It's Just Too Hot!

[orv]

The heat here in Southern California reached 106 degrees today . . . exhausting. I went out to the tortoise yard first thing this morning. Hey, it was only 92 degrees. . . . great! Fed the torts and cleaned up the yard and scrubed out the water dish. Gotta do it . . . right? I let the tortoises have breakfast and rerired insided where it was at least reasonably cool. Ahh, had to go back out about 3:30 for the afternoon tortoise jobs. . . gave them their afternoon grape and squash leaves. OK, a few roses and a couple of hisbiscus flowers too. Time for an afternoon playing in the sprinklers to cool down. Time to spend an hour watering the yard as well so that everybody has grazing and shade for tomorrow. Its a brutal 106 degrees. Same for tomorrow. I'm sure glad the tortoises still give me joy . I'm going inside. . . I'm not a California Desert Tortoise.

 

[Tom]

This is the hottest summer I can ever remember Orv. This is the longest stretch of 100+ temps I can remember. At least our nights are still cooling into the 60s, but man it feels like an oven outside mid day.

I was in Atlanta last week for business, and it felt so much cooler by comparison, even with all that humidity.

 

[Millerlite]

Thankfully we don't have it as bad, its been in the 90s but not triple digits this wave. Sprinklers area must for my tortoises, Tomorrrow I have to clean out the bigger water dish and spray it all down before 11 lol

Kyle

 

[NorCal tortoise guy]

We have had a crazy hot summer so far up north as well but now worse is all the smoke it's crazy! looks like fog on the road in the middle of the day and ash falling from the sky even though we are miles from the closest fire. I normaly live for summer. tortoises are so much more fun in summer! but I'm thinking this year I won't be sad to see it go

 

[orv]

This is the hottest summer I can ever remember Orv. This is the longest stretch of 100+ temps I can remember. At least our nights are still cooling into the 60s, but man it feels like an oven outside mid day.

I was in Atlanta last week for business, and it felt so much cooler by comparison, even with all that humidity.

Tom, it's almost 10 PM and we finally turned off the AC and opened up some windows . . . Whew! Tomorrow's another day, and who am I to complain. . . I've got a good life here with my wife of 48 years, a good dog, a parrot and four CDTs. As I said, nothing I should complain about. I guess that won't stop me though. Human nature, I suppose. The torts never complain . . . I should follow their example (but I won't trample my wife getting to the food dish).

 

[Tom]

Its still 84 here. Can't open windows just yet.

What kind of parrot have you got? I can't seem to recall...

 

[Tom]

Thankfully we don't have it as bad, its been in the 90s but not triple digits this wave. Sprinklers area must for my tortoises, Tomorrrow I have to clean out the bigger water dish and spray it all down before 11 lol

Kyle

I do sprinklers too. I also run misters once we get into the triple digits. My tortoises don't seem to mind it. The stars just walk around out in the sun as if it isn't even hot.

 

[enchilada]

And the mountain areas are burning again . I Can’t even tell the difference between smog ,fog or smoke

 

[Yvonne G]

We had a 30 consecutive day run of triple digit weather. But it broke yesterday when it only got to 99. And night before last it was windy, so we also had the smoke, blown in by the wind. They say July is our hottest month. Hopefully that means the rest of the summer won't be as hot.

I don't know how Arizonans do it!

 

[Peggy Sue]

It's like that here in southern Oregon to we had multiple lighting started fires that have been burning for a month the only "good" thing is the smoke is shading the sun and keeps the temps under 100.

 

[TammyJ]

My son works with Jamaican Iguana conservation and this morning the sea was so rough the boat had to turn back...so we have really strong breeze to temper down our high temperatures - but nowhere near 100 degrees - wow!!! That's hot, and as for 100+, well, can't imagine it! We are in the high 80's right now in Kingston, I think, and cooler in Coopers Hill where I live.

 

[Runnergirl31]

We arent bad here in Tulsa. The hottest part of the summer seems to be over but I keep a watchful eye out and keep a cool towel over his hide during the day. I am always scared its to hot outside for him though. I kept him in this morning and he was not happy about it but we had a bit of rain today and it seems to have cooled it down but also made it wonderfully humid ( for the tort not humans smh) and when I went back to work I had him out in his outside enclosure but under the awning so he wont get wet if it does rain again and the temp was holding at 84F.

 

[Maro2Bear]

My son works with Jamaican Iguana conservation and this morning the sea was so rough the boat had to turn back...so we have really strong breeze to temper down our high temperatures - but nowhere near 100 degrees - wow!!! That's hot, and as for 100+, well, can't imagine it! We are in the high 80's right now in Kingston, I think, and cooler in Coopers Hill where I live.

Hey @TammyJ - we need your son to join and share his experiences and day to day work at JIC!

 

[Gillian M]

Even here in Jordan, it gets extremely hot in June, July and August. During heat waves temperature reaches a maximum of 40 degrees Celcius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). However, both Oli and I love it!

 

[KarenSoCal]

It was 113 here today, and night temps only go down to the 80's. I get irritable when at midnight it's still over 100!

I run a mister under the shadecloth that's over his burrow. I also have a sprinkler that hits the shadecloth. It runs for one minute every hour around the clock. Burrow is 85-89 deg.

 

[Neal]

I wish I had ya’lls weather. We broke a record yesterday/today for the highest overnight temperature. We were only around 114 or so, but the night time temperatures last night stayed in the low 90s.

 

[lisa127]

OMG, and here I am in Cleveland complaining about temps ranging from the low 80s to low 90s. Low 90s is hot for us here though. In my defense it's really humid here so heat is oppressive. I feel for you guys. I couldn't deal with that kind of weather.

 

[tglazie]

South Texas has surprised me this year. Mid June to July had some week long stretches at 99F, but it was broken up just regularly enough by rain to bring us down into the low eighties, which is more relief than we got last year. Also, the nights have been dropping into the mid seventies at least, so I haven't had any mornings that were too hot for any of the tortoises. Three digits was a rare thing this year. Drought restrictions have been a drag, so sprinkler use has been restricted to once per week between seven and eleven. Really could have used more rain, but compared to you poor people in the west, it was monsoon season, so I can't really complain. The insulated shelters resting beneath the oaks and mulberries have truly managed to keep those night temperatures, tortoises sitting in a comfy seventy eight in the leaf litter and soil of their homes, and it really seems the high heat of the summer was fairly underwhelming and mostly past us this time. I know Texans love to brag about how hot it is down here, but compared to you folks out west, I feel positively chilly over here. I can tell you that I will miss the summer when those damned cold fronts start moving here in October. Hopefully our autumn stays warm enough and sunny enough for the rads to spend the better part of those mornings outdoors. I mean, it's probably not going to happen, but stranger things certainly have.

T.G.

 

[orv]

It was funny yesterday afternoon; its a hundred degrees in the shade, and all of us old folk standing around in the swimming pool with just our heads sticking out of the water. When I finally got my prune-like old body out of the pool, I actually felt a chill! Oh well, five minutes later persperation was flowing down my face. I'll have to remember my mantra: "nothing to complain about here, nothing to complain about here". It's not working, I still feel like complaining.

 

[KarenSoCal]

It was funny yesterday afternoon; its a hundred degrees in the shade, and all of us old folk standing around in the swimming pool with just our heads sticking out of the water. When I finally got my prune-like old body out of the pool, I actually felt a chill! Oh well, five minutes later persperation was flowing down my face. I'll have to remember my mantra: "nothing to complain about here, nothing to complain about here". It's not working, I still feel like complaining.

Go ahead and complain Orv. That's what friends are for...we love you even if you are an old grouch! Just think...at least you have that gorgeous pool to stick your head out of! (just joking with you my friend--I'm jealous).