People in Hollister know how to beat the heat. Casual
conversation with two people in town had one taking in not one, but
two, matinees on the same day at a local theater.
People in Hollister know how to beat the heat. Casual conversation with two people in town had one taking in not one, but two, matinees on the same day at a local theater.
Another local citizen said he and his wife sat in folding lounge chairs on the lawn and set a lightly spraying sprinkler between them.
The demand for fans was so great that Target stores in Hollister, Gilroy and Salinas sold out and had to special order. Local residents sent photographs to the newspaper that showed outdoor patio thermometers hitting as high as 119 degrees in areas that had no air circulation.
Hollister hit at least 109 degrees over the weekend – a record for Sunday – but did not even experience the widespread, debilitating loss of power some other locales underwent. News reports said that as many as 656,000 residents in the greater San Francisco Bay Area lost power, sometimes for extended periods. Some 36,000 residents in Santa Clara County were still without power on Monday afternoon.
And on Monday, state officials held a news conference to urge citizens to do everything we can to conserve energy. Should the heat wave continue, or spike, power grid problems could cause havoc. The suggestions for saving energy are simple, and we probably all feel like we’ve heard them 12,000 times, but here they are again, because a reminder isn’t a bad idea. Also, we still have August and September to deal with.
n Keep the air conditioner at 82 during the daylight hours, and 85 at night.
n Don’t use major appliances until after 7 pm.
n Turn off unneeded lights.
n Turn off computers and appliances that can be turned off when not being used.
“The best thing to do is conserve – and not through a half-hearted approach,” said Jeff Smith, a spokesman for PG&E. Smith went on to say that the heat wave made it a “pretty close” call that the energy supply could deplete. So any effort to conserve helps.
And in a sidelight to heat issues, it already has been suggested that global warming is the cause of the current heat phase. A story in the San Francisco Chronicle stated that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climate Data Center reports that the first six months of 2006 were the hottest of any year in the United States since 1895.
We have no opinion to offer on the legitimacy of global warming data. It’s a little over our head to express an opinion on matters being debated by the world’s top scientists. But it is a worthy conversation.
It’s a worthy conversation to have, perhaps while relaxing somewhere in the shade, trying to beat the heat, while some high-energy use appliances are turned off.
