First Heat Advisory Ever For Seattle

Dean Pajevic

19 years ago

When my spirited, sagacious 90-year-old mother calls me to complain about the heat, somethin’ is up! Tillie — that’s her real name — shivers in a sweater even when her thermostat is set at a suffocating, dessicating 88 degrees.

The Seattle TV station anchors are dispensing advice — “keep your cool!” and “spritz with a water spray bottle” — and offering treatments for heat-related illness. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer this morning reports the astonishing news that:

The National Weather Service issued its first-ever heat advisory for Seattle yesterday, prompted by a second day of record temperatures. Sea-Tac Airport reported 89 degrees, breaking the record of 86 set in 1972. The weather service’s excessive heat program has been used in other cities since 1995; Seattle was added to the list this year. A heat advisory means conditions could lead to heat stress in some people and a warning indicates a higher possibility that people will get sick or die.

Explain that, Michael Crichton, you global warming denier! And who should be on Book TV as I write this but Denis Boyles – author of Vile France: Fear, Duplicity, Cowardice, and Cheese – who’s describing how the “vile” French let their long-abandoned elderly mothers die in last summer’s heat wave.

Hey, Mom! I’ll be right over to spritz you!

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