Phoenix hit 119 degrees yesterday; we were shooting for an even 120. Perhaps today.
It's a good time not to be traveling; quite a number of flights out of Sky Harbor were cancelled yesterday due to the heat. American Airlines by itself cancelled 50. The issue is lack of lift produced by the hot air; hot air expands, so supports less weight - and aircraft. The situation is worst for smaller commuter aircraft; the larger planes, with more power and larger wings, have less of an issue.
It's also the time of the year when a few customers (we provide commercial janitorial service to small and mid sized office, medical and industrial facilities) decide to save a few bucks by turning the air conditioning off, sometimes in the evening buts most often over the weekend. So my folks have to try to do a respectable job cleaning in oppressive heat. We can turn on the AC while we're in the building, but in the hour or two our crew might spend cleaning a smaller facility, the AC takes longer to get the temperature down than we do to do the work. And, we've always the danger of forgetting to turn the system off when we leave.
Moreover, it's generally not much of a money saver for our client. The extra work the system has to do on Monday morning draws enough power to cancel a good bit of what was saved over the weekend. What's worse is what excessive heat will do to one's electronics. We're often cautioned, on starting a new client, to not close the door to the closet housing the computer server; the heat built up by the server, lacking any air circulation, will fry it. Consider what heat will do, on a 119 degree day, to the server and other components without air conditioning.
Best to bite the bullet and keep your air conditioning on. And don't plan on flying.
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