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The Kitchen Table

For Those in the Heat Wave

15 years ago

Has there been any indication in your long range weather reports as to when the very hot weather will break?

What are the average temps for you at this time of year? (Please include your state, if you reply.) I feel so much sympathy every day when hearing of your heat and humidity.

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Comments (14)

liz
15 years ago
It's normally very hot in the summers in Georgia...but the last 6 years have been unbearably hot...high 90's...even low 100's...this summer has been awful...but I drove as far north as Southern Indiana this summer and our temperatures were the same...

It usually starts cooling down mid September...We've had enough rain to keep things green and the humidity levels right on up there!!

I'm making plans for a Maine vacation next July!! LOL
marie_ndcal
15 years ago
This has been a very wet and cool summer so far. I do feel for those in the heat as I do not do humidity well. Looks like a early winter too.
Marie from ND
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We're about to have 5 days straight of 95+ with 100 degrees by Tuesday and NO RAIN. My cottage pinks are done in--nearly all clumps are brown and fried. The pinks have edged one path in my cottage garden since when we built the house in 2005. A few purple heuchera that have done well for years are also crispy and the creeping jenny (gold) around them is definitely fried. It's all that I can do to keep the daylilies going. The foliage is looking really bad now.
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Dave: Thanks for the update - it is encouraging and a relief. I was concerned about the loss of leaves so early in the season. When a hurricane or TS comes through, it strips the leaves from trees but this happens later in the season. I used to worry but the trees come back, often stronger than before. In September, a tropical storm hit and stripped the leaves off the persimmons that grow in beach sand, added more than a foot of sand around the trunks - and turned the fruit ripe. The orange fruit hung on the leafless tree like Christmas balls. I took this photo the next day; That persimmon has grown at least 2 feet since the storm. Re: water bills. Thankfully, I have a crock well for watering. We built a rainwater catchment system for the house - water quality is excellent and the water is free. I found the device you recommended. My husband invents new things and improves old things. He may be able to make a similar device that will do the trick. Thanks for the progress report and advice. You had a rough time last year but if all your trees survived, all is well. Pam
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Paula and Barbara, In general, temperatures over 95 degrees can interfere with proper corn pollination (and some folks believe it happens at high temps as low as 90, but I've never tracked it that precisely), but just because it "can" doesn't mean that it "will". I've seen pollination impeded at temps lower than 95, but usually only in a very dry spring. If you have adequate soil moisture and high humidity plus high temps, normal pollination can occur despite the high temperatures. If you have a lack of moisture, generally referred to as "drought stress" plus high temps, pollination becomes more iffy. Usually, if I can water corn enough in a dry year to keep the leaves from wilting, I'll get some pollination. If I do not/cannot water in a dry year like that I'll get little pollination. High humidity affects the pollen but drought stress affects the elongation of the silks. That's why in dry years the corn ears can be more short and stubby than usual, if it even pollinates and you get ears. Corn pollen sheds for a brief period daily, between early morning and mid-morning and that's a good thing since our coolest overnight temps tend to hit right around sunrise. It also sheds for several days, so you have several chances at getting good tip fill on your ears. It isn't necessarily an all or none situation. Some years, I've had the bottom portion of the corn look just fine, but no kernels formed on the upper portion. Other times, I've had no kernels form at all and in still other years, I've had spotty ears with a normal kernel here and there and unpollinated ones elsewhere. I believe that occurs because you get some pollination on slightly cooler mornings and none on hotter mornings. Some folks here turn on a sprinkler every morning to water their corn shortly after sunrise in the hope that 'sprinkling' it for a little while will keep the pollen cool and help it do its thing. I have no idea if the sprinkling or misting helps, but likely it doesn't hurt. Our corn has been silking for 3 or 4 days now and we're just as hot as everyone else, but not as wet or as humid, so I've tried to water it every other morning early in the day. I don't have really high hopes for a corn crop. I guess in about 20-something days, I'll know for sure. Once your corn has pollinated, your ears should be ready to harvest in about 18-23 days. To test the corn kernels for maturity when it is about time for you to pick the corn, pull back a part of the husk and expose a few kernels. Use your fingernail to puncture a kernel. If a clear liquid comes out, the corn is not quite ready. If a milky liquid comes out, it is time to pick the corn. Getting a good corn crop in our climate cen be tricky some years. Ideally, you'd plant as early as possible---and for me, that would be the last week of March. With luck and proper variety selection, your corn would pollinate and ripen before the daytime high temperatures are regularly exceeding 90 degrees. In a really perfect world, your corn would ripen in 70-degree heat (not that such a thing would happen here). If you have raccoons around and you didn't know it, you're about to learn if they are there. They will 'know' your corn is going to be fully ripe and ready to pick on Thursday, so they'll show up on Tuesday and harvest it for you. It would be nice to have the harvest help if they weren't also eating it for you. Some years I wonder why I bother trying to grow corn. This is one of those years. Dawn
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Here in Central Texas we have a heat arvisory going until probably at the earliest Septemberish. I am just letting the fruit that has set ripen up. We had too many days of rain in a row with high heat and humidity to be able to use any fungicide. So fungal issues are happening. The plants were just about done setting fruit anyway so I will yank them one the fruit ripens up. I will plant more in late August for the fall. It was 102 with a heat index of over 112 when I took this picture.
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sheilajoyce_gw
15 years ago
This is our second Southern California cool summer in a row, but not as cool as last year. However, our heat tends to arrive in late August and early September.
Marcia Thornley
15 years ago
Here in Southern Ontario Canada we had a very wet Spring and now a very Hot and Dry Summer so far. Actually had some rain today during a short thunder storm but we need a few days of steady rain to green things up again. Our lawns are like straw!
I'm looking forward to Fall!
ruthieg__tx
15 years ago
We always have triple digits here (TX) in part of the summer but the problem here is no rain....It has been brutally hot and brutally dry for way too long......
OklaMoni
15 years ago
We often have triple digits in Oklahoma in the summer, but we usually have some rain here and there. Just not this year.
There is a drought here this year. It's been as brutally hot as for Ruthie.

The tough part is, when it doesn't cool off below 80 at night.

Moni
drewsmaga
15 years ago
Here in Houston, we'll set a new record tomorrow with 33 days of 100+ degrees (and the 22nd day in a row!) Our yearly average is 5 days of 100 or more. Our 7 day forecast is between 100 & 102. The heat index today was 109. We are also under mandatory water restrictions because of the severe drought.
kim_okla
15 years ago
I guess we hit or broke the record of 50 days over 100 here in Oklahoma City.
OklaMoni
15 years ago
Kim we hit the record, and will break it, the next 100 or 100+ day.

Nothing to shout about as far as I am concerned.

Moni
patti43
15 years ago
I feel downright cool after reading TX and OK's temps. I live in Florida and it's supposed to be hot in summer. We've been averaging around 94 for the past few weeks, but we do cool off a little at night when it gets down into the low 70's (here in Ocala). Like any animal, humans adapt to the temperature and that's why, in the winter, you can tell the tourists from the locals. The tourists have on shorts and the locals have on winter coats.

I've been here 31 years and if gets down to 60 I'm ready to turn the heat on.
jannie
15 years ago
I'm in Long Island NY. We've had temps topping out in the 80's but odd rainfall this summer. Last Sunday we got an all-time recoird ten inches but none since. My tomato garden is suffering and my grass is yellow.
Marilyn Sue
15 years ago
Moni, here is a true story out of Oklahoma. Amber has an email pal from there, they have been corresponding for some years. This friend had friends that went to an auction for horses and probably other animals too. They took their horse trailer but did not buy anything. On the way home, later at night, they thought the trailer was pulling differently so they got out to look, thinking they might have something wrong. Something was wrong alright, there were four horses in the trailer. They took them back to the auction but they would not take them as they did not have proof of shots. Anyway, I guess things are so dry out there people are abandoning horses and they believe this to be the case. Very sad that the weather has been so bad and animals are treated that way.

Sue
OklaMoni
15 years ago
Yes, Sue, people are selling their livestock, as they can't afford the feed, since it has to be shipped in.

Heat and no rain equals no feed growth, and high feed prices.

Moni
minnie_tx
15 years ago
Forcast for the coming week here in NE TX I think we've already had over 55 days over 100Ã¯Â¿Â½

TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
Isolated Thunder-storms

Isolated Thunder-storms
101 78 Isolated Thunder-storms

Isolated Thunder-storms
101 77 Mostly Sunny

Mostly Sunny
105 77 Mostly Sunny

Mostly Sunny
104 77 Mostly Sunny

Mostly Sunny
105 75 Mostly Sunny

Mostly Sunny
103 75

Those isolated Thunderstorms are a lie !!!

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