The turf is tinder dry and it is impossible to step anywhere outside barefoot.

My attic doubles as a roaster oven.

The trees are losing their foliage in a bizarre summer leafstorm, and those that aren't dropping leaves are turning brown.

Cracks opened up in the back yard soil that are so large that I'm afraid my dogs will fall in and get lost.

The year-round creek isn't running and the few deep standing pools are so hot even the mosquitoes won't go there to breed.

Bicyclists and motorcyclists fear afternoon or evening accidents in which they might cook to death if they have to lie injured on the pavement.

You guys back east are just getting started. Think about how it would feel for seven weeks straight, like we've had down here already in Texas and Oklahoma. We've been in the high-90s since the first of June, the 100s for all of July. At least the odds are against your having to live with the heat for that long, or even a sizable fraction of this amount of time. We face the possibility of at least six to eight weeks more of it, based on our typical weather patterns. August and September can be the miserable months of the year down here, and we're not there yet. The desert southwest has been even hotter than this, but the charm of true desert is that it tends to cool down nicely at night. We haven't been below 80 at night in weeks.

U.S. Drought Monitor Map

Relax and feel lucky that it probably won't last as long up there in the east. Drink lots of fluid, don't be stupid and exercise hard in the heat, take it easy. Enjoy the shade, carry an umbrella to keep some of the worst of it off of the back of your head and neck. You should carry a filled water bottle everywhere you go. I carry one of these BPA-free bottles at work and in the truck and if I have to work in the yard I do it at 7am and I take a full 64oz bottle with me into the yard. A small squirt of water on your shirt, back and front will cool you off rapidly and very efficiently. And because it's so hot, no one will think you're a dork if they see you with a wet shirt. It goes with the territory.

SRS