Charlotte, like most of the United States, is suffering through a hot and hazy summer. WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his "On My Mind" commentary, worries that we’re going to have to get used to it.
It’s summer in the South, so the temperatures are like an A-student’s report card: 94, 92, 93, 95 …
That’s almost always what it’s like around here from the first of July through mid-September. The humidity came right along with it. Go outside for five minutes and it feels like you’re breathing through a wet washcloth. Sweat starts collecting in all sorts of uncomfortable places.
That’s part of the bargain that those of us who choose to live here make. You enjoy the mild winters and magnolias, and in return, you endure 10 weeks of hell.
But this year, our personal Hades feels even more miserable than usual.
The first reason is the smoke that drifted all the way down from the massive wildfires in Canada. That smoke not only made uptown Charlotte look like a scene from “Blade Runner,” it pushed the air quality into the Code Red range, meaning it was unhealthy to just go outside and breathe.
It was the third time the Charlotte area had hit Code Red air quality this year. The last time it had happened at all was six years ago.
The other problem is that nearly the entire country is getting broiled by an extended heatwave.
The Southwest is getting the worst of it. Austin, Texas, has hit 100 for 10 days in a row. Phoenix has hit 110 for three weeks in a row. For 11 days in that stretch, the low temperature never dipped below 90. Those are all records.
By those standards, Charlotte has been balmy. But by nearly any measure, the world as a whole is getting hotter every year.
If global warming continues, the long-term effects are catastrophic. It is an almost literal version of the old story about the frog in the bathwater. We won’t know we’re cooked until it’s too late.
But in our lifetimes, what we’re more likely to notice are things like this summer, where our planet feels a little less pleasant with every passing day.
You may or may not believe that global warming is real. But there’s no doubt that this brutal summer is real. You can feel it in your chest.
Tommy Tomlinson’s "On My Mind" column runs Mondays on WFAE and WFAE.org.It represents his opinion, not the opinion of WFAE. You can respond to this column in the comments section below. You can also email Tommy at ttomlinson@wfae.org.
