Seeking Shade In A Warming World

1A

NPR

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4.4 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week saw dangerous weather in Europe, where a brutal heat wave swept across the continent. Now wildfires from that heatwave are scorching several Mediterranean countries.

Closer to home, hundreds of heat records were set across the U.S in the month of June, including Baltimore, which saw a record high of 105 degrees. Nearly 130 million people were under extreme heat warnings or heat advisories on last Thursday, according to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center.

Heat is a deadly threat that has been intensifying each summer. And while some of us turn to air conditioning, many don't have that option.

We discuss the power of shade to help cool us down as rising temperatures become the new normal.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You have your job, but you also have a life, and you're not just one thing.
0:06.3	Neither is the Here and Now Anytime podcast.
0:09.2	Every weekday, we break down the biggest story of the day and something else, like a new trend everyone's talking about.
0:15.7	It's Here and Now Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBR.
0:31.2	Thank you. Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBR. Last week saw dangerous weather in Europe where a brutal heat wave swept across the continent.
0:37.1	As Britain baked, the wise and the
0:39.3	fortunate sought refuge on beaches and in Lido's anywhere to take the edge off the unusually high
0:46.4	June temperatures. At Wimbledon, it was the hottest opening day on record and tennis fans came
0:52.8	prepared. And in late June, hundreds of heat records
0:56.5	were set across the U.S., including in Baltimore, which saw a record high of 105 degrees.
1:02.5	So let's take a look at the Almanac for it today. We had 97 degrees at BWI Marshall, 10 degrees
1:07.8	above average for this time of year, one degree shy of the record high.
1:12.7	Once you factored in the humidity, though, it's feeling like 104 degrees right now at the airport.
1:18.4	It feels like 110 in White Marsh, feels like 105 in Owings Mills.
1:22.2	Friends in Columbia, you're feeling like 107 degrees.
1:25.4	Heat is a deadly threat that intensifies each summer, and while some of us turn to air
1:30.1	conditioning, many don't have that option. What else can we do to cool down? The answer may be something
1:36.4	as simple and as ancient as shade. It's how many of you find relief from the heat. Whether in the car or
1:43.8	outside of the car with a blanket, I can always find a great shade space
1:48.9	in the local cemetery close to my job and close to my home.
1:53.8	That's something I love and appreciate very much.
1:56.5	There's just wonderful old trees that have grown there, and it's just become a wonderful place for me to gather.
	...

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