My band is scheduled to play friday night on a porch. We are asking if it might be moved inside! 
One advantage to being mostly unemployed and broke is that I have no choice but to stay home in the aircon.
We have central a/c and a good portable fan. Plenty of water to drink. Blinds and curtains will stay closed (it’s waaaay too humid here to open the windows) and we’ll do minimal cooking. I agree with Pullin about the heat. 90 degrees is a heat wave? Lived in the southwest the last 12 years. But 105 in Phoenix is more bearable than 90 degrees with 70% humidity.
I do miss having a waterbed. We never needed aircon in our bedroom when we lived on a tropical island; we just turned the heater off in the summer and slept on a big bag of cool water.
I’m doing all my errands today, and staying inside in the central A/C tomorrow and Saturday.
Indoors is no problem. My central a/c was replaced 2 weeks ago. I keep the house at 75. Outdoors is a whole nother ball of wax. I have a horse. She is boarded about 10 miles from my house, and last year colicked from a heat wave. I have no intention of going through that again. My plan is to bring her into the barn each day around noon. Problem is she hates being inside by herself. I will have to hang with her to keep her calm. I wear shorts and a t shirt, bring lots of Gatorade and water, use a cooling towel, and take periodic breaks to sit in front of the big ass fans.
I guess we are lucky. Our horses move in and out as a group, avoiding bugs and sun as needed. The water in our barn is ice cold, so I think this weekend horses will be bathed.
Not trying to have a dick-waving contest, but OVER 80 is hot? That’s our usual midsummer low around here.
FWIW, we’ve settled into the usual midsummer (mid-July through mid-late August) high pressure system, which means that it’ll mostly be really hot, with no rain, and not a whole lot of cloud cover until the pattern changes. My least favorite time of year. 
Mine, too. I hate the heat. Sorry for you folks about to undergo the ordeal of this heat wave.
For those without A/C:
Freeze a bunch of those small lunchbag-sized gel ice packs and wrap a few in a damp towel and put it around your neck.
Run a bathtub full of cool water and get into it with a good book and stay for an hour.
Fill a spritzer bottle with water and mist yourself with it, then stand in front of a fan and let the water evaporate.
Tomorrow at work with the A/C
Saturday volunteer work at the library, an official “cooling center”
Sunday, at work with the A/C
N/M
Oh, yeah, here’s something I did during a heat wave when I was off work for a week due to skin surgery: I went to a local Whole Foods and got some cold snacks, and then sat with my laptop in their dining area for a few hours. They keep that place as cold as a refrigerator, and have good wifi access.
The dire-looking map showed South Carolina in the heat wave, so I looked at the local weather forecast, which says that is supposed to hit 95 here. Which is pretty much normal–it would be an unusual summer that doesn’t have at least a few days that reach the mid to upper 90s. So we’ll get a couple of days of that, then back into the 80s.
The heat index in DC for the next three days is forecast to be around 115f.
Luxury! Night time temps here don’t go below 90 for another 6 or 7 weeks prolly.
These things (Personal hand-held misters) are pretty awesome. We use them while playing sports in 90+ degrees all the time.
CNN: “Experts say the heat wave is only made worse by the ongoing threat of climate change…”
Okay, I happen to love hot weather, but I do feel for all y’all who are not so comfy in the heat. But that sentence. How is a heat wave made worse by a threat?
I was actually just coming into this thread to say, for those who maybe aren’t accustomed to really hot weather, that if your dog is panting that’s okay but if you see your cat panting you need to get that kitty to someplace cooler. It is not abnormal but is a little more concerning in a cat.
Poorly phrased, but obviously the duration, severity and size of the event are impacted by climate change.
There is this insanely addicting calculator that shows you what your city’s climate will be like in the near future because of climate change.
For example, my city of Washington, DC could have summers more like Greenwood, Mississippi; while Jackson, Mississippi will have summers similar to those in Sabinas, Mexico, but you know with more severe weather events. It’s fun in a post-apocalyptic kind of way.
Well, you know how people prepare for a heat wave in Dubai (meaning 120+ F, not a lame imitation of a heat wave): turn on the air conditioner and don’t go out jogging or anything.
The one that the people who aren’t used to this sort of weather are predicted to have:
Yeah, in Texas, houses and cars with AC-- and a GOOD AC that doesn’t break down in extreme heat-- are the norm. Not so for other parts of the country.
I know some people also count on it cooling off at night. It’s nothing unusual to have late July and August through September nights that are in the 90’s or high 80s. That fun fact takes some people by surprise when a heat wave hits.
Sorry, but this is like me saying, while I’m shoveling snow out of my driveway, “Oh man, this is so much worse because someday soon there will be even more snow.” Or, “This phrase is horrible, and it’s so much worse because all the proofreaders have been laid off.”
But forget that, focus on the panting cats.
To those who think 100f in the midwest is yawnworthy, keep in mind that 100f is literally 120deg warmer than it was here, what?, six months ago.