Before a Zoom meeting earlier this week, we visited informally while waiting for some of our group to join. Most of the participants in the meeting live in the Eastern Time Zone. The meeting is at 7 pm in their area, while it begins at 4 pm in my time zone. Several of the participants live in New England states, and a small cluster lives in Pennsylvania. The pre-meeting conversation this week was about the weather. One participant reported that it was 97 degrees and that overnight lows were expected to remain above 80. Most of the others said it was above 90 degrees in their location. Someone asked me if we were sweltering. I said I felt guilty after hearing of the heat in other places. It was 67 degrees when the meeting started, and we have been seeing overnight lows in the 50s. It is a wonderful time of the year when it comes to the weather for us. With the long days, our solar panels produce lots of energy, and our house needs neither heat nor air conditioning. We can open the windows and air out the house without worrying about it becoming too hot or cold. Our power bill is fun to read, as our consumption is reported in kilowatt-hours while our solar system exports megawatt-hours. With net metering, we use the grid as our power backup system, so we have net exports for the year, meaning that our only electricity bill is the fee for the meter.

We are very fortunate when it comes to the weather. To the west of us, Vancouver Island is a large land mass with mountains that shield us from the most significant Pacific storms. Because of the land's shape and the flow of ocean currents, the Salish Sea water flows from south to north, bringing warmer water temperatures. The big weather adjustment for us when we moved here is the widely variable humidity. Lots of moisture in the air can affect how temperatures feel. The weather application on my phone displays the measured temperature and reports a “feels like” temperature. Humidity is a strange phenomenon because we have lived most of our lives in dry places. When temperatures are below 70 degrees, humidity makes it feel slightly cooler. When the temperature goes above 70, high humidity makes it feel warmer. When we lived in South Dakota, I knew I didn’t need a jacket once the outside temperature reached 50 degrees. Here I reach for a sweatshirt when it is below 60. I think the change is more than just my getting older.

The humidity stayed high all day yesterday. The fog just couldn’t lift from the offshore islands. While we enjoyed a mostly sunny day, we couldn’t see the nearby islands in the sea due to the fog. Mists prevented us from seeing the mountains, too. I’m learning to refine my definition of a sunny day. While I have lived most of my life where a sunny day meant cloudless skies, here we call it sunny whenever there are no clouds between us and the sun, regardless of how many clouds can be seen. We occasionally get cloudless days, but they are rare compared to the other places we have called home.

Meanwhile, dozens of people have been hospitalized for heat-related illnesses due to the major heat wave that covers most of eastern North America. The mayor of Paterson, New Jersey, declared a state of emergency when more than 150 people fell ill at an outdoor graduation ceremony. An outdoor concert in Washington, DC sent six people to the hospital for heat exhaustion. Heat warnings stretch across the Midwest and up and down the East Coast. Our daughter in South Carolina is expecting at least a week of daytime temperatures above 100 degrees. Coastal areas are also experiencing high humidity, which exacerbates the health risks for those who cannot find shelter. Higher-than-normal overnight temperatures significantly increase the health risks for many.

We have had conversations with new neighbors who have moved to our area because of their experiences living in warmer places. One moved from Arizona and another from Texas, citing hot weather as the reason for their move. As global warming results in more extreme temperatures, our area could see significant numbers of climate refugees seeking to live in places with desirable weather.

Hot weather forces many people indoors, and air conditioning consumes a lot of energy. Energy companies on the East Coast have issued requests for customers to conserve power. Blackouts and brownouts are possible in several areas because of the high demand for energy to keep the air conditioners running.

My father-in-law, who grew up on a North Dakota farm, used to quip, “It’s a good thing we have the weather. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have anything to talk about.” He was astute at conversing with others and getting to know them from how they spoke of the weather. You can quickly discover whether a person works outdoors or has a desk job from how they talk about the weather. A conversation about the weather will generally reveal whether or not your conversation partner is a gardener. I was often surprised by how much my father-in-law knew about others from a brief conversation that to me was about something superficial, namely, the weather.

The weather is not superficial. It is central to how we live our lives. I sometimes laugh when I open our front hall closet. Tucked into the back of the closet is severe cold gear. I’ve got a pair of insulated coveralls and a parka back there that really aren’t needed where we now live. I needed those items too many times in our previous home for me to be ready to get rid of them, however. I’ve found a couple of occasions to put them on since moving, but when I do, I’m usually shedding layers within minutes of going outdoors.

I’ll keep talking about the weather with folks and learning to read their responses. Most of the time, I’ll keep fairly quiet because talking about our weather can easily sound like bragging when others experience more severe conditions. Besides, I don’t want too many people to want to move here. It already feels crowded to me.