# Anyone notice or think they've noticed anything weird during this heat wave? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 21, 2019, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-or-think-theyve-noticed-anything-weird-during-this-heat-wave/837387 "2019-07-21T02:50:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-or-think-theyve-noticed-anything-weird-during-this-heat-wave/837387/21 "2019-07-24T02:32:07Z")
Supposed to hit triple digits tomorrow. Even my usual tactic of consoling myself by checking out how much worse Death Valley is isn’t helping all that much, even though my high today was within a few degrees of their overnight low. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-or-think-theyve-noticed-anything-weird-during-this-heat-wave/837387/22 "2019-07-24T11:07:52Z")
> [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](#): > > I cut the back lawn during the brunt of it… and I found myself coughing like crazy. It wasn’t dust (mostly wasn’t dust)… it was like the air itself didn’t have enough oxygen in it. > > I’m re-reading that sentence and it sounds crazy. How could air not have enough oxygen? I mean, I went inside and I was fine. There wasn’t any funny smell to the air… it wasn’t as if there was some chemical leak. > > It sounds ridiculous I know but I’m not lying. The air was hot, stale, and just… bad…? That doesn’t sound crazy. It sounds like allergies. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2019, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-or-think-theyve-noticed-anything-weird-during-this-heat-wave/837387/23 "2019-07-24T11:33:35Z")
The water in the Potomac River around DC hit a record high of 94. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-or-think-theyve-noticed-anything-weird-during-this-heat-wave/837387/24 "2019-07-25T02:38:50Z")
Would anyone be able to point me at anything useful about the effect of heat on air pressure? My DH and I have noticed that under especially hot conditions (such as getting into a car that’s been parked for a while) we both feel like there’s not quite enough air in the air. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-or-think-theyve-noticed-anything-weird-during-this-heat-wave/837387/25 "2019-07-25T14:45:04Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > That doesn’t sound crazy. It sounds like allergies. It might… except I had a grass allergy as a kid… and I still occasionally sneeze at grass pollen… and this was Nothing Like That. This was like trying to breathe bad atmosphere with too much CO2 and not enough O2. Way back in the day (before it was probably cut by some stable genius who thought it was “fake news” ) the weather reports used to occasionally report on something that they used to call “air quality”. I never thought too much about it… but “bad air quality” describes the situation I experienced a lot closer than “sounds like allergies”. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-or-think-theyve-noticed-anything-weird-during-this-heat-wave/837387/26 "2019-07-25T15:16:30Z")
Here’s an article about how the heat wave negatively impacted air quality: > [@](#): > > But high temperatures can also worsen conditions like high blood pressure and can limit the effectiveness of certain medications. Heat can also exacerbate air pollution, which in turn can send people to the emergency room due to breathing problems. > **[The worst part of a heat wave is when it doesn’t cool off at night](https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/7/19/20700662/heat-wave-2019-health-new-york-washington)** > > A major heat wave is affecting most of the United States. Its biggest risks may come at night. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-or-think-theyve-noticed-anything-weird-during-this-heat-wave/837387/27 "2019-07-25T15:39:04Z")
I’ve got no idea how it’s related to the weather, or even if it is directly related to the weather, but I’ve got an odd thing about seasonality: Every year in late spring to early summer I have a brief invasion of Very Small Ants. This goes on for maybe three or four weeks; then it stops again, and I don’t see them again (at least not inside the house) till the next year. This year that occured more or less as normal – I don’t keep track of the dates. And it stopped as normal: no ants for several weeks. Good, that’s over with till next year – WTF? I just went into the kitchen, and the counter next to the sink, today, was covered with Very Small Ants. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-or-think-theyve-noticed-anything-weird-during-this-heat-wave/837387/28 "2019-07-25T21:26:42Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Yeah, super weird- It’s supposed to be a high of 89(!?!) tomorrow and Wednesday. Freakishly cool, considering that the traditional hottest part of the year is typically late July-through the middle of August, and highs are usually above 100 for that 2-3 week stretch. No kidding. It looks like we’ve been meeting or setting record lows around here. Which would be less surprising if it had been raining, but it’s been sunny for the past few weeks except for a couple of thunderstorms that have rolled through. My Texan apologies to the rest of the U.S., apparently y’all are getting all our heat. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2019, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-or-think-theyve-noticed-anything-weird-during-this-heat-wave/837387/29 "2019-07-25T22:53:18Z")
Also, the Arctic is on fire [Arctic fires shown on satellite are concerning scientists](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2019/07/23/arctic-fires-shown-satellite-concerning-scientists/1793530001/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-or-think-theyve-noticed-anything-weird-during-this-heat-wave/837387.md?page=1)