Island Senior: Under the Heat Dome

David Geist Cooks Egg Sunny Side Up - photo David Geist

“Island Senior” is a reg­u­lar col­umn on the San Juan Update writ­ten by Peg­gy Sue McRae. 

There is no deny­ing sum­mer is here and it has arrived with a vengeance!

A heat dome has been hov­er­ing over the Pacif­ic North­west giv­ing us del­i­cate North­west­ern­ers tem­per­a­tures up in the 100s. We are not used to this and need to take care.

Don’t go bare­foot. You could burn your feet!

By the time you are read­ing this, it should have cooled off some. The Nation­al Weath­er Ser­vice issued an exces­sive heat warn­ing on Tues­day cau­tion­ing that tem­per­a­tures are like­ly to remain unsea­son­ably hot into next week… and that brings us into July and the Fourth of July weekend.

A heat dome, a heavy influx of tourists, cel­e­bra­to­ry explo­sives… oh please, be care­ful out there.

With a lit­tle help from my friends, I am enjoy­ing air con­di­tion­ing for the first time in my life. This has me hap­py to stay indoors post­pon­ing any fur­ther emer­gence from my pan­dem­ic quar­an­tine. If you find you need a place to cool down here on San Juan Island the Fire Sta­tion at 1011 Mullis Street is our des­ig­nat­ed cool­ing center.

Safe­ty Tips

We also have plen­ty of cold water sur­round­ing our island. But wait, I have a cau­tion­ary tale regard­ing this cold water. Don’t jump. Ease into it.

When I was a kid there was an inci­dent down off the docks in Fri­day Har­bor. A woman had gone overboard.

Hero­ical­ly, a man on the dock jumped in to save her. She sur­vived. He didn’t. As soon as he hit that cold water the shock gave him a heart attack and he died. Our waters are very cold. Get your ankles wet first before you take the plunge.

We may be past the worst of our heat­wave but it is still uncom­mon­ly hot out there. Wear your sun hat and don’t for­get your water bottle.

Check in on your neigh­bors and elder­ly friends. If you or any­one you know is in a heat cri­sis, please call 911. Stay safe. Be cool. Hap­py summer!

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