Although we had plans to be outside all day today, we decided not to go out until 1PM. The heat, humidity, and brutal full sun made us decide to get a little bit later start. One turned into two and two into 3 PM. By then, the heat index was 109 degrees and the hot sun still unrelenting. Our plans involved a location with no shade. Still, we decided that maybe we could save part of the day by leaving late at 4 PM.

However, when I stepped outside for just 20 minutes around 3:30PM, the heavy air literally took my breath away. By the time that I went back into the A/C my heart was also pounding. I was starting to feel a bit nauseous, too. Hummm? I knew that I don't "do heat" with humidity particularly well. But I was only outside for 20 minutes. How odd. Guess - even with getting a late start - I possibly couldn't have safely done the 9 hours (outdoors in the above heat) that was still left in our originally planned Saturday activities. Guess, maybe there really was some reason for the NOAA "Heat Advisory". The actual temperatures actually weren't that bad. However, the heat index (with the added heavy humidity) was. Looking at the above weather report, I wimped out, and we stayed home. Boo hoo.

This all makes me think of my pioneer ancestors: who helped settle America. They not only went out into heat like today, but they did hard work outside in the fields from sunrise to sunset. Plus they, had no A/C to retreat to when their day's work was done.

Supposedly for healthy adults, such as myself, the first extreme heat wave of the Summer is the worst because your body hasn't yet adapted to the heat. By this time last year, I didn't flinch at a heat index of 101 degrees. The heat last year got started in May. This year, we've had a cool, wet Spring. Although we can easily get actual temperatures over 100 degrees + Summer tempts by this point in June, we really haven't experience much heat yet this year. Thus, the current heat wave has hit the area like a wrecking ball.

At the moment, the local TV weather man is talking about how the heavy humidity today made it "hard to breath". He's describing my experience today. So maybe it wasn't that odd. Either way, we missed a day outside that had been planned for months... How disappointing.

The lingering 41.6 to over 42 degrees Celsius heat index was more than I could take out in full sun & no shade. Now at 11 PM, the current temperature is STILL 87 degrees (30.5 Celsius) with a heat index of 94 (34.5 Celsius). The day has stayed even warmer than what was expected at 4 PM. So I probably did make the right decision to discard our original plans. Not that it matters now. There is no going back in time. But this photo will remind me next year why we stayed home.