Weather Alert

[chasingtides]

Schools in the area are closing because of heat. Heat index has warnings about sunstroke and other heat-related sickness. I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing before, not up here. I mean, I've gotten sun sick before, but that was, first, in Georgia, and second, stuck in a car on the highway in the dog days of summer without air conditioning or a breeze (curse Cape traffic).

Also, most of the state is under an air quality alert (I figured I'd look things up when I heard that schools were closing due to heat). The NOAA says,
"AN AIR QUALITY ACTION DAY MEANS THAT GROUND LEVEL OZONE CONCENTRATIONS WITHIN THE REGION MAY APPROACH OR EXCEED UNHEALTHY STANDARDS."
I'm not entirely sure what this means, but it sounds bad. (The NOAA also tells me not to use all caps. The hypocrites.)

The government website the NOAA directed me to tells me this,

"Ground-level ozone is an air pollutant. While ozone in the upper atmosphere protects us from the sun's rays, at ground level it is a harmful lung irritant...The health effects associated with increased ozone concentrations vary among individuals but may include: coughing; nose, and throat irritation; chest pain; aggravation of asthma; shortness of breath; increased susceptibility to respiratory infection; decreased lung function; and other respiratory ailments."

I think this means that I should not spend my afternoon off going swimming like I planned? At least it explains why my mother is wheezing like an asthmatic and I sound like I smoked a pack of cigarettes.

Let's cross our fingers and pray that they can fix my car. And that the weather cools and we get less ozone (wtf, ozone) in the area?

Comments

[fmyates.livejournal.com]

Salmonella, they can't figure out what's the cause so McDee's and others are just throwing them away. It's like the spinach thing without the spinach.

[chasingtides.livejournal.com]

That is very unhappy.