We're Effing Burning UP Here!

Well, it's official; this is the hottest summer on record; in Austin, Texas anyway, and elsewhere. Since 1850 when they started keeping records, it's never been this hot. At this moment it's 10:04pm and 96 degrees F; that used to be the average daytime high for this date, but now our average daytime high is 101F and climbing. 

This week is gonna SUCK, just like last week and next week...

We have a couple of months more of summer-type temps ahead, with the hottest part of the summer still ahead; August and early September are the hottest here. Austin's all-time record high was 112 degrees on Labor Day, 2000. I remember it well- I was driving my un-air-conditioned pickup truck, which my son was using to move into a new apartment that day; hey, at least it wasn't raining! And I didn't have MS yet, so it wasn't any worse for me than for anyone else; I just sat in the truck (parked in the shade whenever possible), drinking ice water and dreaming of an Ice Age.

Ah, but just to mix it up a little, last Saturday we had a brief, unexpected cold snap; the high for the day was a frosty 99 degrees!  Brrrr! I didn't get a chance to wrap the pipes or bring in the plants, but we squeaked by without much damage. Anyway, that made two days in July total when it wasn't at least 100.

Seriously, this season of extremes is only getting worse, not just here in Texas but many places. Heat indices of 115 used to be uncommon, but seriously, a 115 heat index in Minneapolis? Crazy.

(Try not to let your sense of humor melt...)

Across the country, emergency room visits were way up, according to public health officials, mainly because of people suffering from heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The weather is suspected of contributing to a number of deaths nationwide. At least six more fatalities were reported just yesterday. 

Warnings about excessive heat stretched from Kansas to Maine and the Carolinas. In Connecticut, a dozen Girl Scouts were treated for heat-related problems at a scout camp. Philadelphia's public schools canceled summer classes, while Allentown to the north waived fees at its public pools. 

Special dangers can come at night, experts warn, if the temperatures don't cool enough to provide relief. It never got below 107.1°F overnight on June 27th, when Oman recorded the world’s highest ever minimum temperature. 


While the current heat wave has recorded 12 all-time daily highs so far this month, it also has registered 98 all-time overnight highs, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported at a briefing Thursday.

So is the planet trying to tell us something?

No! Rush Limbaugh insists that it's NOT HOT!  

Heat? What heat?

He swears this happens every summer. So I guess it must not be hot after all, because we ALL KNOW how purely unbiased and divinely infallible he is!
Rush informed his listeners that the heat index in particular is a totally made-up, non-valid, non-scientific measurement invented solely to promote the lie of man-made global warming- just another "librul guvment conspiracy". (As was the thermometer I suppose.) Right. (Wonder how many Dittoheads are buying THIS one?)

On the other hand, HELL YES! says satirical tabloid "The Onion",  in a recent headline,

"Planet Earth Doesn't Know How To Make It Any Clearer It Wants Everyone To Leave."

"According to a statement released to the press Tuesday, the planet Earth has 'just about run out of ways' to let its roughly 6.9 billion human inhabitants know it wants them all to leave."

Hey, if I could, I would. Mars sounds refreshing right about now, with equatorial highs up to Zero F, and nighttime lows about minus 200F.

Honestly I'd gladly and gratefully relocate to Canada or at least Vermont (if I could think only of the right Lotto numbers), but alas, I'm stuck here in Texas, burning up. 

How actual HELL would be any different I suppose is only a matter of degree.....

DEMONSTRATE YOUR INTOLERANCE!

T-shirts and Bumperstickers and Coffee Mugs, Oh MY!

When you're ready to demonstrate your  (heat) intolerance, here are a few ways to do it: 

Bumper Sticker - $4.50

Coffee Mug - $12.00

Tote Bag - $ 15.00 each

Messenger Bag - $ 22.00 each

Men's t-shirt (shown in white); Sizes small-4XL $17.00-20.00
My personal fav is the white one above, because it's cooler, cheaper, cooler, larger, and (did I mention?) cooler!

Men's t-shirt (shown in yellow); Sizes small-2XL $17.00-20.00

Men's t-shirt (shown in red); Sizes small-3XL $17.00-20.00

Women's fitted t-shirt (shown in blue); Sizes small- XL $24.00

 Click this link to the merchandise.

This is perfectly ridiculous. As I write this, I've already had heat exhaustion twice this year, and it's only mid-spring; April 18th to be exact.  At the moment, it's 3:20pm CDT and the Weather Bureau says the temperature is 93 degrees. (Update: we hit 96 degrees F about a week later, with a heat index > 100.)

Temperature Graph for the Month of April, 2011 for Austin, Texas (click on image to enlarge)

Needless to say, the Spring wildflowers are already completely fried, and over 1.5  million acres of Texas are (or have recently been) literally on fire, and it's nowhere near summer.  

Photo by LM Otero of AP for TIME. Smoke Rising-

Wildfires burn near Possum Kingdom, Texas, April 19, 2011.

At this rate, by July we'll  spontaneously combust.  This is really depressing, and way too early to have to start hiding inside with the a/c!

  It's too effing HOT!

An Ideological Inconvenience

I don't like to talk about this, but my family has been in the petroleum production business since the 1920's; it used to be mostly oil, now it's almost all natural gas, all in Texas. My grandfather, my father, and my brother all work or worked in the "oil bidness" We're by no means wealthy but some of my income still derives from that.  So I obviously have a vested interest in the profits of the petroleum business.

That being said, it is what it is. Burning fossil fuels has obviously contributed to the climate change we've seen since the 19th Century. 

But we have alternatives, and we can choose. After all, we can protest , call our representatives, send letters and VOTE, whereas polar bears and melting glaciers cannot.

Average Temperatures in Austin, Texas from the beginning of 2nd Industrial Revolution(c 1850) to 2010.

I compiled a chart (above) showing the slow but steady increase in average temperatures here in Austin, Texas,  for each decade from the 1850's, which is considered to be the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution,  through 2010. What I didn't show is that, so far in 2011, the average temperature has been MUCH higher. 

I don't know how representative Austin's averages are, but in general it is a fact that global temps are climbing well  beyond normal variations. 

 Photo from LM Otero/AP for TIME Magazine: Possum Kingdom, Texas, April 19, 2011-                              A House burns in an area near  Fort Worth, one of several dozen sites where fires are burning in Texas.

Not to mention that millions of acres of Texas are or have just been on fire.

Meanwhile, I can't find any evidence anywhere that people afflicted with severe heat intolerance have evolved any increased ability to tolerate the increase in heat, nor is there any preventive medical treatment. It's just what happens when we get too warm, so we have a greater-than-average vested personal physical interest in halting and reversing global warming. Aside from more tolerable temperatures as opposed to less, improved air quality is another HUGE plus that would follow a steady decrease in greenhouse gases.....if we can ever manage to shout down the vested interests. 

President Obama (whose father-in-law had MS by the way), has tried repeatedly to explain the obvious need to expand and develop clean energy sources, both for reasons of environmental quality and of national security, but again, those vested interests will do and say anything to derail that effort. I'm not optimistic but I can't give up altogether. 

I realize that there aren't enough MS patients in the world to change this by ourselves, but we are more voices, almost  a half million in the USA alone, and we might as well make ourselves heard, and our situation known. It's important to ALL of us and cannot wait.