Thursday, July 05, 2007

Triple digits and holding

I promise not to make this a weather channel blog, but couldn't help myself this morning. Here are some screenshots I took of the forecast this morning, posted in both Fahrenheit and Celsius for your viewing pleasure.




Even though we all say, "well, it's the desert you know, and it's a dry heat," this is definitely hot!

On July 3rd we went to a community fireworks show, even though we didn't find out about it until almost starting time. There were thousands of people at the park, but we managed to find a nice, grassy area to pitch our blanket just in time to catch a little of the live bands playing. The fireworks were great and it wasn't too hot to enjoy the evening, only around 98F or so, I think. But last night was a different story as we sat on the patio. It was still blazing hot at around 107F. As the night wore on, and more and more neighborhood fireworks took to the skies, we decided to walk around to view the fireworks madness that is Las Vegas. (Note: We don't actually live that close to the more familiar Las Vegas Strip. We're at least 15 miles away in the suburbs.)

Even though aerial fireworks are banned, you wouldn't have known it from our viewpoint. Too bad I don't have photos, but it's really hard to take good nighttime photos of fireworks. After about an hour of walking around, we decided to go back to the house and watch more pyrotechnics from the patio. We were all a little worried about the extreme danger of fires, considering the intense heat and dryness in this desert valley. Those bans are in effect for a reason, but as I said, everyone pretty much ignores them. Haven't watched any news yet today, but wouldn't be surprised if it included footage of burning homes or buildings!

So, this morning I broke out the iced coffee for breakfast. Couldn't bear the thought of drinking hot coffee. We're keeping the house thermostat set on 87F now to try to keep our bodies more acclimated to the intense outside heat, and to keep the electricitiy bills down a little. Even so, the A/C keeps kicking on as the house heats up quickly. I have a window A/C unit in my bedroom (or as T calls it, the meat locker), which I only run at night, but if I keep my door closed, the room stays pretty comfortable until evening.

Hope you're all managing to stay cool!

1 comment:

EuroTrippen said...

Oy, that really IS hot! We'll be leaving temperate Dresden (it's been in the low-70's) for hot, sunny Spain in a few days. I just know I'm going to step off the plane and melt right then & there.

Hang in there...