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

Nice to see you around broe

I wouldn't exactly call it nice down here though - unless you like walking home at 1am when it's still 80° and 86% humidity and you arrive dripping with sweat I've gotten home at after midnight the last two days so I haven't been able to post the day's stats, but it's been hot and sticky and it hasn't rained.

Unfortunately, I know exactly what that feels like. (the 80 and humid at the dead of night, not arriving home in it - more like leaving for work in it).

We hit 103 today, with 114 heat index. One of our metropolitan areas had a heat index of 125!

Housework has never seemed more appealing. Laundry, here I come!

We certainly haven't been as hot as that here Guess it helps being a bit closer to the ocean.

The weather statistics for Sunday July 24th, 2005 from downtown Austin (at 11.45pm):

Minimum temperature: 77°F/25°C, 6.29am
Normal minimum: 74°F/23.3°C
Record minimum: 66°F/18.9°C (1942)
Maximum temperature: 94°F/34.4°C, 2.44pm
Normal maximum: 96°F/35.6°C
Record maximum: 105°F/40.6°C (1934)
Current temperature: 83°F/28.3°C
Current heat index: 92°F/33.3°C
Barometer: 30.04" (1017.3mb), rising
Humidity: 81%
Dew point: 76°F/24.4°C
Wind: 4mph, NNE
Highest gust today: 23mph
Precipitation since midnight (at Camp Mabry): "
Yearly total to date (at Camp Mabry): 15.62" (3.30" behind average)

Now, I've left the daily rainfall total blank cos although the Downtown and Mabry stations both say non rainfall for today, we had a pretty good downpour in south Austin around 6pm. Didn't last for long but it rained heavily for about five or ten minutes.

It's a little after 11pm and it's just still raining after a pretty good soaking lasting about an hour and a half It probably won't show up in the rainfall figures though cos it was centred mostly over south Austin. The rain guage from dDowntown is showing 0.17", but I reckon we've had more than that here at Oojakapiv Mansions.

The weather statistics for Wednesday July 27th, 2005 from downtown Austin (at 11.10pm):

Minimum temperature: 77°F/25°C, 10.39pm
Normal minimum: 74°F/23.3°C
Record minimum: 68°F/20°C (1903)
Maximum temperature: 94°F/34.4°C, 6.05pm
Normal maximum: 96°F/35.6°C
Record maximum: 105°F/40.6°C (1954)
Current temperature: 78°F/25.6°C
Current heat index: 87°F/30.6°C
Barometer: 30.06" (1017.9mb), rising
Humidity: 93%
Dew point: 76°F/24.4°C
Wind: 3mph, SE
Highest gust today: 14mph
Precipitation since midnight (at Camp Mabry): 0.00"
Yearly total to date (at Camp Mabry): 16.02" (3.08" behind average)

The weather statistics for Thursday July 28th, 2005 from downtown Austin (at 10.50pm):

Minimum temperature: 73°F/22.8°C, 7.10am
Normal minimum: 74°F/23.3°C
Record minimum: 68°F/20°C (1916)
Maximum temperature: 93°F/33.9°C, 4.04pm
Normal maximum: 96°F/35.6°C
Record maximum: 105°F/40.6°C (1923)
Current temperature: 82°F/27.8°C
Current heat index: 90°F/32.2°C
Barometer: 30.06" (1017.9mb), rising
Humidity: 75%
Dew point: 79°F/26.1°C
Wind: 1mph, ESE
Highest gust today: 21mph
Precipitation since midnight (at Camp Mabry): Trace
Yearly total to date (at Camp Mabry): 16.25" (2.91" behind average)

There are some quite spectacular thunderstorms in the vivnity just now, but they're mostly to the north and west of Oojakapiv Mansions I can hear almost continuous thunder, and I've just been outside to have a look int he direction of the storms - I saw some really rather impressive forks of lightning Looks like it's going to pass us by though.

I don't think we actually made it into the 100s today but it sure felt like it when I went to work around 5.30 this afternoon And not one of the daily highs for the next eight days is below 96/35.6 according to the forecast, but there are some chances of storms.

First night in ages that I've been able to post here in time to catch the figures before midnight rolls them over to the next day, and the bloody web page is down

Not much to report anyways - hot, sticky, no rain... which is kinda weird cos at around 6pm it got very dark and there was a massive squall line headed this way with a trailing area of rain that extended back a good 50 miles. And it completely fizzled out just as it got to Austin.

It's raining, and it's in the low 70s Now if only those thunderstorms to the northwest would come this way

We had almost half an inch of rain this morning It's kept the temperatures right down too - only in the mid to high 70s (mid 20s C) right now - a good 20°F lower than it should be at this time of the year Since we're just a little bit shy of the time of day when it's hottest, it looks like our maximum for today will be 80°/26.7°, which occurred at midnight and is from when temps were still cooling down after the previous day. According to the downtown weather centre, we got as low as 72°/22.2° at 11.30 this morning

Now there's a song I haven't heard in years

Can't say I'm enjoying the same here. As a famous weather forecast goes, "It's hot and shitty now, with continued hot and shitty tomorrow."

95 to 98 every day for at least the next 5, they keep teasing us with "chances of rain" which evaporate just close enough to say to the metro area.

The heat has addled my brain. I've volunteered to seal my father's driveway on Friday. (and I'm not the only one! I managed to recruit help, so it must be an epidemic.)

Well, this is a mere blip in the trend broe - by the weekend it'll be back to the mid to high 90s

I am feeling your pain, brother.
I'm off for a tall, cold in less than 5 minutes.
Hope you're finding similarly acceptable ways of beating the heat.

I spent the evening pouring 'em but wasn't able to have one meself

We had 0.4" of rain today and did actually get above 80° (82F/27.8C) at a little after 7pm. At a little after 11pm it's 79F/26.1C with 92% humidity. That's a heat index of 88/31.1 Still, I suppose that's better than 105°/40.6°­ they had on this day in 1953.

We made it to 100F again today at both Camp Mabry and Downtown, but not at the airport. That's 11 triple digit days so far this year, and the coming week could bring a few more. The forecast for the next seven days reads like this, thanks to a strong ridge of high pressure:

Monday 101
Tuesday 100
Wednesday 98
Thursday 99
Friday 100
Saturday 99
Sunday 98

Triple digits again today - 100 at Mabry and 102 downtown. I think I saw the heat index up around 105 - it's not been too humid thank Bob, but even at 11.45pm it's still 88° (95 with the heat index). Nothing less than 99/37.2 for the daytime highs in the forecast between now and next Monday

Still lovely here Daytime temps are beginning to creep up to the mid-20s regularly and night temps are still cool enough for duvets

Oh, and endless sunshine of course

Camp Mabry got up to 101/38.33 yesterday, with a heat index of 108/42.2, and it's likely to be the same today - it was already 80/26.7 by 8am, just as it was yesterday. And the eight-day forecast has been amended slightly:

Wednesday - 101/38.3
Thursday - 102/38.9
Friday - 101/38.3
Saturday - 101/38.3
Sunday - 99/37.2
Monday - 98/36.7
Tuesday - 99/37.2
Wednesday - 99/37.2

We missed 100° by only one degree today thanks to some clouds, but let's face it - what's a single degree when it's that bloody hot?

It got up to 101/38.3 downtown this afternoon, but only 99/37.2 at Camp Mabry and 100/37.8 at the airport (the two official reporting stations in Austin). No change in the forecast for the next seven days, although there's a slim chance of rain on Friday, Sunday and Monday.

Yeah right.