Emergency Prep: The heat is on in the Northwest

I’m not a native Northwesterner (though I’ve been here since ‘87 and graduated from UW, so I have some credentials), but one of my native-born friends told me this past weekend that she doesn’t remember it exceeding 70 degrees in her childhood. As much as I’d like to feel that this heat is a “freak occurrence,” these sweltering summers seem to be trending up. Per Nicholas Deshais in a recent Seattle Times article, we’ve had the “second-warmest start to July since 1945,” and the July 9 high of 98 degrees was the highest we’ve seen since 2021’s stunning 108.