Three straight 100-degree Sacramento days? I’m okay. Nature has a hotter plan in mind | Opinion
I have long had a personal social contract between my hometown of Sacramento and our summer weather, and it’s about to be violated.
The contract goes like this: “Sacramento, I hereby accept that the summer temperature in our Capital City tops 100 degrees. But then, after no more than three days, it must stop. The high temperature must then start with ‘9’ or ‘8.’ The trees must sway in the late afternoon with the return of a cool Delta breeze. Our windows must reopen at night so we can once again reconnect with our glorious outdoors.”
What appears to be the hottest July in recorded Sacramento history may now be unfolding. The next two weeks are predicted to be primarily above 100 degrees and then will be followed by several days topping at the mid-90s.
It’s going to be hot.
Opinion
I realize that climate change demands that I adapt my social contract with the Sacramento summer. Our nights are now warmer. Our hot streaks are longer. It is a reality I am accepting, albeit begrudgingly.
I still love this town to the core; of all the major California cities, we are the sunniest of them all, with 77 days out of 100 devoid of cloud cover.
Sun is good. So is the hot sun, for brief windows. A week of such heat is unacceptable. Two, outrageous. But what is the recourse?
The Delta breeze is one of the signature attributes of Sacramento. Our neighbor, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, is one of nature’s greatest air conditioners. The summer waters in San Francisco Bay are normally in the 50’s, and those in the Delta typically reach the 60’s. When the prevailing winds come from the Delta toward Sacramento and translate this cool water into a breeze, the result is a glorious gust.
Every breath of cool air that reaches Sacramento is its own blessing. The Delta breeze is like a living, breathing creature, sometimes bellowing, sometimes kissing us gently as it meanders through our windows and into our living rooms.
We all have neighbors who seal their windows all summer and run the air conditioner night and day, as if they live in Phoenix. They are living here incorrectly. Their social contract isn’t with Mother Nature. It’s with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.
Of course, I have an air conditioner, but a proper Sacramento air conditioner is only a backup singer to the Delta breeze. The air conditioner is to have limited moments of performance on a summer day. And then it is to stand by idly as the breeze, our true star, takes center stage.
But now, as my social contract with Sacramento’s heat is violated, the air conditioner is my lifeline. The windows may open briefly near dawn, but the gesture is more of a brief acquaintance with the outside world than an effective cooling strategy. Our lives now depend on these cooling machines working.
Nobody ever needs to worry about the Delta breeze blowing a capacitor — that’s the notorious device that starts the air conditioner’s motor, and if it fails, it renders the entire machine useless. Now, as the heat descends, we are prisoners to our cooling machines and their refrigerants.
Air conditioners sing a single, monotonous note. They grind away just outside our homes or lodged in our windows. The air is cool, but it is sterile. It is devoid of the Delta breeze’s varying scents by neighborhood. Mine in Alkali Flat gets filtered by my sycamore, some plum trees and a hint of jasmine.
Sun remains good. A certain darkness, however, is our new nightmare: When the Sierra Nevada mountains or the Coastal Range happen to catch fire during prolonged scorching heat and a stiff, dry north wind, the sun disappears as Sacramento descends into a hellish smoke and even ash. When this has happened in recent summers, it can feel as if the world is coming to an end.
It’s early July, so we all know true relief is still months away. For now, it’s just too hot. We will all suffer, at least for a while. My love-hate relationship with Sacramento weather has been so lopsided on the favorable side up until now; it’s still a great place with great people. But I miss our neighbor mere miles away, a Delta with miles of rivers and sloughs that convert nature’s intersection of hot and cool air into that soothing breeze.
The Delta breeze will return. And when it does, all will be right with the world.
