Three years ago we were suddenly experiencing record breaking heat for this area. We found ourselves under what was termed a heat dome. Heat dome was a new term for me. Growing up in the Sacramento valley in CA, I was no stranger to heat. We had what was called an inversion layer that covered our area in the summers, trapping in heat and toxic polluted air under a bubble that you could actually see if you went up into the foothills and looked out over the valley. That’s the air we had to breath. ICK! It’s no wonder I suffered with asthma as a child.
Heat domes seem to be much bigger in scale covering several states at a time.
And in recent years it seems we hear a lot about heat domes.
Maybe they just started calling heatwaves heat domes?
In any case, this area of the Pacific Northwest isn’t accustomed to that kind of heat. And when it lingers, it’s very detrimental to the area. Three years ago the abnormally high heat stressed the very forest into turning brown. Conifers’ needles burned. Landscaping plants became crispy. The sun gets intense here on sunny days even without a heat dome so with high heat it is troubling for the natural plants.
I had crossed my fingers that we would not have to experience that here again. After all, one of the reasons I moved up here was to avoid heat. Even in Sacramento the heat was getting worse as the years went on. It’s deadly without air conditioning. And up here not everyone has air conditioning. But it is becoming more common to get them here because of the worsening heat in summer.
Today is the start of a heatwave heat dome. It’s supposed to get record breaking again. From now through Sunday. I don’t think I’d survive it well had I not received the little air conditioner I had ordered on line the other day. Tiny turns into an oven on even cooler sunny days. I would like to get a small bank of solar panels and a solar generator eventually in case the grid goes down so I can have the air conditioning if nothing else. I don’t fare well in heat.
Climate Wary Homesteader 