Summertime is in full cooked and roasted mode. The days of temperatures in the high 80s and 90s, punctuated by rolling thunderstorms, too often including hail, and seemingly endless humidity, leave many of us dragging and seeking places of refuge.

Census data shows less than 50% of Floyd County homes are air-conditioned. For the 18 years that we have lived in our home in this Blue Ridge Mountain community, we have depended on shade from a large oak tree that shades our master bedroom and the ceiling fan that circulated air.

When this house was built in 1977, the humidity was not a problem. Neither was the heat. That was thin and this is now with climate change, a thinner ozone layer, and other ecological problems that dampen out days with oppressive heat and sweat.

I’ve gone through my archives of photos and videos, I find many that deal with the weather, the heat, and the thunderstorms.

How hot is it?

Too damn hot.

John Fogerty summed it all up in “Who’ll Stop The Rain?”