Utah has first ever 'red flag' weather warning

[SamuelTheThird]

More climate change at work

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/26/utah-governor-fireworks-wildfires

Salt Lake City’s National Weather Service declared a “particularly dangerous situation red flag warning”, the first in the service’s history, according to a social media post.

“THIS IS EXTREMELY RARE … Wind gusts of 40-50+ mph, combined with hot temperatures and extremely dry air, could cause explosive wildfire growth. Any new fire that starts could spread rapidly and become difficult to control,” said Chase Thomason, a meteorologist for KUTV, Utah’s CBS affiliate.

Among the current blazes is the Cottonwood fire, which officials discovered on Monday and was described by Cox as the most destructive fire in the state’s history. So far, it has burned nearly 72,000 acres and is at 0% containment, according to Utah fire info.

[Deuxcents]

1. I think we're gonna experience things we've never seen before..look at France reaching 105* actual temp

And other places being displaced because of too much or too little water..all this just recently

[calimary]

2. It's started to get scary.

[DFW]

3. Here in Germany, we are at over 38 (100 F)

We have no air conditioning in the house. We are hosting my wife's cousin and her husband tonight since we are celebrating my wife's birthday tomorrow (74, which means we've been together for 52 years now--where DID the time go?).

We are finally considering getting some air conditioning installed, but we have no clue where it should go, or even where there is a firm that does that kind of thing. Air conditioning in Germany USED to be like heating in Death Valley--it never used to be an issue. If this keeps up, in ten years, they will be planting orange orchards in Lapland.

[orthoclad]

4. Heat pump

It does both heating and AC. Combined with solar panels, you could keep the house comfortable without burning fossil fuel. You might want some fossil capability for extreme cold, current heat pumps are not good at that (last time I looked).

My Euro family drooled over my heat pump setup with propane backup. They said there was a huge backlog of heat pumps in Europe and they were not available at that time but I'm sure that's changed.

I installed heat pumps to use existing air ducts. If you don't use hot air heating and don't have air ducts, go for the "mini-split" ductless heat pumps.

For a quick economical fix, put a window unit AC on the upper floor room that gets the most sun. That will intercept most heat going into the house.

Other heat tricks I've used. I lived without AC for many decades.
-Spray the roof with a hose. Boiling off water uses a lot of heat before it enters the house.
-hold an ice cube against the inside of the wrist. All the blood in the body passes that point. You will cool from the inside out. Some folks put ice on the neck - I don't do that, could be too much shock on the brain. I used to weld in high heat and I used that ice trick.
-plunge hands or feet into cool water
-freeze a bottle of water and put it inside the pillowcase for sleeping. This will cool the scalp and thus the body. Having it inside the pillowcase keeps it from sweating and getting wet, and makes it passively comfortable.
-put aluminized mylar (space blanket material) on windows. This will let a lot of light in, but reflect the heat. It works! Just wet the reflecting side and smooth the wet side onto the glass. It will stay for ages if no bubbles.
-put bubble wrap on windows, like the aluminized mylar above. Similar advantages; both heat and cold insulation, and passes most light.

AC is a huge electricity hog, ironically a major contributor to climate change. I use it now because at my age I don't tolerate heat any more. But I minimize my use of it, and installed solar panels for electricity to run it.

[SamuelTheThird]

6. Hospital medical equipment is failing in the UK due to heat

[orthoclad]

7. electronics don't like heat

[ananda]

5. I've been expecting scorchers here ...

ever since we had 107F for three straight months
two or three summers ago.

Not this summer, though... yet.

[Initech]

8. After the nightmare in Venezuela last week...

I'm worried that the proverbial "big one" is going to happen in California next. And president fuckhead has politicized disaster management so much because of that asshole news network he watches, that we'll be left to our own devices.