Heat brings guilt, anger and fear
Texas has been experiencing record-breaking heat lately. We asked you, our readers, to respond. How is the recent weather affecting you and how are you coping? Are you beating the heat in unexpected ways? Below you shared some of your thoughts, stories and — yes — hot takes.
Relative discomfort
Regarding “Tomlinson: Summer heat wave could be worst on record, will cause trouble for Texas electric grid,” (June 27): The Houston heat is everywhere. It followed my husband and me into the Great Plains states, as we visited my old childhood stomping grounds. It came with high winds and blowing sand.
It was definitely uncomfortable, but we are the lucky ones. We live in an air-conditioned home, drive an airconditioned auto and, in retirement, are not required to work in these dangerous temperatures. Personally, we can avoid the ravages of this particular aspect of climate change.
For us, the effect of this heat is emotional: a desperate fear of the future for the next generations and a surging anger that every scientific warning has gone unheeded. Our challenge in this heat does not revolve around our own physical (dis)comfort. It does not involve a heat-provoked malaise. Instead we are challenged to overcome guilt-ridden inertia. We cope by continuing to do our part to support science, voice our views and contribute to the well-being of those in our community who suffer the immediate harm from this searing summer.
Carol Godell, Spring
Sure, it’s hot. Really hot. And it’s dry. Very dry. And you know what? I expect it will be this hot and this dry until it isn’t.
Meteorologist Isaac Cline got it right when he wrote, “Texas is a land of eternal drought, interrupted occasionally by biblical floods.”
Every time I hear this is the hottest it’s been since so-andso, or the worst drought in some number of years, or the most rain since who knows when, or the lowest temperature recorded since a certain winter, I realize many of those reference dates actually occurred during my lifetime. So it’s as hot, or it’s as dry, or it’s as wet, or it’s even as cold as it was 25, 40, 60 or even a 100 years ago. That’s called weather. It’s cyclical.
I was born in Texas during the drought of the 1950s. Now that was a drought, almost a decade in the making. One that resulted in billions of state and federal dollars spent on water supply reservoirs over the next 25 years in Texas. Very few existed prior to that drought.
I remember 1969 was a really hot summer in Waco. My neighbor Bill Smith and I “fried” an egg on the sidewalk every day for two or three weeks in a row. Ten years later I recall standing in my first Houston apartment parking lot, dressed only in my drawers, soaking in the pouring rain for 20 minutes when another hot spell finally broke.
When I think it’s so hot that it is totally unbearable, I smile and think of my parents who lived in these parts long before the advent of residential air conditioning or backyard swimming pools or freezers in their homes stocked with ice cubes and Popsicles. Even their automobiles lacked refrigerated air.
So, I reckon I’ll be fine. As they say, this, too, shall pass. Heck, in six months you’ll be running stories about recordbreaking cold weather — colder than it’s been since, uhh, since ... you know, since it was this cold before.
Gene Fisseler, Houston
I can only hope for the 105 degree temperatures being mentioned by Houston news reports. My readings in Katy have been at 110 and 111 each day this week. As my beautiful grandmother used to say in the ’50s: “It’s hotter than the dickens” and she was so right.
Phil Huffman, Katy
How am I beating this heat? Hydration and relief (i.e. air conditioning). From my days as a soccer referee (yes, we did officiate in this heat), I remember that around halfway through each half, we would call for a water break. The U.S. soccer federation recommended watermelon and pickles. Watermelon for fluids, pickles for electrolyte replacement. I could tell how dehydrated I was by how good the pickle tasted.
Jim Babb, Friendswood
I don’t let the heat restrict or alter my behavior. I go for a walk or ride my bike every day, sometimes during the hottest part of the day. Anybody who chooses to live in Houston should know what they bargained for. People who whine about Houston weather annoy me, quite frankly. I am, however, seriously concerned about global warming and its contribution to increasing average temperatures in Houston. Sadly, our so-called “leaders” aren’t doing much about it.
Bill Wilson, Houston
I’ve loved living in Texas for the past 40 years, but summer is way too hot now, at my age, 77. I love being outdoors in the fall, winter and spring, but summer is my inside time. I catch up on projects and many indoor things from June to September. I keep my condo electric bill low by leaving the thermostat alone, always set at 75 degrees. I also have roomdarkening shades in the rooms that get the most sun, and keep them down during the daytime. Ceiling fans in most of the rooms help when it is really hot. When I have to go outside to water my herb garden, I make sure and set an alarm to do that in the mornings when it is bearable. I also carry an insulated cup with ice and water around with me all day. It goes where I go — such is life in Houston in the summer!
Rusti Stover, Houston
Get out of town
The way I decided to cope with the record-breaking heat is I packed my bags and went north to Wisconsin to visit family and friends. A welcome respite from the 100-plus temperatures in Houston and, after being stuck inside during COVID, staying indoors once again (so as to be in air conditioning) was more than I cared to endure.
Brian Binash, Houston
To beat the heat we take our lead from Sen. Ted Cruz — fly someplace cooler.
Alan Jackson, Houston
Stress multiplier
Regarding “‘Dangerous’ heat hits Southeast Texas, weather service says,” (July 9): Enduring record global heat to confirm global warming warnings only adds to the secondary PTSD we are all experiencing in addition to the several other historic traumas we are suffering from.
We have lost well over a million Americans to COVID and counting, each of them friend and family of someone. We have reached merely a temporary stand-off with a frightful authoritarian cabal and their violent minions and have yet to see who will win the ongoing second verse of the Civil War. We have failed to stop Russia’s military threat to the sovereignty of Ukraine even with our strong Western alliance. We have record inflation vying with record job production to determine whether record supply chain interruptions will result in recession. Military weapons are used to massively slaughter schoolchildren and other innocents at a record rate.
Meanwhile, many of us are utterly untouched personally by these mounting horrors. Also meanwhile, “ordinary” daily incidents of police killings of Black people, inequities in income and opportunity, and other injustices abound. But if sentient, we all are suffering secondary PTSD.
Britt D. Davis, Katy
The effects of this heat are very damaging for retired folks. When you're retired and everything is more expensive (property taxes are up, food is up, gas is through the roof) and you have to increase to your cooling/heating bill, it can really stress an already stressed-out budget. Not enough pressure has been put on the Legislature to provide cost-of-living increases to retired teachers who are suffering just above the poverty level. Asking folks to conserve is not the answer. Texas is not being run by capable, credible leadership; every issue seems to be strictly a party-line vote. No one is looking for answers — just pointing fingers at the other party. The time for change is now.
Ronald Joubert, Houston
We are following ERCOT recommendations to prevent grid failure. Texas clearly needs a long-term solution which is more nuclear power. Nuclear power is uniquely emission-free, less vulnerable to weather changes and not dependent on hydrocarbon supplies and pricing. New reactors may be safely permitted and built at present nuclear power plant sites, which already meet safety and security requirements and have appropriate connections to the present grid.
Cory Frates, Houston