Global warming. Sorry to say, but true.

That's pretty much normal around here, but then, it's Texas. Just think of how we'd freak if we had one of your winters!

Be very careful and learn the warning signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Drink lots of water and/or sports drinks, and eat salty snacks. If you get over heated, put ice packs, bags of frozen veggies, whatever you have, on your pulse points, (neck, inner thighs/groin area, under arms, wrists), or if you're home, get in a tub of cool water. Back in 1980 when we had the record breaking heat, our air conditioner went out, or the power went out, I don't remember exactly. What I do remember is it was 113 degrees outside and I was 7 months pregnant. I filled the tub up with cool water and sat in it until the AC came back on.

Sally

Saw a video of the pavement, Linda. Looked like an SUV went airborne? Not good.

Yep, global warming. Expect more extremes in both directions.

Here's an article on the states warming the fastest. Bothers me that the lead picture is of Mystic. :(

The water is rising in our cove. We've been here since 2000 part-time & year around since 2004. There's been a good 10' of marsh land lost.

/tricia

Here is a link that might be useful: Fastest warming states

We are on the 20th day of temps over 90, the 3rd one over 100 and there are 3 more to go. I am drenched in sweat, the dog is not happy (no walks) the pond temps are dangerously high. I am doing water changes daily to that and the quarantine tank. And to add to the misery, we are in a drought. Crops are dying or stunting around here. Thankfully I am on city water and have no meter, so we are good.

Cooking? Forgetaboutit! And even grilling is done early in the morning. Gardening? I go out at 5:30 a.m. to gather veggies and flowers.

Thank God, today's BBQ is a pool party but I bet the water is warm too. I am bringing a large fruit salad. The grapes, blueberries, cherries and strawberries with go in frozen with the melons.

Stay cool !

Linda, I saw that today on the internet, the heat is just nuts, and it's not supposed to get this hot in Michigan either, it's just wrong.

Peppi, we're having the same thing here, and the pasture is getting "crunchy". I can't sprinkle 40 acres of pasture, so if we don't get rain soon I'll have to start feeding hay or get the temporary fence up and let them graze the hayfield and give up a second cutting.

The pool temps are running somewhere around 85F, I've been adding water from the hose to cool it off and make it better for swimming. Cooper hates to swim but I picked him up and held him in the pool today and he was happy to just lie in my arms and relax. Since I have no air conditioning, the only relief he gets is when I take him to get ice cream, the Jeep is air conditioned. Neither of the girls have air conditioning either, so I can't even visit them, they visit me and swim in the pool!

Annie

We hit a historic 109 degree high in Nashville last Friday. 107 last Saturday. It's the drought that has me worried. I wish the remnants of a tropical storm would come up through the Gulf and drop loads of rain on us and cool it down (yes, this happens. Just not in the last three or so years, so far-hopefully in 2012) without hurting anyone!

Well according to my car thermometer on my way home from work yesterday afternoon it was indeed 102 degrees! A bit of a respite today at only 99! LOL

Another pavement buckle today on Interstate 35.

If the weatherman is right (which he seldom is...) another 24 hours of this and then it should cool a bit, down to the mid 80's.

Interesting how the "mid 80's" sounds so refreshing right now! LOL

Now if only we could get some measurable rain! We had a couple of sprinkles the past two nights, but not enough to even register in the rain gauge. The grass is getting crunchy and the flower beds are turning brown. (Strangely enough the weeds are doing amazingly well!)

Linda

funny how well the weeds do, isn't it?

It hit 101F here today, broke every heat record since the beginning of the century. It was still 97F at 7 pm, and it'll be hotter tomorrow. No rain in sight.....

Annie

I saw buckled pavement in Chicago on TV this morning - it looked like Anchorage after the 1964 quake!

Climate change is inevitable, due to the earth's wobbling orbit, but carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also makes a difference. I think destruction of the rain forests has more to do with that than any other one factor, but carbon emissions might actually be a bigger factor. Put them together, and you get a devastating effect.

Climate seems a bit more stable on the Pacific Coast, due to the effect of the huge ocean, but even here we get El Nino and La Nina years.

I wonder why I never saw highways buckling in Texas, where it is hotter each year than it is now in the upper Midwest. Perhaps the highways in the north were built to withstand cold weather more than hot weather. I do not like the heat, and so you have my sympathy for having to put up with it.

Lars

It is 1:30 pm and the patio thermometer is showing 109.6 in the shade. I am hiding indoors after a run to walmart. For the first time, Wallyworld was empty. It is just too hot out there but as Linda wrote, Saturday will bring storms and a "cold" front. Only 93!

I feel so bad for road crews, trash collectors, landscapers etc. They looked miserable!

A hot spell doesn't mean global warming (or climate change which is the more accurate word). That's weather. Climate is long term trends, the accumulation of weather trend data from decades to centuries, which in some cases we have available to us. The weather is predicted to change in that storms will be faster and more torrential, hot spells hotter, even snowstorms get worse because instead of being spread out, precipitation comes in dramatic spurts. Vegetation, like oceans and big lakes, has a moderating effect on weather and climate. We are rapidly converting most of the earth's surface to human habitation, much of it non-vegetated and impervious. I see no signs of these trends reversing. What is saddest to me is the predicted extinction of so many of our beautiful plants and animals, due to diseases becoming more rampant, other species invading and out competing them, and their inability to adapt to such rapid changes. Lots of folks suffer econimic damage from climate change as well, from foresters, users of wood products, agriculture, tourist industry, fisheries, not to mention all the damage to property caused by increased flooding, heat scorch (like roads buckling) etc. On my end, the plants in my yard are just melting. They can't take the persistant onslaught. I try to keep them hydrated but I have already lost a few.

Do you think Japan's big quake that moved the axis is affecting us?

For us, this past winter we got NO snow (usually a handful at least, last year 10 inches) and the hottest summer on record, so far.

Rob333,

That's an interesting question. I'd forgotten about the axis shift from the earthquake. I'll give the NOAA NWS meterologist we report to in Upton a call sometime this week & ask.

Right now, the only axis tidbit my brain can recall is that a 20,000 ton ship traveling east along the equator weights something like 3,000 tons less than if they were going west. Useful to know, huh? (LOL)

/tricia

Why would a ship weigh less going one way rather than the other? Just curious.

Pam,

I learned that tidbit in both my boating classes & NOAA training. I probably remember it just like we remember anything about loosing weight! :)

The quickest way to lose weight (John, are you listening?, grin) is to move to a mountaintop on the equator and run eastwards. Because the force of gravity diminishes the farther you are away from the center of the earth. You weigh less standing on a mountaintop than you would at sea level. Similarly, you weigh less at the equator than you would at either pole because the earth bulges at the equator and the poles are slightly flattened. The running helps because the earth's rotation sets up a mild centrifugal force which counteracts the effect of gravity just as water will stay in a bucket which is swung around on a rope. Running eastwards, in the direction of the planet's spin, increases the centrifugal effect so you weigh fractionally less than you would standing still. Running westwards against the spin you would weigh slightly more.
The faster you run, the greater the difference. In a large object, such as a ship, the difference in weight can be considerable. A 20,000 ton ship steaming east at 20 knots along the equator (where the centrifugal effect is greatest) weighs about 3 tons less than it would if it reversed its course and headed west.

/tricia

Running is Evil.

Here's an article about the NOAA report on climate change's effect on weather.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hoe clomate change affects weather