Holey Moley it's hot!Wow! What was that???
At 7:30 this morning, the thermometer read 90 degrees.
By around four, it was 112 degrees at my back porch.
Donita had called earlier in the day with a list of stuff for me to buy or bring from home for Paige and her, and I was going to take it to her in MoVal. I had said that I was planning to be there around 2:30, but I also tried some repairs on the big fan she wanted. Anyway, just before I was going to get in the car, the thunder started. I had been considering what to do with the dogs. Once I heard the thunder, I decided I couldn't leave them out alone in the heat with thunder, so I put them in the relatively-cool studio with the A.C. on a little bit. When I went out to get in the car, the thermometer read 115. Never in my 20 years in Riverside do I recall it reaching 115. I'd be curious about record highs, here, I guess. As I got in the car, I heard thunder and saw occasional lightning. As I drove by the Plaza, huge raindrops started to occasionally fall, muddying the car, and the lightning and thunder intensified. When I passed Chicago and Central became Alessandro, the sky started turning intense yellow. Then the wind got stronger, and all of a sudden several tumbeweeds flew by the car. Then the road got really yellow-dusty, diffusing the landscape. As I got to Mission Grove, the wind really kicked up, and the van was swaying. Then that calmed down as the T&L started going off all around me; the thunder sounded like the really loud fireworks booms from a mile or two away, I'd guess. Then it really started pouring; rivulets were running down the road. The temperature suddenly dropped from 115 to probably 95. Being up on the MoVal plain made the lightning a bit more... ...thrilling. Anyway, when I got to the school, it was probably 90 degrees there by then because of the weird storm.
I talked to Doni for about 10 or 15 minutes. It's mostly going good; some painters that are painting rooms they use are messing with them by locking doors and gates to make it impossible to get to places like their sleeping quarters. But it's getting handled. Doni's keeping a journal, I'll let her fill in details when she gets back. Mostly, she thinks it's going to be a really good experience. Today was so hot that the meal crew almost couldn't handle it. Doni helped herself and a few other people by making neck coolers for them. I took her a box fan and Paige two battery fans. It was cooling down and breezy as I left. I think they missed most of the storm, but it was moist, windy, cooling and weird there too.
When I got home the thermometer read 100, the pets were fine (Katie was in the studio too). There is debris everywhere, but it's mostly small stuff. The air smells like a musky pine forest in a thunderstorm, which I really like.
It was a long hot day. I'll probably go out there again Monday, Paige's Birthday (sweet sixteen!). Goodnight,
- Jim
3 comments:
Thanks for the informative Weather Underground link, legadillo. If you scroll down a bit on this page, you can see graphs of the weather throughout the day, and those interesting hiccups between 5 and 6 PM must represent the storm I drove through. One interesting thing it shows is that the barometric pressure jumped around. My ears actually popped as I was driving through the windstorm part. And the heat... Right now, at 2:30 in the morning, our thermometer is reading about 88 degrees...
It was a wild storm, very odd for us. Bill took a walk afterwards and there were lots of branches down. I think today I'll try to post the pic of our smokin' transformer.
Happy Birthday Paige! Keep cool on this auspicious day!
Hi, Jim here (as it says, heh). That second comment was also me; I'll try to remember to login as Jim to post comments, and identify myself when I post posts. It's slightly cooler today, but already above 100, and humid.
Viv, it was indeed wild. Vivage wrote some good entries in her blog about yesterday. You can read them here. Great pics of power transformers being doused.
I'll pass your and Redhen's birthday wishes on to Paige when I see her tomorrow.
Redhen, it was definitely freaky-freaky. How hot is it there? Your question about the quake was the first I heard of it, but I think I was at Doni's dad's helping him with his meds when it hit, and probably didn't notice it. I'll pass your well-wishes on to Doni and Paige.
Doni has the cellphone, by the way; she'll probably hear it ringing about 30% of the time during the days, but I'm sure she'd love to hear from folks.
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