Pacific Northwest Not Built For Heat

July 1, 2021 – Very interesting story on Wired. On Sunday, as temperatures hit 105, the concrete beneath State Route 544 outside Everson, Wash., began to do what concrete does when it gets really hot: It expanded. By 5 p.m., the asphalt above it had softened and cracked, leaving a thick, humped seam across two lanes. To the south, in Portland, Ore., a road on the northern side of the city seized up around a pothole, leading authorities to close surrounding streets. As the heat wave wore on, the hits kept coming. Amtrak slowed trains on its Cascades service, worried the heat would warp the tracks. Power cables melted on the Portland Streetcar, which canceled service on Sunday and Monday. The local light rail system also halted, after its copper overhead wires sagged in 120-degree heat and became unusable. Read the entire story.

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