This is part of a new series called “Extreme Living: Climate Disruption Stories,” where we share stories from Moms members about family life in an age of extremes. Read stories about wildfire smoke here and about flooding here.
When my daughter was starting first grade three years ago, the biggest joy of her life was meeting her friends after school outside at our neighborhood playground. They would play make believe and build shelters for bugs. They jumped rope, threw frisbees, and played putt-putt with some old golf clubs.
Playing outdoors is so important for children. I watched my daughter and her friends become cooperative, compassionate humans on that playground.
But even then, we were seeing the number of days with temperatures above 90 degrees grow every year. We are battling much more heat and humidity in my Virginia town than we did when I was a kid. And on those days when the heat index surpassed 100, I had to ask my daughter to stay inside. She plays hard, overheats easily, and I did not want to risk a trip to the emergency room for heat stroke or heat exhaustion.
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This is the case for so many children and families, not just mine. Our children are losing valuable play and school time to climate-fueled extreme heat. Our families are rethinking when they go outside, how they travel, and how they spend their summers. Here are a few stories of life in soaring temps we collected from our Moms members across the country:
Brooke Petry, Pennsylvania
“My neighborhood in Philadelphia often records some of the city’s hottest temperatures owing to the urban heat island effect. My family, like many in our community, does not own a car. This often means making tough choices about leaving the house for even the basics. Carrying groceries home, walking back and forth to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription—each comes with a calculation. What will the heat index be? Is it too hot to walk? Too hot to wait for the bus for half an hour in the sun? How is the air quality? How is my asthma today? Can we wait another day? What will the temperature be tomorrow? And so on.”
Hazel Chandler, Arizona
“Every year, summers in the Phoenix area are hotter and impact our lives in so many ways. Last summer, with more than 30 days over 115 degrees, I could only step out very early in the morning or late in the evening. The railing on my condo’s stairway gets so hot that I wear an oven mitt to hold onto it. Touching the railing without protection can result in serious burns. Last year, the Maricopa County hospital’s burn unit was overflowing with both children and the elderly who had fallen on pavement that exceeds 160 degrees and received third-degree burns. For many older people, this is a long recovery process requiring months of treatment and physical therapy to get their mobility back.”
Emily Pickett, Florida
“As a lifelong Floridian, I’m no stranger to heat. But the extreme heat and humidity we had last summer were like nothing I’ve experienced before. Outdoor play became unsafe for my family because of the thick, hard-to-breathe air and extreme heat—Tampa had its hottest July on record, including many days with a heat index above 100 degrees. Plus, the environmental impacts like coral bleaching were devastating. I’m saddened to think of how Florida’s beautiful natural environment is threatened by climate change.”
Karin Stein, Iowa
“My flower garden is really getting hit by hotter and hotter days, and my vegetable garden just doesn’t have the vigor it used to. To garden in the summer now, I get up much earlier because I can stand doing the physical work well before 9 AM. Even after sundown, it can be too hot to garden—at least it often has been in the last few years. I am now having to experiment with new plants to see which can handle extremely hot conditions. What really shocks me is that even the leaves of tough, native prairie plants with very deep roots, such as purple and yellow coneflowers, start drooping when we get into those stretches of really hot days. I had never seen that before.”
Earlier this year, when I was planning my daughter’s summer, I thought about the heat and the wildfire smoke from years past and opted for camps that had indoor play spaces and activities. Then a June heat wave arrived just in time for the first full week of summer vacation, and I was relieved that she could do arts and crafts, climb rock walls, and run wild with her friends in the comfort of air conditioning.
But what is she missing—what are we all missing—by spending so much of summer inside? It’s a question on many caregivers’ minds as we learn to cope with our warming world.
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