How's weather at your place?

[gordo]

Haven't posted much in here since the initial posts. Weather just really doesn't change too much.

We had a few cooler days early in autumn, and even dropped below freezing once or twice. Since then it's been like a mild spring.

Until last night. Front moved through, very high winds, and dropped the temp. It was low 40's this morning with a stiff wind. Almost chilly. It's been just cool enough to need the heater, and when it warms up just open the patio door.

 

[Iron]

Wow. Humidity like that + heat can drop me like a rock.

Dry heat (like the deserts I prefer) doesn't bother me much at all.

The killer is when the wind stops blowing. That's a guaranteed sauna-like condition.

I don't mind dry heat, too. I lived in Melbourne a few years ago and I didn't worry about the hot but dry Outback wind during summer.

 

[gordo]

The killer is when the wind stops blowing. That's a guaranteed sauna-like condition.

I don't mind dry heat, too. I lived in Melbourne a few years ago and I didn't worry about the hot but dry Outback wind during summer.

Yup. My body doesn't deal well with those conditions anymore.

 

[John King]

Yup. My body doesn't deal well with those conditions anymore.

Mine never has. Even less so now. Having a heart that's a bit knackered means that my sweating system doesn't work properly anymore.

 

[gordo]

Mine never has. Even less so now. Having a heart that's a bit knackered means that my sweating system doesn't work properly anymore.

Yeah, when I was younger I could tolerate it even though I didn't like it. I'm with you in the heart being knackered, way too stressful conditions to be conducive to living.

 

[John King]

Yeah, when I was younger I could tolerate it even though I didn't like it. I'm with you in the heart being knackered, way too stressful conditions to be conducive to living.

Gordon, we've just had an 8 KWh solar panel system installed. It runs our heat pump pool heater, and our 4 big airconditioners. It also reduces our electricity bill to almost zero for much of the year.

We are so fortunate compared with many ...

 

[JensM]

Looking to be a lovely day, with sun and plus 5 dgrs C. Its better than the last fortnight of fog, snow and temps in the -8 to -15.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Interesting thread. Yesterday we endured high winds (25-50MPH) almost the entire day as a strong cold front was working its way across the Great Plains. When the front finally arrived in the evening, we had a gust clocked at 77MPH in the city. I’ve been through midwest storms my whole life, but this one was something else, especially for mid-December. The windows were rattling and howling, and you could feel the wind pushing its way under the front door threshold. Top it off that it’s been dry for a month, so some grass fires started and spread rather quickly. Nothing catastrophic, as this area uses fire to manage open range, but once the winds calmed, the whole area smells of smoke and there’s dust on everything. No tornadoes, thankfully, and somehow we never lost power, though the folks across the street did. Pretty rowdy day!

 

[John King]

It's just hit 41°C here (1425H). About 106°F. The pool is 29°C, but I'm glad I had my daily swim earlier in the day.

"Sunny", our solar plant, is putting out around 6.5 kW ATM, enough to run our air conditioning at no cost.

 

[John King]

It's now 44.7°C!

Even allowing for assumed inaccuracy of the outdoor sensor, it's effing hot!!

 

[John King]

It's now 44.7°C!

Even allowing for assumed inaccuracy of the outdoor sensor, it's effing hot!!

This simply cannot be correct. I'm currently checking it against an alcohol thermometer. All my laboratory grade thermometers are in a box, somewhere ...

[Edit] The thermocouple is wrong. The alcohol thermometer read 42°C.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand how it is possible to make a thermocouple as inaccurate as that. The thermocouple we use in my wife's kilns are accurate to ±0.1°C up to 576°C, then accurate to ±1°C to 1500°C.

[End edit]

 

[gordo]

That's a fairly normal high summer temp here in some spots in the desert SW US. But yeah, it's a right toasty temp.

Currently 43°F (6°C) with intermittent light rain, a few thousand feet up the hills it's been light snow. Intermittent rain tomorrow ending early Saturday morning. Over the next couple days temps are going to drop with a high of 48° (9°C) on Saturday and a low Sunday morning of 25° (-4°C).

 

[John King]

That's a fairly normal high summer temp here in some spots in the desert SW US. But yeah, it's a right toasty temp.

Currently 43°F (6°C) with intermittent light rain, a few thousand feet up the hills it's been light snow. Intermittent rain tomorrow ending early Saturday morning. Over the next couple days temps are going to drop with a high of 48° (9°C) on Saturday and a low Sunday morning of 25° (-4°C).

Gordo, see my edit to my last post. 'Only' 42°C ...

 

[gordo]

Gordo, see my edit to my last post. 'Only' 42°C ...

Still on the toasty side - I take it you AC units work well?

 

[RichardC]

Positively balmy in the UK. It was about 14° here yesterday.

 

[John King]

Still on the toasty side - I take it you AC units work well?

Bloody oath, mate! It's a pleasant 25°C inside. We also have the fan on our gas central heating on a separate switch (I worked out the internal wiring), so it circulates about 900 cu.ft. per minute. It all helps.

 

[gordo]

I've been following the fire in Colorado, NW of Denver, all evening. We have a handful of family members in the Denver metro area, thankfully none directly affected by the evacuations. Bad day for a lot of people there. Downed powerline sparking a grass fire, whipped up and driven by extremely high winds. Saw reports of at least one gust of 100+ mph.

Burned public buildings, businesses, homes. Entire subdivisions burned. Places so hot some of the law enforcement trying to make sure people were leaving reported the heat was blistering and melting the markings off their vehicles. Fire was moving across spaces the size of football fields in seconds. Last official report I saw was 580 homes destroyed, and it's been burning for hours since that report.

They're forecasted to start having some snow soon, so that should help calm it down. I haven't seen any word on injuries or deaths yet. I think the morning is going to be sobering. Hopefully there's no deaths.

 

[John King]

Our eucalypts have been exported all over the world. First class hardwoods that grow in harsh, dry climates. And explosively combustible ...

I hope that loss of life does not occur, but it may well be the case.

Thinking of them.

 

[Richard]

We should see 15°C in southern England today, and 11°C overnight, which is just plain wrong for this time of year. Those are typical figures for May.

No good will come of this. There'll be an invasion of slugs and snails later in the year, at the very least.

-R

 

[Richard]

Incidentally, normally on New Years Eve I'd be freezing my bits off by the side of the river at midnight, watching fireworks and drinking something cold and fizzy. This year, when the temperature is going to be like a Mediterranean beach on a summer's night ... fireworks cancelled due to Covid.

-R