As you probably know by now, I'm located in Central California, to be a bit more specific, in the Central Valley of California (which is actually quite a large swath of California, but that's neither here nor there). The thing is, we are technically listed (Geologically speaking / Climate speaking ) as High Desert -- which usually means that the summer time weather is quite predictable .... as in, it's HOT and stays HOT from most of May through most of October. Let me define hot a bit further - 95-115 degrees (F) is the general (I'm not going to get into the technical terminology of mean temp vs whatever else... I don't have the background in it or the inclination to look it up today) -- but for the most part it's sunny, it's dry, there's generally very scant precipitation during this period and it's usually HOT.
Ok, so not every year is a record breaker for heat, which is ok by me.
But this year, our average temperature seems to have dropped by about 12-15 degrees. We had five days with temps over 100 (degrees) in May. Since that time, we've had......none. Oh, we've had some 95's and some 97's, but NO 100+ days.
Then, as if we were jerked back by the shirt collar and tossed into another direction, this week, we're supposed to have 105 to 106 degree days.... So Sunday was 90, Monday was SUPPOSED to be 99, today is SUPPOSED to be 106, tomorrow 100+ and then, jerk again, we're supposed to drop to 70 (as in topping out at 70 degrees) by the weekend.
That's just insane.
Besides, when the whole summer is 95-100+, it's generally easy to be accustomed to the high heat and easier for our bodies to adapt to the occasion jump up to 112 degrees.....
This year, there has been no steady temp and it's bounced around like a rubber ball, giving us NO chance to become acclimatized so this week is a killer (and, I suppose, we'll all have to watch carefully for the older people in the area and for those who don't have cooling of some sort) for our bodies. UP, DOWN, UP, DOWN....
Even our soccer coach who isn't phased by any weather (especially rain and sleet) has canceled practice today - of course, he's added an extra hour onto Thursday's practice to make up for it (when it's supposed to be 80 degrees again).
Weird weather.
Since I"m off the topic of books, here are some of the pictures I've managed to nab in the last week or two.
First up, the rabbit that crossed my path at the middle school during back to school night.
I wasn't paying much attention to where I was walking or what was there then I spotted this cutie out of the corner of my eye.
Then I wanted to know whether she / he was a local or just an opportunist...
Ok, so it's blurry -- the rabbit was hopping when I caught this, but there's a smallish hole
just at the corner of the building where the rabbit scurried.
Obviously, a native.
The colony (I'm assuming there is more than one rabbit)
lives right underneath the classrooms.
Talk about adapting to modern living!
And then there's the silly duo...
I don't know if it's apparent from this picture, but the two smiling dudes are
SOAKED.
Son Number Two practices at a local city park and some of the newer parks include
"Water features" which are small areas where water can shoot up out of the ground-- this is
the newest way for Californians to be somewhat cool (during NORMAL summers) and beat the heat
since Swimming Pools are Politically Incorrect lately (and they cost MONEY which cities don't have)
At any rate, the two dudes above dared each other to run through.
You can see the results. One quick dash through turned into
a drenching.
Luckily, soccer gear is water proof.
And that's what it's like around here this week.
No comments:
Post a Comment