Wednesday, June 24, 2015

At Midnight it's still 85 Degrees Fahrenheit in Redding California in late June

Tomorrow it's supposed to be 114 to 112 and around 102 in Mt. Shasta Fahrenheit. Let me convert that for you if you are used to Celsius. 114 Fahrenheit is 45.5plus degrees Celsius. At least it isn't humid like it likely is in Pakistan because this should be the monsoon season just like in India where they also lost a lot of people to the heat in May, (one month ago).

So, if you are in a drier place this time of year like Palm Springs or Redding you might survive 114 degrees. But, if it is also humid you are much more likely to die from the heat.

I personally lived a few days in around 120 Degrees Fahrenheit in Arizona where I was doing mining work then around 1975 with no air conditioning and camped out in my Dad's pickup truck. When I thought I might pass out from the heat I just got on my motorcycle (a 1974 Honda 250 XL dipped my T-shirt in water that is drawn by the wind in a windmill for the animals there and wet my t-shirt and rode my motorcycle down the dry wash at about 25 or 30 miles per hour until I had cooled down enough so I wouldn't feel like I was going to pass out from the heat. So, we stayed about 3 days when the highs were 120 to 125 degrees then in Gila Bend, Arizona. The coldest it got then was 100 degrees Fahrenheit around 6 am in the morning while we were working there. So, I was pretty glad to get back to my family in California after that ordeal. At least I was young enough to survive it if I spent enough time in the shade of a large cactus or the shade of a boulder when it was the hottest. We tried to do most of our work either before 10 am or after about 6 pm to get our 8 hours or work in or more. This kept us alive working in that much heat. Salt crystals would form under the arms of my T-shirt and would get hard so you had to break it up so it didn't hurt your armpits because you were sweating so much.

We slept in the back of the pickup truck because you are much less likely to wind up with Red Ants, Scorpions, or Rattlesnakes in bed with you when you wake up during the night or morning. On the ground this can be hazardous unless you are in a tent. But, at these temperatures it was too hot to sleep in a tent so I think we had air mattresses in the back of my Dad's pickup truck instead.

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