This weather is awful!! 2008-2021

[ERD50]

...

To top it all off, this morning we found the condensing unit for the central A/C had been blown off the mounting pad! That's a new one, I'd never seen that around here or anyplace I've lived. ....

Wow. We had high winds here recently, I will check ours. Our new one is a high efficiency unit, and it is LARGE to provide a lot of surface area for the fins, so it seems pretty light relative to the size, so the wind could have a bigger affect on this than the lower profile unit like yours (and our old one).

I'd def consider some posts into the ground to tie it down.

--ERD50

 

[ckelly78z]

I have to make a perimeter sweep of our 10 acre property to assess the damage 45 mph sustained winds, and 65 mph gusts. I'm sure some of the dead standing ash trees are no longer standing after 2 days off serious wind over the weekend.

 

[W2R]

No extreme winds here, but it rained unusually hard all night last night. A nearby street got slightly flooded, but then it always does. Our street doesn't flood and didn't last night either. The street that always floods has big expensive McMansions on it and our street just has small less pricey older homes on it, yet their street floods and ours doesn't. Weird.

It's not raining right now, but predictions are that today and tomorrow will be mostly rain and in the 70's. Our lawn guy mows our yards on Wednesdays, and hopefully he can sneak in a mow at some point today in between rain showers.

This weekend is the biggest parade weekend of the year, since Mardi Gras is next Tuesday. Thunderstorms are predicted all weekend and if that happens, there are going to be a lot of miserable, wet revelers riding on all those floats. I sure hope the forecasts are wrong.

 

[samclem]

I'd def consider some posts into the ground to tie it [the AC condenser]down.

When I installed a new unit at DD's house, I didn't use a concrete pad. But, I did make an anchor bar on either side (poured concrete in a small trench, rebar spikes into the ground at an angle) with two big threaded rods sticking up. Galvanized angle bolts to the condenser unit and to the rods. It was primarily to discourage theft (not a big problem here, but this was easy). It's certainly not theft-proof, just harder to remove than most units, which is good enough I think. It also holds things in position, but I never even considered that it could be moved by the wind.

 

[ivinsfan]

Maybe check to see how much this is likely to cost? I've heard ugly stories of insurance premium increases after filling a claim, and if you'll only be getting a couple hundred after the deductible, maybe just pay it?

That can be tricky but isn't that why you have insurance? And I think you might be underestimating the cost of a replacement unit.

 

[NW-Bound]

Man, it is hot in Europe. How hot? Hot enough for a desperate man to do this:

... A 32-year-old man in rural Germany disrobed and ran through the freezer section of a supermarket to cool off, one of the least severe impacts of a record heatwave that’s bearing down on Europe.

Temperatures are forecast to surge to almost 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of the continent on Wednesday...

I am glad to have installed a solar system which can generate enough power to run a 1.5-ton AC along with a lithium battery that can store enough power to run this AC through the night.

If there's a heatwave that causes a power demand surge that causes a brownout of the grid, I will not die of a heat stroke when the outdoor temperature gets to 120+F (49+C). The record high here is 122F.

 

[NW-Bound]

From the BBC Web site:

Europe is set to swelter in “record-breaking heat” over the next few days, with African air being pulled as far north as the UK. The south of France is forecast temperatures up to 45C, breaking the current all-time record of 44.1C

Provence, anybody? Aye, aye, aye... 45C is 113F.

 

[W2R]

Man, it is hot in Europe. How hot? Hot enough for a desperate man to do this:

Wow, that's hot! Hope our members in Europe are managing to stay cool this summer.

 

[NW-Bound]

Heh, I forgot I still have that 2nd home up at 7,000-ft elevation to escape from the heat. In fact, my wife just said we should go up for July 4th to see the small-town celebration up there.


Hmmm... Perhaps I can sell that place now, because I am safe here at the low-elevation home.

 

[W2R]

Heh, I forgot I still have that 2nd home up at 7,000-ft elevation to escape from the heat. In fact, my wife just said we should go up for July 4th to see the small-town celebration up there.

Hmmm... Perhaps I can sell that place now, because I am safe here at the low-elevation home.

Well, I know you love it. You need to do what seems right for you and your family.

Now if it was me, I'd pick one of the two homes to live in, live there, and sell the other. But what is right for me, isn't necessarily the right choice for you.

 

[Teacher Terry]

My DIL said Poland has been very hot and her parents live upstairs. They have been sitting with their feet in buckets of water.

 

[NW-Bound]

Feet in water? Is that enough?

I would be in water up to my neck. And I would change that water often.

I am reminded of early June 2017 when we were in Paris and the temperature hit the low to mid 90F's. Of course the Airbnb had no AC. Aye, aye, aye... Good thing it was at the end of the trip, and we only had a few days there before going home. I had photos of kids playing in the fountains of municipal parks in Paris and in Köln.

And we got home to 120F weather! It was the hottest day of the year. It was hot worldwide.

The record shows we used up 100 kWh over a 24-hr period on that day. The 5-ton AC was running nearly non-stop. Imagine how a power brownout would develop into a catastrophe in no time. People would drop like flies.

 

[Walt34]

It is a little surprising to me that so many in European countries do not have air conditioning. Is it because the hot days are so few?

Anyway, those fortunate enough to be blessed with it should offer a prayer of thanks to Willis Carrier, widely credited with inventing what became modern air conditioning.

Note that I didn't say he was the sole inventor, to be sure he piggybacked on the inventions and ideas of others. But he put it all together in a practical package.

 

[NW-Bound]

It is not supposed to be that hot in Europe! Much of Europe is at a much higher latitude than the US.

People may be surprised to learn that the 33-deg latitude of Phoenix is the same as that of Bagdad, Iraq. Look at the map to see how low Bagdad is, compared to Europe. And Miami is at 26-deg latitude.

Paris is at 49-deg latitude. London is at 51.5 deg latitude. Ottawa? A lowly 45 degrees.

It is not supposed to be that hot. From a Web site,

... A “hot” day, what the the Germans call a “Hitzetag,” officially is any day when the temperature reaches 86 degrees Farhenheit. A night when the temperature stays above 68 degrees F is known as a “Tropennacht,” meaning “tropical night.” In 1951, which was pretty standard for the years before that, as well, the average number of “hot days” was 3 to 4.

And that's why every European home has heating, only a few percent has cooling. And when it gets unseasonably hot, people die.

In the heat wave of 2003, 70 thousand perished in Europe. That's global warming for ya.

 

[MichaelB]

It is not supposed to be that hot in Europe! Much of Europe is at a much higher latitude than the US.

Brexit. Everything else is blamed on Brexit, might as well blame this too ..

 

[W2R]

A night when the temperature stays above 68 degrees F is known as a “Tropennacht,” meaning “tropical night.”

Our lowest temperature for the entire month of June 2019, so far, has been 69. Twenty-five "Tropennacht"s in a row. I love our weather here, although I would not love it quite so much if I didn't have air conditioning.

 

[Ronstar]

We had a high today 0f 92, and it looks like a "Tropennacht" tonight. Then 3 days around 90. Looks like summer has arrived. No rain in the forecast, but it has rained almost every day for the past I don't know how many days.

 

[NW-Bound]

These Germans don't know what hot is when they say that overnight low of 68F is "tropical night".

What would they call a low of 97F in Phoenix?

What about a low of 107F in Furnace Creek, Death Valley?

 

[LRDave]

Here in NE 'bama, a night of 68F would mean open windows and being serenaded to sleep by crickets and tree frogs. The cicadas would be silent, as this temp is below what they expect for them to be out actively "singing".

 

[ls99]

These Germans don't know what hot is when they say that overnight low of 68F is "tropical night".

What would they call a low of 97F in Phoenix?

What about a low of 107F in Furnace Creek, Death Valley?

Fine weather, fit for mad dogs and Englishmen.

 

[MRG]

These Germans don't know what hot is when they say that overnight low of 68F is "tropical night".

What would they call a low of 97F in Phoenix?

What about a low of 107F in Furnace Creek, Death Valley?

Hell?

 

[NW-Bound]

For many people, hell and home are both 4-letter words.

 

[gayl]

Its 102° in Avignon at 7pm according to my app. Unreal. Did 1/2 of the marathon there in 2016. I wouldn't walk in this heat (yes I'm a wuss)

 

[NW-Bound]

Holy Mackerel!

I just looked, and the forecast high for tomorrow (June 28, 2019) in Avignon is 109F (43C). This is bad. I am afraid there will be fatalities, particularly among the elders.


PS. In Rome, it was said that zoo animals were fed popsicles to help them cool down.

 

[NW-Bound]

A computer-generated temperature map for France happened to look like this.