One Hundred Degrees Fahrenheit

 Yesterday, Friday, was what I consider to have been the first day of "oppressive heat." It is when one goes outside and experiences the absurd sensation of feeling like one is being roasted in an oven. Perhaps the oven is on the low setting, like yesterday, but it is still like being roasted in an oven.

In June, the temperature is likely to achieve what I call the "11 handle"---temperatures in Fahrenheit in the 110s.  June is typically the hottest month of the year here, the peak of the "dry heat." Later in the summer, in July and August, it slightly more humid and thus the temperature doesn't get quite as high, but it is just as uncomfortable, if not more so, because the slight amount of humidity makes it hellish. In June it is as dry as anything you experience.

In June 2016, our first summer here.it hit 120 in parts of the valley. We were living up in Fountain Hills, which is at almost two thousand feet, several hundred feet higher than the valley, so it's inherently cooler. Still it got within a few degrees of the 12 handle. Everything just shuts down. Planes at the Phoenix airport could not take off because the atmosphere is not dense enough at that temperature. Or least that's what I heard. Signs goes up on businesses saying they cannot operate at that temperature. The air conditioning breaks down easily and at that point one must evacuate the premises. 

Our place there had a pool. During those really hot days, it was almost impossible to stay in the sun, so swimming was difficult, but I thought I'd go for a dip. The water was like a warm bath, but not yet uncomfortable. The pool thermometer was about ninety. I had to keep myself in the water at least up to the neck. 

What made it unbearable was the reflection of the sun off the water, which was impossible to avoid. It was like being in a solar oven as well as a regular oven at the same time. I could stay in the pool only by using by silver Golite backpacker's umbrella, which is very light by design, holding it in one hand white it rested on the water, so it made a shelter for me from the sun. Only then could I relax in the water

At those temperatures if there is any breeze at all, it feels like one is standing next to a bar-b-cue grill. One feels the breath of Hell in the hot blast on one's face. 

Of course if you out on the trail then, you are likely to cause physical harm to yourself die without extreme caution. It's the heat equivalent of Antarctica.

Today it was only 100, though, at the hottest part of the day. We've reached the 10 handle. But it felt slightly oppressive. So we have 20 degrees to go to get the "12 handle". The me of five years ago would have said, "bring it on, I love it." The current me is less enthusiastic about, in part because of personal health issues, but also because it doesn't seem so novel anymore. But maybe this year I can embrace it. Of course it might be a big bust and the best we get is 113 on a day or two. Life will go on.