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Not a dumb question. It is hard to say. There was a similar spate of temperatures a century ago, though this appears to be topping those. Even Seattle, which i
by jandrewrogers 5y ago
Not a dumb question. It is hard to say. There was a similar spate of temperatures a century ago, though this appears to be topping those.
Even Seattle, which is robustly protected by its geography, is suffering anomalously high temperatures. Few people have air conditioning because most days rarely exceed 25°C. We are looking at 45°C on Monday, which is a once or twice per century occurrence.
- ehnto 5y agoI would love someone more knowledgeable to chime in, but my experience in Australia has taught me that we don't build for long term heat waves. My house can handle a day at 45c, but a week? Everything gets heat soaked, even the cold water tap is hot. Australians rarely have basements, but I wonder if this could be part of the solution long term. I have seen homes in the desert with huge concrete slabs inteded to operate as heatsinks/regulators, perhaps a concrete basement could do the same thing.
- jandrewrogers 5y agoThe Pacific Northwest is not built for heatwaves at all. It has a very mild and stable climate as such things go due to the geography. There simply isn't a need to deal with much heat. A serious "heatwave" in Seattle is 30-35°C, and they pass as quickly as they come. Even if homes had a lot of thermal ballast by construction, long runs of high temperatures like now require air conditioning. Something like 25% of homes, mostly newer ones, have air conditioning. It simply has not been needed historically. If there are a few days of 30°C temperatures, you opened a window. This current weather system is running much hotter and much longer than traditional Seattle summer weather.