By Leila Rocha
Hopefully we can all agree that this past week has been hot. Last Tuesday and Thursday even passed one-hundred degree heat! As you may know from personal experience, the heat may affect your behavior and leave you craving cooler weather.
To see just how this past week’s heat has affected students, I conducted an interview. I asked students, “How has this week’s heat wave affected you? Has it been harder to focus in school or during sports? What have you been doing to cope with the heat?” and lastly, “Do you think schools should have minimized or canceled classes on days that exceed 100 degrees? Why or why not?”
An anonymous senior wrote to me- we can call her Jen, “The heat wave has definitely drained me, and at times made school work feel harder to complete because of the effects of the heat. I have been drinking water and staying in the shade as much as possible. Also, I try to stay in air conditioned rooms or at least have the fan going.” Jen believes, “By minimizing the school day it would have been a great compromise since we would still get lessons from our teacher before it got to extreme temperatures, however, canceling school would still be the best option. No one is used to it being over 100 degrees, this puts people at risk for getting overheated much more likely. The passing period felt excessively hot with the heat.”
Another senior, Faith, offered a similar response when it came to how the weather has affected her and keeping herself cool, “It’s affected me by the weather having to wear shorts and tank tops more in school. Wearing more sunscreen and drinking a lot of water. Focusing in school has been the same because most of my teachers put the air conditioning on. I’ve been drinking as much water as I can. Also staying in the shade at school and or walking around so I don’t feel the heat so much around me.”
Aside from the similarities, Faith provided us with a different opinion on school being canceled, “No unless it would be more than 110-115 degrees. I’m used to the heat a little more but sometimes it can be so hot.”
You may be wondering why I even bothered asking about canceling school and schedule shortening. Well, there have been some schools around the country, and even around the area that took these measures. NBC Bay Area shared that Novato had announced they were giving minimum days all last week.
But, the triple digit heat is now in the past (for now at least) with this week bringing temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s. What a relief. Except for California moved to a new issue- Tropical Storm Kay.
In an article from September 12 LA Times reported, ¨Kay never made landfall in the state,¨ but the rain was not enough for the drought. Yet, it still brought floods. 8newsnow informs, ¨About 40 vehicles were blocked by active flooding on CA-190 west of Towne Pass on Saturday, the park service said [National Park Service].¨
Of course, there is also a wildfire in Northern California, the Mosquito Fire. The fire raged through 50,000 acres in El Dorado County and Placer County. So far, thousands have evacuated, and air quality worsened in surrounding areas. CNN headlined, ¨California´s Mosquito Fire destroys 46 structures before pushing deeper into forested areas, sending smoke into Nevada.¨
We started with triple digit heat. Then we proceeded with a tropical storm, which of course didn’t bring enough rain, and now we are dealing with the Mosquito Fire. It seems to be a rough time for California.
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