ann arbor heat

Temperatures exceeded 100°F recently, for several day, and everybody working in East Hall received two emails about the weather, and what to do about it.

The first one was called Walking in the sun:

Due to the very high temperatures, we are experiencing some problems with cooling critical areas. We also know that two chillers are down so we want to shed as much heat as possible to reduce the load on remaining systems to avoid a brownout which could be remarkably inconvenient. Please shut down anything that generates heat that is not critical for your operations. Computers, lights, fans and anything else you can think of. Corridor lights should be off.

Shorty after that, it said Clothing optional in my mailbox:

It seems that systems are struggling to the extent that we must reduce heat loads more drastically than just turning local things off. [...]
It’s quite likely that some office and lab spaces on floors B, 1, 2, 3 may get a bit ‘close’ over the next couple hours. Hence, shed clothing or go home after your prescribed work schedule, if you have one. [...]
I appreciate everyone’s understanding and assistance in this. I should remind you that publishing risqué photos of anyone without their consent is frowned upon. You can send them to me for review.