This weather is awful!! 2008-2021

[RobbieB]

Glad the heat wave has passed. Going back to normal summer temps, 90's day, 60's night. Keep attic fan on all night, cool off house, AC not needed till well into afternoon.

 

[ivinsfan]

We had a great week with below normal temps and two rains( our corn was on the verge of burning up) That lasted for 6 days and now we have yellow to red air alerts because of fires in Canada. #worstsummerever.

 

[audreyh1]

Also the large drainage canals that we have here for flood prevention filled up shockingly fast. Our route home goes alongside one of them almost the whole way. You could hardly see the road or where the edge of the canal was. I told him I didn't want to drown in a locked car upside down in the canal so please be careful. He was.

One thing that made me very nervous driving the motorhome around Cajun country was those narrow roads with huge ditches on either side!

 

[W2R]

One thing that made me very nervous driving the motorhome around Cajun country was those narrow roads with huge ditches on either side!

Me too!! Frank says he grew up around those canals, and he is concerned about them too. I'm glad he doesn't think I'm a "nervous Nellie" to be so concerned. Every now and then we read about some awful tragedy where a person drove into a canal and drowns, and it scares me silly. In the past few years divers have found literally hundreds of autos on the bottom of the canals that nobody knew were there. Some have bones in them and I suppose that eventually they'll get around to hauling all of them out and investigating.

Anyway, Frank was very careful driving us home today and I was grateful that he didn't do anything reckless.

BTW, so glad to read ivinsfan's post and RobbieB's post, saying that their regions are cooling off!! Whew.

 

[Music Lover]

With climate change upon us, this kind of thing is unfortunately going to be happening more and more in the coming months and years. Paradise, California was destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire a couple years ago; over 80 people died as they had no time to escape. The ground is so dry already from the extended severe drought that these abnormal heat waves are able to dry out the vegetation until it is tinder dry. The lack of water in the soil means that there is nothing to evaporate, so the heat just continues to dry out the vegetation. Very scary situation.

There have been reports of a train starting it, as well as so far unproven suggestions of arson. The surrounding forest was mostly untouched. The headlines that said "wildfire" are misleading.

 

[Hyper]

Envious of the heat? Be careful what you wish for.

Seeing how some parts of the country have water up to their nose, literally, while other parts are bone dry, I simply cannot get too excited about far-out space programs that have undefined benefits. Could that money be used to bring water from the wet places to the dry places? How much would it cost? If doable, that's a lot more practical than pie-in-the-sky programs.

I did considerably more hiking last fall during hunting season in the mountains in very rugged areas that I'd never been that "look" to be extremely suitable for very large dams not to mention I'd be all in for as much hydro-electric power as possible. These places see considerable snow melt so I'd think the water should be advantageous. These places are also extremely steep so I have trouble seeing negative impacts as besides hardcore idiots like myself, I'd say there are very few that have ever seen the areas. I know that one of our dams sees considerable recreation from locals and many out of staters. Sure seems like many benefits. I'd definitely use that $ for more dams, hydro-electricity!

 

[1242Vintage]

Thermometer is sitting right at 100 degrees at 4:30 pm this afternoon. Plan for the early evening is to get out on my bicycle for a ride down into the American River canyon behind the house. Nice long shadow and cool water in the canyon that time of day.

 

[ERD50]

...

PS. Temperature up there is 79F, with a humidity of 10%. Very nice. ....

10%?!

OK, I *hate* heat with high humidity, but I don't think I've ever experienced low humidity of 10%. Sounds awful to me.

In the winter here in the Mid-West, heating our homes dries the air out (warm air can hold more moisture, so Relative Humidity decreases as you warm the air, which is already dry in the winter). But when we get down to 30%, we are suffering from dry, itchy skin and lips, dry sinus, scratchy throat. We use a humidifier to get back to 35%~40% for better comfort. At least until our windows start fogging up, which can cause other problems.

I can't imagine what would happen to me in 10% RH. Yeah, I know, you acclimate. But there are limits!

-ERD50

 

[aja8888]

I recall 8% humidity when I lived in Thousand Oaks, Ca. in the 1980's. I also remember there were no mosquitos or other flying bugs. Now here in south Texas, well, humidity is another story.

 

[NW-Bound]

10%?!

OK, I *hate* heat with high humidity, but I don't think I've ever experienced low humidity of 10%. Sounds awful to me.

In the winter here in the Mid-West, heating our homes dries the air out (warm air can hold more moisture, so Relative Humidity decreases as you warm the air, which is already dry in the winter). But when we get down to 30%, we are suffering from dry, itchy skin and lips, dry sinus, scratchy throat. We use a humidifier to get back to 35%~40% for better comfort. At least until our windows start fogging up, which can cause other problems.

I can't imagine what would happen to me in 10% RH. Yeah, I know, you acclimate. But there are limits!

-ERD50

10% relative humidity in cold temperature may be bad, but at 80F, it's awfully nice. And we have had single-digit RH too.

You may want to experience it to see how you would like it.


PS. Actually, for the benefits of the trees and plants, I would not mind a higher RH. Maybe 30-40% as you said, at 70-80F temperature.

 

[ERD50]

10% relative humidity in cold temperature may be bad, but at 80F, it's awfully nice. And we have had single-digit RH too.

You may want to experience it to see how you would like it.


PS. Actually, for the benefits of the trees and plants, I would not mind a higher RH. Maybe 30-40% as you said, at 70-80F temperature.

But I'm talking indoors. Heated to ~ 68~70F, I find less than 35% uncomfortable over the long term of a week or so (skin dries out, etc). Short term it's fine, other than getting static electricity shocks. And since we are talking relative, not absolute humidity, I wouldn't think a 10F delta would make much difference in terms of dry skin.

Yes, even at 35%, things in the house dry out quickly.

We've just had a cold front and some rain move in for the past few days, so too cool to run the AC, and indoor/outdoor humidity has reached ~75%. At ~70F, that feels "clammy" (odd expression, how do we know what clams feel like?).

-ERD50

 

[Chuckanut]

Gosh. Terrible weather has struck my area this month of July as predicted by various politicians, reporters, bloggers, and other similar experts. Highs in the high 70's to low 80's. No need to run any heater. The low at night is in the high 50's to low 60's which cools off the house nicely without the need for AC. Mostly sunny days, with a few clouds, lots of clean fresh air and a nice breeze. Virtually no rain.

Dang! This weather is awful!!!! We are doomed to misery. I'm so glad they warned us about it.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

We had a wave of severe storms move through overnight, including several tornadoes. Fortunately the area is exurban bordering on rural, so damage was limited and nobody was injured. Someone we know had restored an old barn on his multigenerational family farm, and a tornado smashed it to kindling. So they're pretty shook.

One thing that impressed me, though -- the TV weatherman warned viewers seven hours in advance that conditions were likely to get dangerous. The weather radar at that time showed nothing going on. That's some skillful and valuable forecasting ability. A lot of people may have stayed up a little late so they could respond appropriately when the tornado warning was sounded at 1 a.m.

 

[street]

Not good here. No rain is really putting the hurt on ag and cattle business. Cattlemen are selling their stock. Sale yards have been having record number of cattle coming to markets.

 

[RobbieB]

We got to 100 today and we'll be there tomorrow. Then back to normal 90's day, 60's night.

 

[street]

The one good thing humidity here is always very low, so that is huge and early evening till early morning 50's and low 60's is a norm. We are only 6 weeks away from a norm first frost of the year.

 

[W2R]

Hurricane season is finally starting to ramp up. Right now we have three tropical disturbances out in the Atlantic, headed from Africa to the Americas. They are too far away to tell their ultimate intensity or direction, and we are just keeping an eye on them.

August and September are usually the most intense parts of hurricane season for us, so this is fairly normal.

 

[1242Vintage]

Smoke was thick today and air quality solidly in the unhealthy range.

Hope and pray firefighters are able to get on top of the fires and no more homes are lost.

 

[Walt34]

A new (very) local heat record here, 103°F. Since we moved here nineteen years ago that's the highest we've ever measured. The temperature sensor is located in the shade, under the back porch so it never gets direct sunlight.

I offered up my prayer of thanks to Willis Carrier, widely credited with inventing modern air conditioning.

 

[audreyh1]

Hurricane season is finally starting to ramp up. Right now we have three tropical disturbances out in the Atlantic, headed from Africa to the Americas. They are too far away to tell their ultimate intensity or direction, and we are just keeping an eye on them.

August and September are usually the most intense parts of hurricane season for us, so this is fairly normal.

Hello Fred!

 

[pacergal]

Middle of another "heat wave" for us. Expecting 105 today, 102 tomorrow. So far, AC has been keeping up (the one they said was needing replacement or fix for >$5000 a few weeks ago.) It is running fine, sounds the same as it has always, so who knows?

 

[Koolau]

Looks like some blessed rain here in the heartland over the next couple of days. Probably some lightening and wind, but we'll take it! YMMV

 

[W2R]

Hello Fred!

Yes, hi there Fred!

Looks like Tropical Depression Fred is going to bring lots of rain to Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, but apparently may not impact Louisiana. We'll be keeping an eye on Fred, and the next one, possible T.S. Grace. Meanwhile we have been having hot summer weather with intermittent rains here. Our internet has been out almost all day or I would have responded sooner.

 

[aja8888]

We could use the rain here in Texas.....oh, maybe I shouldn't have said that/

 

[wildsun]

There's nothing so wonderful as 100 degree days when the air is filled with forest fire smoke. Oregon didn't used to be so hot.