I had to laugh when I came across this article from the UK's Independent. It seems England's been having a bit of a heat wave lately. Very low three-digit Fahrenheit temperatures were recorded in a few locations on one day. This reminds me of one summer when I was living in London during which a heat wave was declared; the temps hit 30C for a few days in a row. To me, that's a balmy 86F--gorgeous weather, in fact. One day it hit 33C. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Ninety one degrees. Ooh--the horror of it!

Now, New York City isn't Houston, but dammit, 80s and 90s are perfectly normal in July and August. Triple-digit temperatures are not that common, but happen from time to time. We don't necessarily consider that a heat wave, either, unless it persists for a week. The exception to that might be if it's a particularly slow news week, and the press decides to harp about it. If the air conditioning blows, or someone either doesn't have it or chooses not to use it, we all have fans.

I loved the article about England's heat wave of 1911. Grumbling about temperatures in the low 80s for weeks on end is a bit of a joke. I expect mid-upper 80s, if not hotter, for two solid months of every year. Less than that means we never really had a summer. We get "summers" like that, but they are unusual.