Hot Hot Hot

Got a couple of bumps yesterday. The fire is now 86 percent contained, but grew another 8,000 acres to 281,620.

I think they believe they've got it now. CalFire has bowed out and left the remaining work to the Forest Service. They only have 655 personnel - way down from the nearly 10,000 they had. It is now 91% contained, and has burned 281,893 acres.

Huge sigh of relief.

Officially the largest in history. You must be so proud!

Why should I be proud? I didn't start it.

You're Making America Great Again.

Big old 17F this morning.But it should get up to freezing some time next week.

Yes, my daughter has been expressing her disappointment with the Brooklyn weather of late.

Fucking weather!

Yeah, I know I whined about the drought, and then whined about the excessive rain last year. But when are things going to get back to normal? Don't answer - I know it never will.

After last year's soaking, we have moved into the driest year yet. Even during the drought years, we were never this short of rain at this time of year. We have had a total of three inches of rain since July 1, when they start counting. Just over two inches of that came in a period of a few hours (they remember that in Montecito).

February and March are normally fairly wet months, but they are currently predicting no rain for at least the first two weeks of February. The high temps are predicted to be in the mid-seventies (it was 78 today). The first few years we lived in this house, it snowed in early February, now it's like late spring weather.

WTF?

"Clean coal" there's your answer. You know what the definition if insanity is?

Taking the same starting conditions over and over and over and expecting a different result. You KNOW this is the new normal. When are you going to do something proactive, instead of just complaining about it?

"Clean coal" is not an answer - or even a thing. It's a meaningless political and/or business phrase.

That is not the definition of insanity. It's a silly old saying.

Exactly what proactive steps do you suggest I take? I tried pissing off the roof, but I only wound up with a yellow spot instead of green grass.

For that to work, you're probably going to have to drink A SIZEABLE AMOUNT more beer.

After which... it may not be safe to be on the roof.

Just sayin'.

More whining.

February is normally our wettest month of the year. The month is half over and so far we have had five hundredths of an inch of rain. The total for the season so far is 3.10 inches. We should have had around ten inches for normal rainfall. Last year, a very wet year, we had about twenty-three inches at this point.

February is usually our big snow month. Barely a sprinkle, so far, although it's been bitchin' cold some of the time.

My daughter who lives in Brooklyn has not been pleased about the cold.
But I heard from her this morning and she is spending a week in Miami to warm up.

Got a text from my daughter this morning. She is still in Miami because the snow in New York caused her flight to be cancelled. I could tell she wasn't all that unhappy about it.

The snow wasn't much at all. She must have had good timing to get her flight cancelled.

I'm sure she didn't argue about it.

Well, we got through February, typically one of our wettest months, with a staggering one quarter inch of rain for the month. At the end of February in the rain season last year, we had had twenty-seven inches of rain. In a normal year, we would have had about eleven or twelve inches. This year - three inches. Whoopee.

The first of March, we had almost an inch and a half in twenty-four hours, so we've got four and a half inches for the season (which is winding down). As it is going, this year seems to be on its way to being dryer than any of the drought years we recently experienced.

You can have some of our moisture, for sure. Actually, the forecast was putting the over-under for snow accumulation at 6 inches, and what actually happened is it's mostly been rain. Still, it did snow for a number of hours, and I did hear thundersnow. So they weren't entirely wrong.

Thundersnow must be extremely rare. I'd never heard of it before yesterday.

I'd heard of it, but never actually heard it before. Just a couple of rumbles, anti-climactic if you were expecting something special.

If Willis Carrier was still alive, I would give him a big, sloppy kiss.

I  would even throw in a little tongue.

Read an article on aljazeera.com about the heat around the world.

Quote :

Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, hit 42C in a week-long period with temperatures of at least 40C. This was the warmest July day on record and the joint all-time record.

42°C = 107.6°F

Quote :

Just two days later, in neighbouring Georgia, Tbilisi had a maximum of 40.5C - also a July record.

40.5°C = 104.9°F

Quote :

temperatures in Montreal peaked at 36.6C on Monday, the highest temperature ever recorded there. The heat was so severe that at least 50 people were reported to have died;

36.6°C = 97.9°F

Quote :

...with the thermometer at the University of California at Los Angeles recording 43.9C, its highest reading since records began in 1933.

43.9°C = 111.02°F


Bunch of pussies.