Monday morning at Seattle’s Alki Beach, people were getting in workouts and chores before the heat of the day arrived.
With a claw and a bucket, Carla Coates was out beautifying the beach before even more residents sought relief in the waves of Puget Sound.
“I’m just checking out what it’s going to be like and how it feels,” he said.
From Canada to Oregon, temperatures reached 80 degrees to 90 degrees this weekend, and the heat wave it is expected to continue in the northwest. The National Meteorological Service says temperatures will be 20 to 30 degrees above average all week.
This early weather is unusual. The Seattle Times reported that it has only reached the 80s six times in the past 75 years.
“This heat is a little different than what we’re used to, and especially this early,” resident Kyle Petheral said.
Petheral was out with his dog on his second walk of the morning.
“Get it in now before it gets too hot,” he said.
For Seattle residents, it is necessary to come up with strategies to deal with the heat, since the city is one of the least air-conditioned in the country. Only about half of its residents have air conditioning, according to the 2021 US Housing Survey from the Census Bureau.
But a few summers of heat waves in the 90s, even triple digits, have residents more prepared for weather like this, breaking summer protocols for a spring unlike any other.
“I think people are a little more prepared for it now, like I have a little portable AC unit in my house there, and so I’m not caught off guard this time,” Petheral said.
SEE MORE: Early high temperatures could set records in Oregon, Washington this weekend
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