How is the weather?

[krummholz]

In a story about the European heat wave, PBS News Weekend today showed a still shot of a "billboard" temperature readout that read 43º C... Not uncommon for Arizona or North Africa, but in Europe... just wow. The story's focus was on the British heat wave, but they did not identify the location of the shot, nor did they say explicitly whether it was anywhere on the British Isles... so it could possibly have been somewhere else... not that that makes it any less surreal.

[Jo498]

Scandinavia and Eastern Europe is rather cool for the season. Germany in between. The next two days are supposed to get quite hot about 35° C but then it will go down below 30 and it's not that extraordinary. So far the summer has had a few hot days (30° is for me the borderline, although around 30 is actually quite normal for spells in summer, as a kid I needed at least around 27 otherwise swimming in outdoor pools felt way too cold...) but was rather average (except a bit dry in some regions). The thing that has IMO more consistently been a problem (regionally) in the last years is lack of rain (compared to long term average), not a few days with >30°.

[vandermolen]

UK weather situation:

[Brian]

Here in Texas it has been above 38 C (100 F) for, I think, 13 of the last 14 days, and is expected to be above 40 C for the next 10 days. It is putting a strain on the state's very poor quality electric grid, particularly natural gas I think.

But we always have a few days at this temperature each year. Not this many, but a few. And we have central air conditioning in every single building in the whole state (except, upsettingly, many jails).

So I am really feeling compassion for folks in the UK, Spain, and France right now. Having a few days of this heat without AC is life threatening. We had one day where our AC struggled - it did not give up, merely struggled - and the indoors of our house rose to 87 (30).

[Spotted Horses]

Here in Texas it has been above 38 C (100 F) for, I think, 13 of the last 14 days, and is expected to be above 40 C for the next 10 days. It is putting a strain on the state's very poor quality electric grid, particularly natural gas I think.

But we always have a few days at this temperature each year. Not this many, but a few. And we have central air conditioning in every single building in the whole state (except, upsettingly, many jails).

So I am really feeling compassion for folks in the UK, Spain, and France right now. Having a few days of this heat without AC is life threatening. We had one day where our AC struggled - it did not give up, merely struggled - and the indoors of our house rose to 87 (30).

In the Houston Area, it has let up a bit, only 36C yesterday! The remarkable thing has been temperatures consistently above 36C since May, and above 39C for almost the last month. It is exhausting to me to listen to the drone of an air conditioner blowing on me continuously. And every time I see an AC repair van in the neighborhood I feel terror, "what if ours goes next!"

[krummholz]

In the Houston Area, it has let up a bit, only 36C yesterday! The remarkable thing has been temperatures consistently above 36C since May, and above 39C for almost the last month. It is exhausting to me to listen to the drone of an air conditioner blowing on me continuously. And every time I see an AC repair van in the neighborhood I feel terror, "what if ours goes next!"

All this makes me glad to live where I do... though today's high here is forecast to be about 31º C, it's an easy drive to the spine of the Green Mountains, where it's normally much cooler. My plan today is to hike the Long Trail from Lincoln Gap to the summit of Mt. Abraham (known to locals as Mt. Abe)... and I do not expect to see temps above 25º (77 F) at any point on my hike.

Of course, with this century's unpredictable weather, we could always get a heat spell of the really nasty variety. Even the normally very temperate (and rainy) Pacific Northwest had a killer heat wave last summer... I didn't realize it at the time, but the mercury reached an unheard-of 49.6º C (nearly 122 F) at Lytton, B.C., the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada. (The village was partially destroyed by a wildfire the very next day.)

[DavidW]

Here in Texas it has been above 38 C (100 F) for, I think, 13 of the last 14 days, and is expected to be above 40 C for the next 10 days. It is putting a strain on the state's very poor quality electric grid, particularly natural gas I think.

But I thought your beloved governor promised to fix the grid.  I couldn't imagine him failing on his promise.  Especially since Texas is known for having triple digit highs for most summer days. /s

[DavidW]

I have this project of improving my telescope skills before I teach Astronomy again.  I took home one of the school's telescopes in late May.  Good thing I don't teach Astronomy again until February because it has been either partly or fully cloudy at night (or at least early evening) for close to two months!

Tonight will be the first night in which I can go out.  If the forecast remains true.  Hopefully I'll have some luck!

[Spotted Horses]

But I thought your beloved governor promised to fix the grid.  I couldn't imagine him failing on his promise.  Especially since Texas is known for having triple digit highs for most summer days. /s

There's this. You can't make this stuff up.

[Spotted Horses]

Another gem from the Houston Chronicle this morning.

[DavidW]

ERCOT ceo goes with the gross incompetence narrative huh?  What!?  Texas is hot!

Both those articles are frankly hilarious!

[krummholz]

I have this project of improving my telescope skills before I teach Astronomy again.  I took home one of the school's telescopes in late May.  Good thing I don't teach Astronomy again until February because it has been either partly or fully cloudy at night (or at least early evening) for close to two months!

Tonight will be the first night in which I can go out.  If the forecast remains true.  Hopefully I'll have some luck!

Hope it is a good night for you! Tonight was beautiful here in VT, for stargazing and even real astronomy. I just got back from taking a series of images of epsilon Cephei to try to see if I can detect its (very small) variability.

What level do you teach? I'll be teaching stellar and galactic astronomy this fall as a gen-ed course to undergrads.

[vandermolen]

From UK Medical Officer

[Iota]

In the Houston Area, it has let up a bit, only 36C yesterday! The remarkable thing has been temperatures consistently above 36C since May, and above 39C for almost the last month. It is exhausting to me to listen to the drone of an air conditioner blowing on me continuously. And every time I see an AC repair van in the neighborhood I feel terror, "what if ours goes next!"

Sobering reading. And I'd hate having to live with air conditioning, but obviously sometimes there's not much choice.
We stayed in Furnace Creek, Death Valley for a night a few years ago. The car thermometer had been clocking insane 50 C + temperatures most of the day, but the car's AC protected us perfectly. I had trouble sleeping that night and got up about 2am to go for a pad around the grounds in the cooler night air, but was shocked to find that although there was a strong breeze blowing and it was pitch black, it was still like walking into a sauna, the breeze just felt like a hot air fan on maximum setting. I'd never experienced anything like it.

Walking out into the backyard here in N.London in the middle of the day, is like getting off a plane onto the tarmac in a Greek airport, never felt quite like that before. Temperatures set to rise still further.

[Brian]

In the Houston Area, it has let up a bit, only 36C yesterday! The remarkable thing has been temperatures consistently above 36C since May, and above 39C for almost the last month. It is exhausting to me to listen to the drone of an air conditioner blowing on me continuously. And every time I see an AC repair van in the neighborhood I feel terror, "what if ours goes next!"

I've heard about three local restaurants suffering AC failures in the past week, including one guy who finished fixing his AC (at night, since it's on a hot rooftop) only to have the system at his other business fail right afterwards.

[DavidW]

Hope it is a good night for you! Tonight was beautiful here in VT, for stargazing and even real astronomy. I just got back from taking a series of images of epsilon Cephei to try to see if I can detect its (very small) variability.

What level do you teach? I'll be teaching stellar and galactic astronomy this fall as a gen-ed course to undergrads.

Introductory. 

It remained surprisingly clear.  I got to be mostly befuddled because I'm used to the winter sky!   I was testing out a light pollution filter, and it was extraordinarily good.

[krummholz]

Introductory. 

It remained surprisingly clear.  I got to be mostly befuddled because I'm used to the winter sky!   I was testing out a light pollution filter, and it was extraordinarily good.

Actually, I meant, high school or college level? Either way, it's way cool to find someone else on here who teaches astronomy!

Yes, summer constellations are a world unto themselves. How does your light pollution filter work?

My images of eps Cep from last night were useless due to saturation. There is something about the focus ring on my 55-250 lens that I don't understand. Sometimes it works, other times (like last night) it usually doesn't. I have questions on two separate forums about it, and so far no one has given me any clearly helpful info. If I can't find a solution my project is dead for this summer...

[DavidW]

I teach high school students, but all our classes are college level including Astronomy.

The light pollution filters out the frequencies associated with artificial light.  The results are actually quite good, I'm quite impressed.  Here is there posted plot:



I don't think it would work in a city, but where I live and where I take my Astronomy students the light pollution is only moderate, and this really finishes the job.

[krummholz]

I teach high school students, but all our classes are college level including Astronomy.

The light pollution filters out the frequencies associated with artificial light.  The results are actually quite good, I'm quite impressed.  Here is there posted plot:



I don't think it would work in a city, but where I live and where I take my Astronomy students the light pollution is only moderate, and this really finishes the job.

Thanks for the info! I'd never heard of this kind of filter before. But from the transmission graph it looks like it blocks the central part of the visible spectrum - basically most of the wavelengths a V filter lets through. I guess it depends on what you want to study.

[vandermolen]

Over 40.2% Centigrade in parts of the UK today. This is a new record. Quite a few bad fires have broken out in London.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-62184978