After two months of blissfully balmy summer, Portland is paying its dues. The unusual string of 100–108 degree days is particularly risky in the Northwest, where many locals are not equipped to cope. According to a recent National Weather Service estimate, only 40 percent of people in Northwest Oregon have air conditioning—which turns dangerous when nighttime temperatures stay too warm for homes to cool off at night. (Census Bureau figures show that 78 percent of Portlanders have at least one air conditioner, up from 41 percent in 2011. Over 90 percent of Americans have some air conditioning.)

Will this streak break records? Yes, for calendar day records. The temperature on Monday, August 14, soundly beat 2008’s record temp of 102, with a high of 108—the third-highest temperature ever recorded in Portland, and the hottest ever in August. (The highest two both came during the June 2021 heat dome.) And August 15 will likely shatter 2008’s daily record of 100 degrees. Nearby Troutdale hit 110 degrees on Monday, wiping out its previous August record of 101.

No, it hasn’t always been this way: on August 13, 1964, Portland hit a record low temperature of 47 degrees. But thankfully, this heatwave won’t touch Portland’s all-time heat record of 116 degrees during the deadly June 2021 heat dome, when walking outside felt like baking in an oven.

As weather geeks know, successive days of high temperatures mean potential records for stretches of days, and yes, western Oregon is experiencing one of the hottest multiday stretches on record. The timing is terrible as forest fires also threaten the state, including the Lookout Fire evacuations near Eugene, Oregon. Before the last few years, meteorologists had to look back a half century for multiday stretches over 100 degrees: a record heat wave from July 13–17, 1941, had temps at at least 100 degrees for five days.

This is all, however, a walk in the park compared to New Orleans, where the local newspaper is referring to this season as “the summer from hell,” with temperatures as high as 120 degrees. And in southern Europe, temperatures in Rome, Italy, hit 114 last month, “ruining vacations” and even closing the mighty Acropolis to tourists in Greece. In July, Phoenix logged a 31-day streak of 110-degree heat. You can find us rewatching Barbie with a slushie in hand, and hitting up one of the Multnomah County cooling centers.