h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm kind of afraid to say this in case I jinx it, but we haven't had a 100° temperature yet so far this summer. Last year we had our first day of scorchio on May 25th, and I think we'd had seven of them by today's date a year ago. We've had a couple of weeks of highs in the mid 90s, lows in the low to mid 70s, and at least a week more of the same to come.

March to May was record hot http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/

But there's no global warming

Dammit and hell's bells, I did jinx it Today's high - 101°F and exactly one calendar month before the average first day of Scorchio in Austin. I swear to Bob I didn't look at the weather forecast yesterday before I posted that

79° at 4am... and 5am and 6am. I'm getting a bad feeling about this summer.

I just took probably my last walk around the ponds at work for the rest of the summer. I'm drenched in sweat before 8am.

Ah well. Like I often say - could be worse, could be Phoenix... or Yuma. They've been hitting the scorchios for a while now.

When I left Berkeley yesterday morning it was in the upper 60s and partly cloudy with an eventual high of 73. Very pleasant. When I stepped off the plane in Austin yesterday evening it was 101 after an earlier high of 105. Not very pleasant. And this morning it's already close to 100 before noon with a forecast of 106. Welcome to summer

It was 89°F in Houston... before dawn! Even Galveston Island was scorchio yesterday. That doesn't happen very often. I'm driving the car for the rest of the week as it's just too damn hot to ride the .

I figured you'd be in no hurry to leave more pleasant climes.

Interesting. Just saw this on twitter:

"So far this year 37,718 US hi temp records set (max & nighttime) compared to 5426 low records; nearly 7 to 1 ratio of hot v cold records." Seth Borenstein (via Phil Plait)

But there's no global warming, of course, man-made or otherwise.

The last official reading was at 2.51pm and it was 106F/41.1C, so it's highly likely that we'll surpass it, and, I believe, set another record. Oh the irony.

107 at 3.51pm Hopefully that'll be it for the day.

There's a band of isolated storms on the radar, between here and Houston and moving from north east to south west, which is not a direction you normally see weather travelling in these parts.

Jahesius Harold Christ on a bike. 109 today Almost 11pm and it's still 95. Trying to tell people who don't live here that it doesn't get cold once the sun goes down is not easy sometimes.

You know you're in Texas when you look at the eight-day forecast and think 'Ooh, it's only going to be 93° on Sunday '.

Gosho, see Posting 5021. Methinks you did jinx it

Hope you are well,

Websailor

Oh, and we had some very unseasonal weather here yesterday. Thankfully my drains coped - just but others were not so lucky!

Websailor

Yeah, I think that was me back there

I have a lot of sympathy for all the people who've been flooded, having been flooded myself. There's absolutely nothing you can do about it and it takes a long, long time to get things halfway back to the way the way before. Some things never get back to normal, and you'll never forget the experience.

I live on a river flood plain and it is always at the back of my mind, but there is a huge railway embankment between me and it, so fingers crossed!

Much of the flooding here is the result of concrete and tarmac covering huge areas, often for car parking which means the water can't soak away. Having said that you are right, at the levels we have been getting it these last few years there is not a lot to be done. Barriers have been built in some very susceptible places, but more and more areas are being hit with no history of flooding.

Websailor

Meanwhile, in Missouri...

It's been scorchio for the last five days straight, and no relief in sight. My weather app says (teasingly) it will only be 97 Thursday, but it's lied to me before. Humidity is insanely low, though, so it's more desert-like than we're used to. Still effing hot!

Our forecaster says this is a once in a lifetime heat wave for this area, much like '93 was a once in a lifetime flood. We can only hope.

Stay cool, Gosho!

I love reading the opinions of bona fide experts. In this case, actual climate scientists asked "is it now possible to blame extreme weather on global warming." Of course, they don't give a "yes/no" answer, but basically, they say "Yes*". The asterisk indicates that it's a reasoned answer. Basically, you can almost assuredly blame the increased frequency and odds of further heat related events on anthropogenic climate change if not the actual events themselves. Any single event could easily have happened regardless of global warming but the risk of such events is definitely increasing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2012/jul/03/weather-extreme-blame-global-warming?CMP=twt_gu

The last line is quite troubling: "By 2100, today's most extreme weather events will seem relatively normal."

Day 9 of scorchio. Gosho, how do you do this all summer?!?

Supposed to be back in the mid to low 90s by Sunday, and possibly mid 80s by Tuesday. Might need to dig out a jacket