Welcome. On Monday afternoon, the temperature reached a record 117 degrees Fahrenheit in Salem, Ore. The recent heat wave in the Northwest is not “hot enough for ya?” weather or “cool off with a Popsicle” weather. It’s extreme weather — off-the-charts, as the team at The Upshot discovered when they set out to visualize the heat dome’s magnitude. If you’re somewhere excessively hot, the Well team has some advice for staying cool and safe. And The Times’s product recommendation site, Wirecutter, has recommendations for the best air conditioners and other tips for staying cool.
Whether you’re indoor-catting with the fan on high or lucky enough to be grilling outside, you might try Vallery Lomas’s take on her grandmother’s sweet tea, which you could brew while listening to the At Home and Away Songs of Summer 2021 playlist. Thanks to everyone who answered the call and sent us their personal anthems of the season. (Yes, you can still send yours and we’ll add it to the list.) I’ve been listening to the playlist for the past few days and it’s pretty great — a mix of irresistible new songs like Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” and Lorde’s “Solar Power” and summer classics like “Up on the Roof” and “Under the Boardwalk” by the Drifters.
Not all sounds of summer are found on music streaming services, of course. “I live in Kentucky where the Brood X cicadas have re-emerged and around here, at least, the song of the summer is the sound of everyone screaming when a cicada lands on their head,” wrote JD Mitchell from Louisville. For Karen Carriera in Groton Long Point, Conn., “The Hokey Pokey,” a dance favorite from her youth, will forever be her summer banger.
Cue up the playlist and let us know what you think.
P.S.
Tell us.
Send us your song of this summer and we’ll add it to the playlist: athome@nytimes.com. Include your full name and location. We’re At Home and Away. We’ll read every letter sent. More ideas for leading a full and cultured life, at home and away, appear below. See you on Friday.
