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

Do you get weekend pay? Nasty weather pay? Probably not

Weather in Peregian Beach - sunshine, onshore breeze (so the waves are too big to get into for a swim but great for the s).

Temperature is the highest so far this summer - up to 27/28 today.

I must get a thermometer, so that I don't have to ask other people what the temp. is

The washing's drying in 45 minutes flat today

Weekend pay? What's that? I don't even get paid any extra for working holidays except for Thanksgiving and Christmas Day - not even time and a half for July 4th.

No. I thought not Even as a cleaner I got extra if I worked Sunday

I've just been sitting on the beach watching parachute surfers, or whatever they're called, zapping through the waves Not sure I'd be game to give it a go, but it looked spectacular. There was a huge three-master sailing southwards on the horizon About 20 people on the beach other than me

Do I really *live* here?

Oh I emailed you btw Gosh... ...BH

Well, when you work in the retail, entertainment, maintenance, transport, or energy supply industries (and no doubt many others too), working weekends and nights is just par for the course. It would be nice if the pay reflected that, but since most people refuse to pay what most things are actually worth in terms of producing said products or services, the people who work to provide them end up getting the shit end of the stick as profit margins diminish, books have to be balanced, and shareholders paid.

Me? A Communist? Perish the thort

And now, here's BH (Calcutta) failed with the weather...

Hot. Sunny. No hurricane.

<>

I'd call that a win, BH

It's 3am.

It's September 25th.

It's 80°F/26.7°C

3am

What were you doing up and hootooing at 3am BH?

Probably just knocked off work, knowing him.

I've been waking up at 3am and other ungodly hours. Can't understand why. Probably lack of booze.

A new record high temperature for the date was set yesterday at ABIA - 101° (or was it 102? I can't remember now. Camp Mabry made it to 99°), and we will in all likelihood do the same today (forecast says 102). And tomorrow (forecast says 100). Tuesday, they reckon it'll be in the mid 90s, Wednesday the low 90s, then on Thursday... 87°, and below 70 at night Be still my beating

5.45pm

105°F/40.6° Hottest day of this year. At the end of bloody September.

And that's not as hot as it's been today. Watch this space for a full report later on. One thing's for sure - the records for Camp Mabry and ABIA on this date (both 97°) have been well and truly shattered.

The hottest day of the year, by a long way. 107/41.7 at Camp Mabry, and 108/42.2 at ABIA and Downtown. When I posted that previous message the humidity was around 25% - they call that 'bone-crackin' dry' around here. It's up to 50% right now, but the relatively dry atmosphere means it's gonna be hot again tomorrow since dry air heats up and cools down more efficiently than moist air - gonna be 105 tomorrow

The weather statistics for Sunday September 25th, 2005 from downtown Austin (at 11.00pm):

Minimum temperature: 76°F/24.4°C, 6.58am
Normal minimum: 67°F/19.4°C
Record minimum: 48°F/8.9°C (1924)
Maximum temperature: 108°F/42.2°C, 4.55pm
Normal maximum: 88°F/31.1°C
Record maximum: 97°F/36.1°C (1993)
Current temperature: 91°F/32.8°C
Current heat index: 95°F/35°C
Barometer: 29.85" (1010.8mb), rising
Humidity: 50%
Dew point: 70°F/21.1°C
Wind: 6mph, ESE
Highest gust today: 16mph
Precipitation since midnight (at Camp Mabry): 0.00"
Yearly total to date (at Camp Mabry): 20.13" (3.86" behind average)

Yeah, that's right - 11pm and it's still more than 90°. The winter in Texas is so much shorter and (mostly) so much warmer in the UK, but boy do you pay for it in the summer... or even the autumn.

Hottest day of the spring/summer so far 28C and slightly hazy sunshine.

And what am I doing??? Sitting in the corner of an office with no windows and lots of airconditioning

Still, at least I get paid for sitting in the windowless office. I wouldn't get paid for sitting on the beach, or jumping in and out of the waves. Where would I rather be?

Perhaps I should re-train as a Surf Lifesaver?

Oh BH I just clocked 90F at 11pm That's not nice at all.

2.45pm and 106/41.1

I'm recording this now in case I get off work too late to access the weather report page at News 8:

Maximum temperature: 109°F/42.8°C, 4.52pm

It's 5.35 now, and back down to 106... and I have to go and stand at a bus stop on the way to work

Well, it's gone midnight so I've missed most of the stats, but I can still cobble something together.

The weather statistics for Monday September 27th, 2005 from downtown Austin (at 1am Tuesday):

Minimum temperature: 80°F/26.7°C, around 6.30am-ish (from memory)
Normal minimum: 66°F/18.9°C
Record minimum: 48°F/8.9°C (1942)
Maximum temperature: see above
Normal maximum: 88°F/31.1°C
Record maximum: 98°F/36.7°C (1993)
Current temperature: 88°F/31.1°C
Current heat index: 89°F/31.7°C
Barometer: 29.97" (1014.9mb), rising
Humidity: 51%
Dew point: 67°F/19.4°C
Wind: 0mph,
Highest gust today: mph
Precipitation since midnight (at Camp Mabry): 0.00"
Yearly total to date (at Camp Mabry): 20.13" (3.97" behind average)

Mabry and ABIA both got up to 107/41.7, but the Downtown reading will always be a little higher because it's in the middle of a city. Ya gotta admit though - 109° less than a week before the beginning of October... well, there just ought to be a bloody law, that's all. I mean - it's gone 1am and the current temperature is exactly what the late afternoon maximum should be - 88°

It's looking good for Thursday, Friday, and the weekend though - mid to upper 80s during the day, and upper 60s at night

That'll be autumn then...

Over the weekend, the temperatures for today (tuesday) and tomorrow were forecast to be in the mid 90s. Now it's going to be low 100s. Here's an extract from this morning's main weather page at News 8 Austin:

"Local record books show tomorrow as the latest date with a recorded triple digit (1953, 101 in Austin.) We expect to break that one!"

Yep - there's a forecast of 103 tomorrow, and if the pattern of the last two days are anything to go by, that should be surpassed by three or four degrees, although I don't think it will - at 10.20am it's only (only!) 85°. Over the past few days it's reached that temperature well before 10 o'clock.

1.55pm - we've just hit 100°. Well, they have downtown anyways. It's 99 at Camp Mabry.