(no subject)

[nuranar]

The problem with not making time to update one's blog is that when one does make time, one has enough words for a round dozen entries. And who wants to read that? *sigh*

Weather first!

This is going to be a hot summer.



I suspicioned it back in... March, I think, when we were up in the 80s for a few days. Understand that in Texas, cool weather is a matter of averages, while hot weather is solidly hot. I like the NWS climate summary, below in italics with my notes.

The Dallas-Fort Worth climate is humid subtropical with hot summers.

Meaning overall fairly temperate,

It is also continental, characterized by a wide annual temperature range.

That is, winters have some pretty cold temperatures, and summers are pretty darn hot.  The winter record lows are uniformly in the single digits or just below 0.  The record high is 113, set several times during the really hellacious summer of 1980. 1980 recorded 69 days of 100+ highs. That's over two months.  Last year we had 43.

Precipitation also varies considerably, ranging from less than 20 to more than 50 inches. Winters are mild, but northers occur about three times each month, and often are accompanied by sudden drops in temperature. Periods of extreme cold that occasionally occur are short-lived, so that even in January mild weather occurs frequently.

That's what I mean by a matter of averages.  "Sudden drops in temperature" mean 20-30 degrees in a few hours.  One day will have a high in the mid 60s; the next couple days we won't get above the mid 30s.  Then it gradually warms up until the next front comes, usually within a week or 10 days.

Statistically speaking, there are lots of outliers as well, which tend to throw off the averages.  I clearly remember several February days with highs well in the 90s.  Highs in the 70s aren't unusual in that month, although often it's our coolest - we seem to get snow in it more often than in January - but the 90s is extreme.

Summers aren't always horribly hot. The late 1990s were pretty bad, but it was fairly cool for several years after that. In 2002 and 2004 we only had one day over 100, and in 2007 only 5. (Of course, 2007 was a horribly wet winter and spring and was weird all around.)


So weather here is a balance of the unusually-unusual, and occasionally spiced up by the extra-unusual.  I'm venturing to predict that this summer will be one of the extra-unusual, as far as heat goes.

I first suspected it in April.  Well, I did wonder a bit early in winter, but it turned out pretty average. Highest high in January was 84, lowest low was 20. Similar for February. Not unusual.

But April saw us hit 91. Again, not unusual - except that it didn't follow the usual pattern, as in January and February. It wasn't a one-day high, with a front the next day to drop us back in the low 70s or 60s.  It gradually warmed up - 80, 87, 91 - and gradually cooled down - 85, 82, 83 - with lows still in the 60s.  That isn't typical.  The warm air didn't go away.

And May?  A week before Memorial Day, we hit 96; and for weeks previous, upper 80s flirting with 90.  Most years in recent memory we barely hit 90 before Memorial Day.  So that made me think more than a little.

Now for June.  17 of 22 days above 90.  Most of them well above 90.  And just look at this week's forecast:




Um, wow.  98 yesterday.  Not yet 10 AM now, and it's nearly 90.  And it's July and August that usually vie for the hottest month.  Gah.

I like the heat, for sure. I can handle it fairly well - and I know can tell when I'm not handling it, or when I shouldn't try - but this is hot.  It's been a while since we've had a summer this hot, this early.

How do I survive?  A/C, for sure.  And ceiling fans in every room.  We keep our thermostat at 78 usually.  At work, I park facing the west, use a big sunshade, crack the windows open, and wear driving gloves when I first get in. :p

The parents are putting in a second garden train in the back yard, too.  Dad's had a big tent awning up for a couple weeks now; it does help.  He's sporting the Lawrence of Arabia look, too. The latest consisted of an old baseball cap and a ragbag t-shirt.  Whatever works!

We're in our usual semi-drought, but it's not too bad.  Two weeks ago I got to had to wade through Johnson Creek after school.  It was a stormy week, lots of humidity, heat, and general unstability in the atmosphere, and heavy line of thunderstorms blew in while I was in class.  It was still pouring down when I got out, so I waited around for it to taper off a bit, then tied on my trench coat, put up my hair, pulled on my hat, tucked a school newspaper over the open top of my bookbag, and sallied forth.  The rain wasn't too heavy by then, but the water running through the parking lots, streets, and gutters was amazing!  I waded through about 6" of running water on either side of the street when I crossed it. Then the sidewalk over Johnson Creek was 3+" under swiftly-running water.  Understand, this creek looks like a drainage ditch most of the time.  But in a storm, the level rises at least 6 feet.  There are some pretty sturdy railings on the sidewalk.  It was so neat.

Comments

[rvqavalon.livejournal.com]

We keep our thermostat at 78 usually.

Oh, Lord. I would die. Just absolutely melt away and die. I could hardly sleep for the heat last night when it was in the 60s. :O

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Wow. I... seriously have a hard time imagining that. I've been in a few buildings - some seriously-misguided dwellings and especially some conference rooms at work - in which the temperature was in the low 60s, and *everyone* was freezing. Not just she-who-gets-cold-at-the-drop-of-a-hat.

[prettychicken.livejournal.com]

i'm 90% sure i'm house sitting next week for my parents...jane austen, big screen style, here we come!!

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Hmm! What times are good? For once I actually have things going on (wouldn't you know it?) and I'm busy both Friday and Saturday evenings. But the rest of both days and all day Sunday are open.

[prettychicken.livejournal.com]

argh!! just realized i hadn't gotten back to you. stink. i'm so behind on school work for this week, too, b/c of all the drama with my arm. when is your next 'off' friday?

[suededsilk.livejournal.com]

I'd be melting right away with Katie. How do you survive? I hate air conditioning, and I'd hate to have to live in it 24/7!

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Whoa, I'm confused. You don't melt, but you also hate A/C? I admit I don't like it when it's abused. I have a narrow comfortable indoor range that depends on the season and what I'm wearing. (For some reason I'm a *lot* more temperature-tolerant when out-of-doors.) Sometimes it seems people turn down their A/C when it gets hotter outside, which simply makes no sense. I dislike feeling chilly when I come into the house from outside. So in that sense, yes, I dislike air conditioning.

But seriously, when the lows at night are in the mid 70s at best and the highs in the 90s, it would take a lot of acclimitization to live comfortably without a/c. I'm sure I could do it, of course. But it would take a lot of time to really get used to it. And it's not fun being sticky from perspiration *all* the time. I don't sweat like a pig, but it does happen! I've camped enough, and even lived overseas for 6 weeks without a/c, so I can imagine. And when it gets over 100, it's still going to be miserable. Even swimming pools don't help much at that point; the water is tepid-to-warm from days of heat and it feels like a warm bath when you're already hot.

[suededsilk.livejournal.com]

Well...we use the A/C practically never - at home, that is. I fully appreciate it at work, where everything's closed up, but I don't like *having* to use it. It zaps the humidity from the air, and turns it stale. Since most of our heat is *dry* heat, the A/C is super-desiccating.

Of course, there are some days every year that feel like an oven, and then one wants it. Badly. In boiling-hot environments and closed-up offices, A/C is a wonderful thing! I'd probably have it cranked up all day if I lived in Texas, since I tend to overheat easily. I'm just fortunate enough to live where it's not a necessity. :)

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Huh, that's fascinating. I haven't noticed the humidity effect with A/C much at all. (Heating, now, definitely YES.) I really don't know why. North Texas gets both humidity and dryness, being on the border between the hot dry airmass of the desert Southwest and the hot wet airmass of the Gulf region. In summer the hot dry wins; that's why it gets so hot. Humidity does tend to keep temperatures down.

Okay, let me analyze this. Humidity is usually expressed as relative humidity, because air temperature directly affects how much actual water is in the air. So 50% humidity at 40 degrees is a lot less water than 50% humidity at 90 degrees. When a heater heats up the 40 degree air, relative humidity drops significantly, so the air feels drier.

Air conditioning, however, takes the 90 degree air and cools it down, which should raise the relative humidity and make the air feel more humid. But now that I think about it, that could have a more serious affect than heating air. Because cooling humid air can lead to fog and condensation, which are annoying at best and damaging at worst, inside a building. So I theorize that air conditioning units include dehumidifiers.

Why yes, I am a meteorology nerd. Is it that obvious? *facepalm*

What gets me is the wind we get. I didn't mention it above, but this area is pretty darn windy most of the time. I didn't realize how much (and how much I loved it) until I lived other places. When the air gets into the 90s, though, the wind isn't an unmixed blessing anymore. Sometimes a hot wind is worse than none. In the upper 90s, it's a bit like turning a hairdryer full on your face. Pleasant!

When A/C isn't used, it's pretty important to me that places be well-ventilated. We really lucked out with our house, since although it's maybe only 25 years old, it's not only situated roughly in line with the prevailing winds (NNW-SSE), it's got three distinct lines of airflow through the house. It's really a fluke, since it's just one of a set of standard floorplans in the neighborhood. I *love* it, though.

I've got to share my favorite airflow-building story. At A&M, one semester I had a class in a lecture room on the third floor of Fermier Hall:
http://campusmaps.tamu.edu/Information.aspx?ba=FERM
Doesn't look like much, does it? I don't know when it was built, but I suspect no later than 1930. It was heavily remodeled, probably in the 70s or 80s. The center part, with the sets of three windows, is a stairwell with an elevator in the middle - just like in old movies, except of course it's not a cage elevator! But all the windows are fully sealed and ultra-modern, etc.

The third-floor lecture-room is in the back of the building. It's at least twice as long as it is wide; its length is the width of the center of the building, not including the two gable-like ends. There are three sets of nice big windows spaced across one side of the room, the back of the building. There are also three doors, also evenly spaced, in the other side, directly opposite the windows.

The really interesting thing is that beside each door is a panel, the same size as the door, of a fine, thick metal grille. It's not even noticeable, just looks like a dark panel. I didn't know it was a grille until I discovered that we had to be quiet out in the lobby when waiting for the previous class to finish, because they could hear us through it. Weird, huh?

It wasn't until I was gazing out the window in class one day and noticed how the doors were opposite the windows that it clicked: the grilles were for ventilation! At least that's still my conclusion, although there are plenty of other ways I know they achieved ventilation before A/C. There's simply no other logical explanation for having those grilles in the first place, and the door and window placement in conjunction is just too perfect. ;)

We did hit 100 today, BTW. First of the year.

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Holy Ike. I just found a set of pictures of what they did to Fermier when they remodeled it. (It had to be the 1960s.)

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=fermier&w=29072716%40N04

Why didn't they just build a new building, for pete's sake? I could cry. :(

[suededsilk.livejournal.com]

The brutes! *shakes fist at evil remodeling planners*

[suededsilk.livejournal.com]

Okay, that settles it. If I go on a hair-raising epic adventure, you'd better plan on coming with me. I can provide unintentional comic relief, and you can provide in-depth and totally necessary knowledge about whatever environment I've gotten us into. ;D

That wind strikes me as being something like the Santa Anas. Those result in killer heat, only they generally show up in fall & winter, when the desert gets *cold*. (Not being a meteorology nerd myself, you're welcome to Google the explanation!) The Santa Anas are about the equivalent of opening an oven door and sticking your head in front of the heat wave that rushes out. :P (But I think you've read "Double or Quits", which provides a great description, right down to the nosebleed. I'll admit to a slight internal "squee" over reading it while the Santa Anas were blowing!) If your wind is anything like that...ugh. :P

Neat to have classes in a historic building. :) And that's a fun fact! I bet students back in the '30s knew better than to talk about anything personal in the halls. :D I never would've considered it.

Um...my sympathies?

[estelyn-strider.livejournal.com]

Question: Has my mail reached you yet? If not, postal service is worse than I thought...

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Bah - yes, I keep forgetting to send you a message! I get home and think of it, then forget. :p Everything arrived and is YUM. Unfortunately the chocolates melted a lot. :'( But it sure tasted *really* good! The marzipan stayed together much better. I've never had it before, and it's delicious! Thank you so much! It was just lovely. :)