The Homeowner’s Sunshine Problem
Updated at 12:30 p.m. ET on August 31, 2022
Time was, we didn’t worry much about summer heat on the wet side of the Pacific Northwest’s Cascade Curtain. A “hot day” meant 80 degrees Fahrenheit; over 90 was a rare scorcher, and 100 was unheard-of until one day in 1994 touched that mark. Feeling warm? Open a window, rummage in the basement for a fan, pop a cold one, and wait for the evening breeze to cool things down. Air conditioners, like umbrellas, were for wimps and tourists.
All of that started changing in 2015, when Seattle saw a record 12 days of 90-plus weather and Earth embarked on (and counting) ever recorded. In 2021, the sort of lethal heat wave that had raged from Australia to Arizona to Paris to Siberia finally struck here. One hundred became the new 90; the thermometer broke the three days running and topped out at an unthinkable 108. The Cascade Mountains still protect us from wildfires, for now. But unprecedented wildfire smoke—another consequence of climate change—has repeatedly made the
