Charlie Leach has had it with the Summer of Sweat. After weeks of fighting the scorching heat, he’s finally found the perfect activity level, he said: “I’m not active!"
“I’m letting the grass grow,” said Leach, 47, of East Atlanta. “Stepping outside is like plunging into a bowl of tomato soup.”
It’s a big, big bowl.
“Dangerously hot,” is how the National Weather Service characterized conditions Wednesday from the southern Plains to the Atlantic coast. Oh, yes, and extremely humid.
From Little Rock, Ark., to New York City, officials blamed more than three dozen deaths on sweltering temperatures. Heat advisories were in effect Wednesday in 11 states, including Georgia, with temperatures in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas stuck well above the 100-degree mark.
The weather service warned that the heat would persist in many areas at least through Friday.
With much of the nation also suffering from drought, farmers anticipated widespread crop losses, and wildfires raged in Florida and Arkansas.
Compared to some other areas, metro Atlanta is expected to catch a bit of a break over the next few days.
Thursday, temperatures should drop a few degrees, and there's a 40 percent chance of afternoon showers. Friday's temperature will hover around a more normal high of about 89, as will Saturday and Sunday, said Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Brad Nitz.
The air quality, which prompted authorities to declare a code orange smog alert Wednesday, should also improve Thursday. State environmental protection officials said they don't expect the alert to remain in effect.
Relief can't come too soon for Leach and millions of his neighbors. The unrelenting heat has sucked the very fun out of summer, several said Wednesday. Joggers have resigned themselves to treadmills. Neighborhood pool dwellers have taken refuge indoors. Kids in nature camps are avoiding nature.
Metro Atlanta has seen temperatures of 90 degrees or better every day this month, on top of 24 in June, Nitz said. On Wednesday, the heat index -- a measure of the temperature coupled with the humidity -- stood at 105 degrees, he said.
The discomfort comes from a triple punch of heat, high humidity and lack of rain, he said.
"The more humid it is, the less efficiently the body cools down," Nitz said. "Sweat doesn't evaporate as readily."
The cause of the heat: A big ridge of high pressure has caused air at higher altitudes to sink and compress. "It takes all the heat that is spread out and compresses it," Nitz explained.
That's right, a pressure cooker.
It's too early to tell whether this will be the hottest year on record. That distinction belongs to 1980, when metro Atlanta had 90 days at or above 90 degrees.
But, record or not, the heat is prompting people to linger in air-conditioned libraries, shopping malls and senior centers.
Leon Bridges, 63, let out a sigh of relief when he entered the senior center in East Point, and then hit the pool, which was packed.
"I'm doing great," said Bridges, of Decatur. "I do a lot of pool."
At Camp Kingfisher in Roswell, kids waited in lines at the water fountains. They ran through sprinklers in the meadow and watched a film inside on the Earth.
For workers at Garden Hood plant nursery in Grant Park, there is no inside. Butch Teal, an assistant manager, said his team follows a strict hot-weather regimen. Because employees are outside from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day, they each drink 12 to 18 ounces of water per hour -- as much as four gallons a day.
They also wear white T-shirts and take regular breaks, he said.
At the Ellenwood Equestrian Center in Henry County, the young riders eschewed the arena in favor of shady woods.
"Having a swimming pool, that basically saved us," said owner Lynn Marks.
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