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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

For those without air conditioning, summer’s dog days can be torture


Brindle, an Australian shepherd mix, lets loose a yawn as his owner Shara Hopkins changes the direction of the ceiling fan to force cool air down at their home in Spokane. Hopkins said her pets head indoors to seek refuge from the heat. 
 (Holly Pickett / The Spokesman-Review)

Is it hot enough for ya? When Shara Hopkins gets to work at 2 a.m. it’s a whopping 88 degrees or so in the Rosauers bakery at 29th and Mount Vernon. It only gets worse after the ovens begin pumping out 400-degree heat. “I’ve seen it 95 (degrees),” said Hopkins. “Most of the bakeries are closed and there are no open spaces.” The store is air-conditioned, but it’s no match for the ovens. Hopkins said she has fans going as she works. “I do walk by the fan quite a bit and stand there for a bit. It’s quite hard on me. I kind of push it out of my mind even though I’m basically dying in there.”

Hopkins is grateful that her home and car are air- conditioned as the Spokane area deals with a heat wave. There were seven days in a row of temperatures over 90 degrees before Tuesday’s official high of 89, said National Weather forecaster Jonathan Fox. “That broke our streak,” he said.

Overall, the area has seen 23 days with temperatures over 90 degrees this summer. Last year residents sweated though 33 such days, though the average is 18 days of temperatures 90 degrees or higher, Fox said.

Dawn Wiksten and her husband Eric work from their home in Coeur d’Alene, where they have lived for 13 years. They have no air conditioning. “We never needed it years ago,” Wiksten said. “Last summer was pretty bad. I think it’s getting worse.”

The couple tries to keep their house cool by using fans. “There are often fights over where the fans need to be placed,” she said. “There are ceiling fans, floor fans, even table fans. Sometimes all it’s doing is moving sweltering hot air.”

Wiksten said she takes cold showers in the middle of the day and drinks a lot of ice water. She takes care of her garden in the early morning hours before the heat sets in. Sleeping can sometimes be difficult in their upstairs bedroom. “We actually put in a ceiling fan right over the bed. The upstairs gets so sweltering hot. Sometimes we just have to sleep downstairs.”

She has thought about getting central air conditioning installed, but was put off by the price. What finally convinced her to get it was watching her dogs. “They’re as miserable as we are. They’re just panting and panting constantly. You just feel terrible for them.

“I’m going to do it next spring. I’ll sell a kidney if I have to.”

The heat has driven Terrance Hartsox to buy air conditioners for his home in Chewelah, Wash. “We’ve been five or six degrees higher than Spokane,” Hartsox said. “I finally broke down. We just weren’t able to sleep at night.”

He purchased three “spot” air conditioners, about the size of water coolers, online from a company based in Texas. “I bought three of those, one for each bedroom, and it really makes a world of difference.”

With all that said, Army First Lieutenant Jack Thompson offers a little perspective. “Be glad you’re not in Iraq — 120 degrees plus,” Thompson wrote in an e-mail from Mosul, Iraq. “We drink a lot of water and soak our undershirts.”

For Spokane area residents, at least, some relief is in sight. “By the weekend it looks like we’re going to be near normal, which is low 80s,” said Fox.