Lower Mainland Weather Central

[mezzanine]

Originally Posted by s211

Considering that public policy has equated building-wide a/c systems as akin to clear-cutting old growth forests, and then championed high-rise apartments that are nothing short of greenhouses during hot spells, administrations should shoulder the blame for their ineptitude and the public's response to it.

And now I await the civic administration fanboys that think I'm 10000% wrong, and we should instead just hydrate often, and sacrifice our comfort to our bureaucratic gods.

That's right, climate change is causing increasingly major disruption to our way of life that will force a reckoning by all levels of government on past and future policies.

Couldn't agree more!

[SpongeG]

I passed a house in surrey tonight that had a sprinkler running on its roof, only part of the roof. random.

Also at Walmart in Lougheed, there was no bottled water at all. I heard that Walmart in Ft St John had also run out of water from a Facebook post of someone I know who lives there.

[mcminsen]

Where in Vancouver is there truly effective and robust air conditioning now?

I was in a Safeway store on Sunday and it was great. I lingered for half an hour and made a point of inspecting most of the frozen food items.

I was just in Costco an hour ago and it also was very nice, especially the dairy cooler.

The "air conditioning" in my hotel (Sandman on Georgia) became almost useless yesterday. The temperature in the room isn't going below 29 C and the humidity is about 56%. We had a maintenance guy come in and look at it but there was nothing to be done and the whole hotel was the same way. It was a bit better than being in my apartment, though.

I noticed that the other hotels in the area had a lot of people (guests) lounging in the lobby areas where I presume the air conditioning is a bit better than in the rooms.

It would be interesting if 8 X on the Park was occupied and we could get some anecdotal reports from residents on how the geothermal (?) building cooling system was working.

And as far as cooling centres are going, I wonder why they couldn't open up the various skating rinks in town. Maybe they could get the cooling system for the skating surface going on a low setting and get it nicely cool (not frozen). Imagine allowing people to come in with their folding chairs and spread out on the rink surface and spend a few hours chilling. And open the dressing rooms so people could have showers.

Just some thoughts. I'm about to have another long cool bath and then I guess it's back to the hotel room. I presume it's going to be a few more days before we really start to come out of this crazy heat and the infrastructure gets back to a more normal temperature.




my living room clock

[s211]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

It would be interesting if 8 X on the Park was occupied and we could get some anecdotal reports from residents on how the geothermal (?) building cooling system was working.

My personal experience with geo-cooling is that it's 99% snake oil. It will never deliver adequate cooling levels.

[mattropolis]

IKEA in Coquitlam was nice on Sunday. The AC worked well. I made a point of going through the rat maze twice. LOL Didn't buy anything! The cafeteria was a bit warmer, but at least you can take masks off while you eat.

[mcminsen]

My apartment is like an oven and I know it's probably going to be another week before it get's comfortable. The floors, walls, countertops, everything is hot.

So, as I was soaking in my cool bath I got the idea of leaving the tub filled with cold water all the time. Even throwing all my ice cubes in it. I'm also going to leave my kitchen sinks filled with cold water and ice while they're not being used. Doesn't cost anything and it's easy to do.

I'm desperate so every little bit helps.

BTW, I was just talking to a neighbour who got a new portable air conditioner a week ago and he said it was working great... until Sunday. Since then it's not really helping much.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by s211

My personal experience with geo-cooling is that it's 99% snake oil. It will never deliver adequate cooling levels.

I think that is exactly the FortisBC cooling system our building is having and it has been overpowered by the weather. Normally it is fine and definitely a lot cheaper to run than proper A/C but it has its limits

I have been coming to our office yesterday and today. With few people in it is almost freezing with the A/C blowing. I actually had to move out from my office to sit on the floor to warm up. Such a difference from the temperatures outside.

[officedweller]

I'm gettng into the office earlier and leaving later
While getting coffee, a co-worker complained that it was too cold in her office - mine a bit too.

My condo is pretty hot - I've closed half the blinds and left the windows all wide open (hoping no birds fly in).
I think of it as vacationing in Hawaii or Mexico - temps are about the same.

I wonder how the Olympic Village systems are doing?

[davee930]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

My apartment is like an oven and I know it's probably going to be another week before it get's comfortable. The floors, walls, countertops, everything is hot.

So, as I was soaking in my cool bath I got the idea of leaving the tub filled with cold water all the time. Even throwing all my ice cubes in it. I'm also going to leave my kitchen sinks filled with cold water and ice while they're not being used. Doesn't cost anything and it's easy to do.

I'm desperate so every little bit helps.

BTW, I was just talking to a neighbour who got a new portable air conditioner a week ago and he said it was working great... until Sunday. Since then it's not really helping much.

Our A/C has been broken in our new building since we moved in. We had to resort to keeping the front door open and sucking in the cool hallway air with some fans. All the windows shut but the range fan on to keep the air circulating.

[dreambrother808]

I’ve gone on extended drives in my car just to enjoy the A/C.

The VPL downtown was a good, relatively cool place to get some work done today and not busy either.

[SpongeG]

my brother ordered an a/c unit for my mom, it will get delivered in mid July. Nothing available in any stores.

Bagged ice is till hard to find, the McDonalds on North Road in Coquitlam is having an ice machine problem due to the heat and is not offering many of its cold drinks, only iced coffees and pop without ice.

[csbvan]

It feels so, so nice tonight I missed comfortably sleeping my own bed.

[Migrant_Coconut]

No kidding - it's like all the wind came rushing back as soon as the dome lifted.

[mcminsen]

I noticed it about an hour ago here in downtown. Such a beautiful fresh cool breeze coming in all my windows. I've made sure to open all my blinds and windows wide to let it wash in.

I don't think I'll be going back to the hotel tonight.

[mcminsen]

It's 14 C in Victoria right now.

[MIPS]

I mean this isn't too bad. 46 is still uncomfortable but I'll take this dry heat over the low 30's in Tokyo any day of the week. I did yard work today like mist the garden.

Ironically we planned to get central air but it won't be installed until next week when this will be over with. In the meantime the annual tradition of a window 8000BTU upstairs has been met with limitations as we can get the living room down to 26 in the morning but by the late afternoon we begin to lose pace and by the time the sun is down we're up to 32. I had to dig out a spare 5000BTU to fit in a basement window and being partially underground has been fantastic as that little Wal-Mart special is keeping half the house under 26 so long as I circulate the air around with fans. Everything has been running non-stop since Friday.

Meanwhile in the car I don't have AC and my headliner is not installed so driving anywhere is like sitting in an air fryer. I can cook Pizza Pockets on the dash in a few hours.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by mcminsen

It's 14 C in Victoria right now.

Take some nice pictures there please.

[logan5]

25 degrees now, and it feels a bit chilly.

[jollyburger]

It's okay, it won't be that hot again for a few thousand years

In the case of this specific heat dome, which is a mountain of hot air stacked vertically through the atmosphere, it is a once in a 1,000 or even 10,000-year event for this particular area. How do we know? It's actually quite simple to explain.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/heat-wave-dome-2021-seattle-portland-weather/

[Migrant_Coconut]

^ Uh, not so fast:

For the past week, as computer models have consistently forecast seemingly unbelievable numbers, meteorologists struggled to grasp how a heat wave of this magnitude could even be possible, given this region has never experienced anything of this magnitude before. Were the models wrong? Or, given climate change, should we now expect the unexpected — is this now just becoming routine?

Turns out, the models were correct and we should expect extreme heat waves, even unprecedented ones like this to become more routine. "There is no context really, in the sense that there is no analog in our past for what we are likely to see this week," says Dr. Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University and author of the new book "The New Climate War."

But calling it a new normal does not suffice says Mann, "Some people called this a 'new normal. But it is worse than that," explained Mann. "We will continue to see more and more extreme heat waves, droughts, wildfires and floods as long as we continue to warm the planet through fossil fuel burning and carbon emissions."