In the south-east, the heat index could exceed 115F, risking the health and lives of people without access to sufficient cooling or adequate hydration, the NWS warned. “This will be a long duration heat wave, with little to no overnight relief and high humidity levels, leading to an increased danger,” the federal service warned.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/25/heat-dome-dangerous-conditions-100-million-people

====================

Is it warm outside?
Sure, it always is this time of year.
I’m going to mow the yard later this morning before the rain rolls in.

How in the world did I survive 40 years of heatwaves in southwest Florida?

In the summer of 1973 at age 18 I was working as a mason tender ($4.50/hour) on the top floor of the construction project on Sanibel Island named Sundial Beach and Tennis resort. Another tender had a small thermometer on his belt and at 1 pm it read 135 degrees in direct Florida sun we worked in.

Carrying hundreds 36 lb concrete blocks 2 at a time to and fro. Pushing 300 lb wheelbarrows of masonry mud from one end of the building to the other. Building 2 story scaffold systems, etc. I started work at 6am, wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and boots and by 7am the shirt was drenched in sweat and was taken off and draped on a window opening to dry in the sun, for sweaty face wipings throughout the day.

There were 55 gal drums of water all over the place with buckets for mixing mud on the spot. It was normal to lean over a barrel and plunge in up to the waist to cool down then get back to work and be dry again in 5 mins. My dad also worked on that project (Pulte Construction) as a mason and he was 41 that year.

We survived, and flourished.

(Yes, flourished.
$4.50 an hour meant I could keep 29 cent gas in my Camaro SS as well as my Honda CB350, decent attire, and enough folding money to keep myself entertained as a young buk should.)

We got off work at 3pm, and I went home, showered, dressed, jumped on the 2 wheeler and went for a ride…..down to the scorching hot Fort Myers Beach where my squeeze of the day was working.

She got off at 5pm, we went to the Top O’ The Mast and got something cold to drink then walked out on the 500′ pier and sat under the tiki fronds and sipped our drinks and chit chatted and sweated slightly in the heat. Her tan was captivating in the summer sun and she radiated a healthy glow as did I.

We were children of the sun and it never occurred to us that we were under a health risk by some nefarious made-up thing called a “Heat Dome”.

Perhaps if heat domes existed in the early 70’s and we had been raised since birth to be mindless ninnies we would have stayed in our air conditioned homes eating fructose laden junk food and binging on trash tv and swelling beyond the capacity of our couches, with surly moods and downtrodden looks on life.

“Hey look, a pod of dolphins harassing a shark!”

“The best learning doesn’t come from your successes but rather your failures.”

–gs, 2099