turn it on hot and turn it into your face,” said Ross Viner, head of Drums Across Kansas, who is already preparing for ways to keep a thousand students in itchy uniforms cool when they arrive for an annual marching band competition next week. “That is what Wichita is like right now.”