Please allow me to interject my feelings about Mother Nature

Son of a gun. I was in SoCal in 2005 and I purposely drove out to Palm Springs because the day before it was 120º and I wanted to feel what 120º was like.

Sadly, it only got to 108º that day, which we get in Texas every third summer and is no biggie to me. The Southland chef's kiss was that you don't get Dodgers-Giants in Texas.

 

123 degrees in Bullhead City was the hottest I've ever experienced.

 

Not looking to get any sympathy from our Phoenix brothers and sisters, but it's 86 degrees with 61 percent humidity in Richmond, Virginia at 11 p.m. It's gross.

 

Anything over 90 degrees inland in South Carolina is the grossest I’ve ever felt. I haven’t been to Mississippi or Alabama, so I know it gets worse. But this northerner could not handle that level of swampiness.

 

No, the Midlands of South Carolina takes a backseat to no one in the Heat & Humidity Olympics. There ought to be checkpoints on I-20 where they inspect your air conditioning, the way they make you stop to add snow chains in the Rockies.

 

You ever been in Houston in August-September?

 

Repeat after me: Gold Bond. GOLD. BOND.
You're welcome.

 

When the Dodgers still had their own plane (thinking it was 1981), one trip to Houston the crew was not allowed to do all of the pre-flight checks until the entire traveling party was on the plane and ready to go. Usually -- I mean every other time -- when the team arrived at the plane, it was ready to go.
This time, the plane had been outside, locked up tight, sweltering. Late on a Sunday afternoon, the busses arrived from the ballpark, everybody got on board and only then did the crew begin their checks. They weren't even allowed to turn the AC on. We had to sit in that broiler for 30-40 minutes before any ON switch was flipped. Hottest I have ever been.

 

Exceptional circumstances, though. Houston is an oven in the summer, and that close to the gulf humidity is an everyday part of the heat. It can be brutal.

I can't imagine living there before A/C, depending on an attic fan for a breath of breeze, or sitting out on the porch praying that the wind blows.

 

Not many people did before the advent of A/C. Best as I can tell, it's been around as long as electricity has, but didn't become affordable to the average family until the 1950s. Texas' population in 1950 was 7.6 million. It's about 4 times that now.

 

The GFS models are saying highs up to 112º all next week in Texas, which would push the records set in 2011. But the models forecast a major break on Aug. 9-10. Not sure if it's front-related or tropical.