Several local villagers asked why I was angry; that’s what a red face meant to them. Peripheral blood vessels dilate, and heavy sweating reduces blood volume, leading to dehydration, forcing the heart to work harder, and possibly leading to heat exhaustion or heat stroke, says acsdoctors.com. But I take heat seriously these days, now that we have graduated from heatwaves to a heat dome, complicated by wildfire smoke. Witness the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, which stretched down through the mid-west from Canada to Texas. Nowadays, our wildfires get more press, but heat, drought, and hurricanes are all wrapped up with them in one miserable bundle.