My View #164 - It is Hot!

Yes, it is hot and if you were raised in a hot place, like southern Alberta (Canada's desert country), you learn to cope with it. For 57 years of Prairie life, you learn what to do when it gets up to 100 F - 115 F, every summer we had some days like today, 32C, (90F.) In very cold winters, temperatures would often be -40F to -45F, you expected it, and dressed for it too.

This current heat wave is unusual for here, I feel sorry for all who don't like it, including me. I am not used to the humidity, which we didn't have in S. Alberta. It is an experience, wet heat is so different from dry heat. That is it for today and Carol, dear Carol, is going to come over today.

Letty's memory of high temperatures in Medicine Hat and Calgary is a long way off.  Medicine Hat is not considered a desert. Rather, it is prairie farmland, although some cacti and a type of rattlesnake live there. 

The only true desert in Canada is in Osoyoos, BC.

Osoyoos Desert. Photo courtesy of Tourism BC

The average daily high temperature for July in Calgary is 70F (23C.)  

In Medicine Hat, the average daily high temperature is 82F.

In Calgary in July 2015, a record high of 36.1C was recorded. (about 97F.)

The highest temperature recorded in Medicine Hat was 41.2C, (about 102F) recorded in 1881, eighteen years before Letty's birth. There were a few hot days each summer, but not the steady days of heat in her memory, which is slipping quite a bit at the time she writes this post.

Her ability to tolerate heat decreased with age. She never lived in an air-conditioned home, not unusual in Canada, and when it was hot, she turned on her fan, closed the blinds, and stayed indoors.