Heat Is On: Extreme Heat Wave Taking a Deadly Toll July 1, 2021 -- Lisa Jaffe is a Washington state native who has lived in her 115-year-old house for 5 years. Like many residents of Seattle, she has no central air conditioning but relies just on a portable unit, which she normally doesn't need. "I have a big tree that gives me shade," says Jaffe, a freelance journalist. That all worked fine until recently, when the unprecedented heat wave hit the Pacific Northwest. Temperatures soared in Washington state and Oregon on Monday. "It got up to 107," she says, ''and it didn't get below 86 in the house. My weather app said it feels like 110. And I wanted to know, to who?"