Heat wave

On a Saturday morning I find a shady patch of grass at Coulon Beach Park and spread out a towel, a magazine, and my toes. The weather out west has turned hotter than usual, into the 90s and both a topic of conversation and a hardship for many residents without air conditioning in the temperate Northwest.

For a local escape, I step into the southern shore of Lake Washington, warm with a hint of cool that's easy to get used to. From the navy blue water, the sandy beach behind me is lined with bright towels, while above me planes fly far enough away to be silent. Temporary as it is, this short swim will stay with me a while, not only in memory but as a cool-off good for the rest of the day, part of the hottest June on record in Washington.

East of the mountains, conditions are more extreme, with wildfires burning and temperatures climbing into the 100s. In Texas, a friend in Austin talks about days of rain and no sunshine in sight, the jet stream driving the rain toward the middle of the country with disastrous flooding events. I experienced extremes of the jet stream from a central perspective while living in Wisconsin, when a persistent winter-time dip brought days of cold and snow.

A rope boundary loops through the swimming area of the park, and once the lifeguards take their posts at noon, it's okay to swim beyond the rope into deeper waters toward the board walk, which a few of us do. I can't feel the bottom, the waves choppier and creating a more demanding swim. One of the lifeguards patrols the area in a rowboat, just to be safe given the distance. In other parts of the world, the temperatures soar, dip, or soak, weather swinging hot and cold no matter the season.

After my swim, I take slow motion steps through the shallow water and head to shore, back to the shade and my magazine. I'm not the only one trading sun for shade under the maple trees. During this particular heat wave, we do our best to cool off. We navigate and swap stories about it, speculating what the next wave of weather will bring and what we can do about it for the future.

Resources About the Weather

The Fourth River Literary Journal -- Call for Submissions on Climate Change

Creative Nonfiction -- Upcoming Issue About the Weather (December 2015)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration