WeWeather

Updated July 27, 2006

The weather here? Almost got out the sweaters, as a "cold" front came through and dropped the temps to the high 90's. Humor is in short supply these days in Texas as elsewhere, but we keep trying anyway.

Mary Anne
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Here on the coast in Humboldt, it has been summer. Beautiful weather with just a light fog in the morning. We broke the heat record for the day (150 years) last Sunday. It got all the way up to 68 degrees. Yup, thatt's right, 68 degrees. (At 70 degrees here, the locals think it is a heat wave.)

Mickey

From Southern California, seven miles inland from the Pacific...we've been in a heat wave since the contrailers hit our sky three or so weeks ago. Moisture was pulled in from the south and there's been no let up since. NCODA has shown heat pouring off the land in the Gulf of California and S. California, so I suspect they have been trying to create thunder storms over the San Andreas to hold back the big one. In the meanwhile, the TV weather people haven't been doing too well at predicting the heat level. It was to be cooler than yesterday...88 on my porch, but today was back up to Monday's heat...96 on my porch. Nights have been cooling down to the low 70's, so obviously the sun is a factor in this heat wave, but I'm not convinced the sole source.

Updated July 26, 2006

HOT ! Actually, it's much nicer here at home (Long Beach) - 82 degrees at 9pm, though the humidity is at 66% - I was in Pleasanton Ca (near Livermore) over the weekend and temps reached 116 degrees! OUCH!

I was at a cat show - when we left the air conditioned show hall and headed to the cars, the cats started yowling the moment we hit the outside air - poor things... the next day, I made sure to park in the shade so it wasn't so bad getting into the car and waiting for it to cool down.

Still, driving through the central valley to and from Pleasanton was brutal. I-5 was closed due to a fire on my way home, but I had to go to Bakersfield anyway, so I cut over to the 99 sooner than I normally would have.

Yesterday, our neighbors across the street were without power as their transformer shut down.. 2nd time this month. We aren't having such problems. The City just did some re-wiring and isolated homes and wiring - apparently, those 10 houses using that transformer are drawing too much power .. I see power is back on today, but it was out last night still.

We don't have air conditioning in most of the house. Keith has it in his office. We have 3 new baby kittens and it was just too hot upstairs over the weekend so they are now growing up in his office. We have a web cam - during the day there's more light on them:
http://www.wildgoldbengals.com/webcam/

Canie

In my own words, at this point would be obscene. I just know for sure now there is now lower place after we depart the living. Hot does not even describe what it has been here. A close friend, drives truck locally for Chevron. Sunday afternoon when he arrived at the yard to start his day all 4 of the digital thermometers read 124. Of course the news stations never reported that temp. 19, 20 days of over 100, I lost track of how many of those were over 110. Finally tonight it did cool off, even enough for the family to enjoy dinner on the patio, late dinner, like 7:30, but it was very nice out with a nice breeze. Hopefully we are going to remain a little cooler.

Linda

So Cal

SFV

Albuquerque is in the monsoon season, with temperatures in the 90's and scattered afternoon thundershowers. Everyone gets mild headaches from the temperature and higher humidity than usual, but the headaches respond to refrigerated air. Swamp coolers tend to keep the indoors muggy, but help with keeping indoor temperatures in the 70's, and are still cheaper to run than refrigeration.

My garden is producing well, and tonight we made a pizza from grown vegetables. My apple tree has about 400 apples, of which the birds have eaten 30 so far. I am appreciating the value of green apples, despite many having a set of freckles from hail damage.three weeks ago. The best news is that only one in ten apples has a worm, so I have lots to share. Most of the apples are at the 2 inch size, so don't give up on those Washington apples.

Donald.

Today was the 10th day of 100+ temperature here in eastern Alameda County, CA. Highest Livermore temperatures were 113 degrees Saturday and 111 degrees Sunday, but humidity increased as temperature has dropped 2 or 3 degrees per day, so all days felt about the same. Nights are in the 80's. Yesterday near Tracy when two lanes on 580 buckled, repair crews had to wait until 8 p.m. before the repair hardened enough for sweltering drivers to pass. California has older transformers that aren't optimized for hot weather, so several cities had localized power outages - some have lasted a few days and still aren't repaired. Businesses and individuals tried to cooperatre with 'spare the air' instructions and so far we've avoided rolling blackouts. Police and hospitals are investigating about 25 deaths - most of them in Central Valley cities - as possibly heat-related.

Local heat waves usually last only 4 or 5 days, so this one's duration probably broke records. Fortunately I bought a new refrigerator early this month that has a warranty and is smaller and more efficient than the 16-year-old model I traded in. It and air conditioning (and only one brief power outage in this neighborhood) kept me comfortable. The heat reminded me of summers in central Kansas when I was growing up.

Forecast is for slowly decreasing temperature but still maybe over 100 degrees here for a few days, then cooling by the weekend.

Mary Corman

Livermore

Pilot Hill weather continues hot!!!!   The fire danger is very high!!!!   temps at my place hit 111 F three days in a row and today hit 110 F,, last night was the first night in the last four that we were able to shut off the swamp cooler!!!      I do very little outside,,    mostly watering,,   I wouldn't dare crank up the chainsaw, weed-whacker, or lawnmower!!
   Stephen
   38.828N 120.979W

Hi Bob,

I drove to Sacramento yesterday. My car has no air conditioning, and the driver's side window doesn't work. I left early, 7 AM, to stay out of the worst of the heat, but forgot I would be driving home in the worst of it. I took a cold bottle of gatorade from home with me. It was hot by the time I reached Red Bluff, too hot to drink. I took care of some things at Sac State (financial aid and writing proficiency exam sign-up) and left Sacramento by 2:30. That was just before the hottest part of the day. I stopped several times for cold water. I couldn't buy several and drink them all along the way. It only took about 20 minutes for a bottle to lose all its cold. After 30 minutes the first bottle was unpleasently warm to drink. I stopped for cold water 3 times in the 3 hour drive from Sacramento to Redding.

For most of the drive I was dripping wet, sweating from the moment I left the university to the moment I dived into a Pizza Hut for dinner in Redding. There were parts of the drive that were noticably hotter than other areas. At one location south of Red Bluff, the temperature rose so much that it felt like walking into a kitchen with the oven on. The difference was shocking, and the heat didn't let up again until I got into Trinity County at Buckhorn Pass. Then it got hotter again near the bottom of the west face of the pass. I've never been so miserable in my life. No matter how much water I drank I was still thirsty.

Today we had 106 degrees in Hayfork. Then it jumped from 106 to about 88 degrees in just an hour. Clouds moved in and we had sprinkles of rain this afternoon. It cooled down so much that I opened the windows in the house early. (I don't have air conditioning or swamp cooler. I just have to suffer with my little fan, or go to the bar, the only public place where you can hang out in the air conditioning.) After the clouds moved on it got hot again, but by then it was too late to close the windows. The humidity and heat returned full blast.

Cindy

Hi Bob: Glad you are settled in and back on line. Here in Ryderwood it is 68 degrees right now. The hot weather broke yesterday and today we did not have our little AC running at all. There has been a pleasant breeze. We have been working most of the day at getting a fence up. Hope to finish, except for the gate, tomorrow. We want a place for our dogs. We are going back down to Dunsmuir on Thursday and will not be back here until Tuesday. We have doctor and dentist appointments and more cleaning to do on the house that is for sale now. Michele (Ryderwood, WA)

It's 10:40 and our temp. is 85 degrees. Hopefully it will go down more tonight...but doubt we can open the windows. It is supposed to cool down tomorrow (Wed.)...hurrah. It was 102 while I was driving around at 4:00 this afternoon. Luckily we are in the foothills and a tad bit cooler than the valley, but it is still hot a muggy. Thank goodness for air-conditioning and the fact we haven't lost electricity. I filled the empty spaces in the freezer with water in plastic bottles in case we did loose electricity and needed the ice to keep things cool.

Take care, Flo in Paradise, CA

It has been hot and humid (99-103) here in Monterey Park, Southern Cal. Earlier tonight though was unbelievably cooler but now a bit warmer.
I wonder if it could be related to the recent CME.....

Long Beach CA July 12 2006

There is an out of control wild fire shirting along the San Andreas at the moment. The wind came up and they lost what containment they had. Three separate fires joined up and took off running. News reports fifty miles of smoke bellowing to 12,000 feet. High pressure is developing over Southern California and humidity is falling. Eighty-seven on my porch this afternoon. Weather reports three or four more days of increasing temperatures and low humidity. Think it safe to say there will be no stopping this fire for a long while. I have a friend who is in it's path and wants to think she is perfectly safe. It's true Fire will put up a defense to protect the new housing development, but let one home catch on fire, under these environmental conditions, a catastrophe could result.

San Fernando Valley CA July 10 2006
HI Bob, San Fernando Valley, is currently very hot triple digits for well over a week, I have lost tract of how long. Spring was very short, very few days with open windows in the evening. It was either to warm or too cold. I feel like the humidity is down a bit and I have not heard many people complaining about humidity either. In my opinion running in the hundreds for this long early in July is a bit unusual, but my memory is not what it use to be.

Hayfork CA. July 10 2006

Here in Hayfork we had an extremely wet spring. I remember the locals here telling me that it had been several decades since it has been so wet. We even had rain into late June, which doesn't happen often. There were weeks on end when it never seemed to stop. For a while I thought I was back in South East Texas. Friends tell me that there is higher fire danger because of higher vegetation. The rain seemed to stop finally about four weeks ago, and then the heat set in. It got up to 114 one day, and that doesn't happen much here either. It is usually about 10 degrees cooler than Redding, but that heat wave came all the way into the mountains. The heat has slacked off a bit, and we hit 100 for about an hour each day, then it drops off slowly. Nights have been in the low 50's, so I can open the windows at night, close them in the morning, and it stays cool most of the day. (My swamp cooler died last summer so I really feel the heat now.) Last week we has thunderstorms, with a little rain. There were lots of small fires from lightning, but easily manageble. This is definitely a strange weather year for Hayfork.

Pilot Hill Ca July 10 2006

The weather here near Pilot Hill Ca is clear, blue sky, no wind, 76 deg F,,,, low last night was about 60, high yesterday in the low 100s,, it is very dry,,, the rivers and lakes still have a lot of water!!!

Humboldt County July 10 2006
This year has been unusually wet - the fourth wettest on record for Humboldt County - and, as a result, also one with humongous amounts of pollen. This may be summer - but, ah-choo!!! We are into the normal summer pattern of fog in the morning, then clearing on shore later in the day (usually). Inland 5 miles or more, it's been clear and hot. We live in the 1-mile-wide coastal zone. Very pleasant, if you don't mind overcast. Ah - ah - ah -CHOO!!