Wow!!!!!

[Freightman]

Boy howdy it has been a long hot July, very little rain, pastures turning brown, well getting low, was looking like we were going to have to move the cows. When all looked hopeless I heard a rumble at 9 pm a cloud was rolling out of NM lightning storm I thought. At 9: the lights went so went to bed, rain started and continued all night. Woke up this AM it had rained 5.25" God is good, He provides. AMEN!!!!!!

[sparky45]

Excellent; we're still hurting here in SE KS. I watch where I take the tractor these days so I don't get stuck in one of the cracks in the ground. Well, not quite that bad yet but we do have a lot of cracks in the pasture and even in the veg garden. I water every night my remaining Tomato plants and they are doing their best to hold on.

[Freightman]

100 + degrees day after day will crack the ground our pasture was getting that way now has a lake in the middle, pray for rain God will provide. Just laid sod last week in the yard this will let it take hold and go into fall in good shape. We have a range that we haven't used this summer my old body just will not take it any longer. At 83 heat and cold hurt more:x

[gpidaho]

Freightman: Like Texas, S.W. Idaho has it's weather extremes. Record highs are likely the next few days until it cools down to the mid nineties. I don't go out much in this weather, just hang out by the AC. Thank God for modern conveniences, it wasn't something the folks or grandparents had. Gp

[Smoke4320]

AC is something that The left is starting to say we don't need or deserve.. Of course THEY will still have it just not us

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-qa-multiple-benefits-world-air.html

Q&A: The multiple benefits of a world without air conditioning
by Molly Seltzer, Princeton University

Eric Teitelbaum (center), speaks to visitors inside the Cold Tube pavilion in Singapore. Credit: Lea Ruefenacht
When most people think of cooling, they automatically imagine air conditioning, or cooling the air in a room. But there is a much more efficient way to cool people, using the body's radiation.


To demonstrate the effect of radiant cooling, Forrest Meggers, assistant professor of architecture and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and a team of researchers built the Cold Tube in Singapore last year. It was an outdoor pavilion lined with novel insulated radiant panels that held cold water pipes inside. The human body is constantly exchanging radiation with objects around it and that radiation flows from hot to cool surfaces. The participants who walked through the exhibit shed their radiation toward the panels and reported feeling cool, despite the air itself having temperature and humidity levels that would ordinarily feel sweltering. The new research showed that people could feel comfortable in hot and humid outdoor environments using only radiant cooling, which could use far less energy than cooling large volumes of air.

Coincidentally Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo, director of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, has been based in Singapore for the last five months, not far from where Meggers' team tested the Cold Tube. "These alternative designs can disrupt how we think about simultaneously cooling spaces and promoting air circulation," said Loo, who is also the Theodora D. '78 and William H. Walton III '74 Professor in Engineering and professor of chemical and biological engineering. "I think the Cold Tube and similar technologies are exactly the types of innovations that can help make living in the tropics more enjoyable."

The Princeton researchers, collaborating with scholars at the University of British Columbia, University of Berkeley, ETH Zurich in Singapore, and the University of Pennsylvania, published the Cold Tube results in the August 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

In this Q&A, Meggers and first author of the paper, Dr. Eric Teitelbaum, who completed the research as a graduate student under Meggers and is now a senior engineer at AIL Research, comment on the potential for their technology to save money and energy, as well to help keep people safe in a pandemic like the current COVID-19 crisis by allowing for more air flow in a building without installing new infrastructure or requiring extra energy to cool the greater air volume.

Schematic of a Cold Tube radiant cooling panel (Upper) and radiant heat transfer through the infrared-transparent membrane (Lower). Credit: Princeton University
What is the biggest misconception about air conditioning?



Meggers: Air conditioning does not equal cooling. It's a highly engrained method of cooling buildings, but it's not the only one. Additionally, your window air conditioners are just cooling existing air in the room; they don't bring new, fresh air into your room. Air conditioning (AC) units have become so normalized and integrated into daily life but, in reality, they are huge machines that require a lot of energy, and should not be treated like turning on a light switch. A seemingly simple window unit requires 10 to 1000 times more energy than a ceiling fan, and leaving the AC on is comparable in energy to leaving the light on in 100 rooms.

What is the benefit of cooling surfaces, such as walls and tables, instead of cooling the air?

Meggers: In the Cold Tube, occupants are cooled entirely by thermal radiation, which means energy was primarily used for cooling the water inside the walls, not cooling the air. With air conditioning, dehumidification and cooling occur simultaneously. The benefit of the Cold Tube technology is that it decouples cooling from the providing of fresh air, meaning people can keep their windows open, while maintaining comfort, and without expending massive amounts of energy to cool and dehumidify the air flow. Air should be only for breathing, not cooling.

How are the findings relevant to keeping people safe from viruses like COVID-19?

Teitelbaum: The way buildings are built today, using exclusively AC for cooling, we can't increase the amount of fresh air we deliver to buildings at will because air flow is coupled with the amount of air conditioning buildings need to provide. If you want more outdoor air flowing into the building, you also need additional capacity to dehumidify and cool that air. Most systems weren't built with the capacity to flow the amount of air that, in many cases, is being recommended to dilute indoor air contaminants and prevent the spread of contagion, like the recent COVID-19 virus. And if they can, it requires massive amounts of energy. But with radiant systems, people can open the windows and still remain comfortable, while letting in extra fresh air to reduce the concentration of virus in the air.


Credit: Princeton University
How does this technology help mitigate climate change?

Teitelbaum: This system uses at least 50% less energy than a comparably-sized air conditioner. Letting the air warm up by five degrees while cooling surfaces can lower energy demand by up to 40% and maintain occupant comfort. Allowing even hotter air temperatures would result in higher energy savings.

Could this alternative to air conditioning improve outdoor air quality as well by mitigating the urban heat island effect?

Meggers: Most of my coauthors and I have traveled around Southeast Asia and have seen firsthand how quickly AC units have been deployed at scale. Adding AC window or split units to buildings is done with little contemplation of the effects on surface temperatures, and the climate of and heat in a city. The units work by rejecting the heat from the air in a room to the outside. Rejecting heat outside the buildings along the façade leads to sidewalks and areas around buildings becoming very hot, and many spaces becoming unusable. Our technology does exactly the opposite; it provides opportunities to regain thermal acceptability in various parts of the city without having to build a huge park. You can install these cooling panels outside and build "cool havens" where people can gather, eat, and play.

How important is this experiment in paving the way toward a world where people are cooled without AC?

Teitelbaum: It will take more than an 8-month experiment to change the way people think about comfort systems and energy efficiency in the built environment. Much of Professor Megger's C.H.A.O.S lab's research has focused on expanding the knowledge bubble of thermal radiation's influence on comfort and efficiency. The Cold Tube experiment created a lot of new knowledge, which is a great academic success. Commercially, while there are companies that manufacture similar technologies, there is still a need to continue to demonstrate and experiment with new concepts to not only further the technology, but also this paradigm shift. The shift away from air conditioning towards more holistic comfort design would help us act as stewards of the planet as well as our own built environments. In many parts of the world, such as Singapore and other tropical areas that are increasingly seeking ways to condition spaces, significantly more energy goes towards dehumidifying the air than just cooling the air. This is one of the places that we believe our comfort paradigm will have the greatest efficiency increases and impact, since dehumidification is not required for people to feel comfortable.

[MaryB]

Freightman: Like Texas, S.W. Idaho has it's weather extremes. Record highs are likely the next few days until it cools down to the mid nineties. I don't go out much in this weather, just hang out by the AC. Thank God for modern conveniences, it wasn't something the folks or grandparents had. Gp

How many of our ancestors died early from the stresses of extreme heat? When my dad's side of the family came to MN they built a sod hut into the hillside and broke 160 acres of virgin prairie to start a farm. This part of MN sees 100f+ in summer with humidity hitting 90+%... miserable and they worked in it! They did dam the spring and had a 60 degree swimming hole to jump in to cool off now and then...

[MaryB]

AC is something that The left is starting to say we don't need or deserve.. Of course THEY will still have it just not us

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-qa-multiple-benefits-world-air.html

Q&A: The multiple benefits of a world without air conditioning
by Molly Seltzer, Princeton University

Eric Teitelbaum (center), speaks to visitors inside the Cold Tube pavilion in Singapore. Credit: Lea Ruefenacht
When most people think of cooling, they automatically imagine air conditioning, or cooling the air in a room. But there is a much more efficient way to cool people, using the body's radiation.


To demonstrate the effect of radiant cooling, Forrest Meggers, assistant professor of architecture and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, and a team of researchers built the Cold Tube in Singapore last year. It was an outdoor pavilion lined with novel insulated radiant panels that held cold water pipes inside. The human body is constantly exchanging radiation with objects around it and that radiation flows from hot to cool surfaces. The participants who walked through the exhibit shed their radiation toward the panels and reported feeling cool, despite the air itself having temperature and humidity levels that would ordinarily feel sweltering. The new research showed that people could feel comfortable in hot and humid outdoor environments using only radiant cooling, which could use far less energy than cooling large volumes of air.

Coincidentally Yueh-Lin (Lynn) Loo, director of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, has been based in Singapore for the last five months, not far from where Meggers' team tested the Cold Tube. "These alternative designs can disrupt how we think about simultaneously cooling spaces and promoting air circulation," said Loo, who is also the Theodora D. '78 and William H. Walton III '74 Professor in Engineering and professor of chemical and biological engineering. "I think the Cold Tube and similar technologies are exactly the types of innovations that can help make living in the tropics more enjoyable."

The Princeton researchers, collaborating with scholars at the University of British Columbia, University of Berkeley, ETH Zurich in Singapore, and the University of Pennsylvania, published the Cold Tube results in the August 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

In this Q&A, Meggers and first author of the paper, Dr. Eric Teitelbaum, who completed the research as a graduate student under Meggers and is now a senior engineer at AIL Research, comment on the potential for their technology to save money and energy, as well to help keep people safe in a pandemic like the current COVID-19 crisis by allowing for more air flow in a building without installing new infrastructure or requiring extra energy to cool the greater air volume.

Schematic of a Cold Tube radiant cooling panel (Upper) and radiant heat transfer through the infrared-transparent membrane (Lower). Credit: Princeton University
What is the biggest misconception about air conditioning?



Meggers: Air conditioning does not equal cooling. It's a highly engrained method of cooling buildings, but it's not the only one. Additionally, your window air conditioners are just cooling existing air in the room; they don't bring new, fresh air into your room. Air conditioning (AC) units have become so normalized and integrated into daily life but, in reality, they are huge machines that require a lot of energy, and should not be treated like turning on a light switch. A seemingly simple window unit requires 10 to 1000 times more energy than a ceiling fan, and leaving the AC on is comparable in energy to leaving the light on in 100 rooms.

What is the benefit of cooling surfaces, such as walls and tables, instead of cooling the air?

Meggers: In the Cold Tube, occupants are cooled entirely by thermal radiation, which means energy was primarily used for cooling the water inside the walls, not cooling the air. With air conditioning, dehumidification and cooling occur simultaneously. The benefit of the Cold Tube technology is that it decouples cooling from the providing of fresh air, meaning people can keep their windows open, while maintaining comfort, and without expending massive amounts of energy to cool and dehumidify the air flow. Air should be only for breathing, not cooling.

How are the findings relevant to keeping people safe from viruses like COVID-19?

Teitelbaum: The way buildings are built today, using exclusively AC for cooling, we can't increase the amount of fresh air we deliver to buildings at will because air flow is coupled with the amount of air conditioning buildings need to provide. If you want more outdoor air flowing into the building, you also need additional capacity to dehumidify and cool that air. Most systems weren't built with the capacity to flow the amount of air that, in many cases, is being recommended to dilute indoor air contaminants and prevent the spread of contagion, like the recent COVID-19 virus. And if they can, it requires massive amounts of energy. But with radiant systems, people can open the windows and still remain comfortable, while letting in extra fresh air to reduce the concentration of virus in the air.


Credit: Princeton University
How does this technology help mitigate climate change?

Teitelbaum: This system uses at least 50% less energy than a comparably-sized air conditioner. Letting the air warm up by five degrees while cooling surfaces can lower energy demand by up to 40% and maintain occupant comfort. Allowing even hotter air temperatures would result in higher energy savings.

Could this alternative to air conditioning improve outdoor air quality as well by mitigating the urban heat island effect?

Meggers: Most of my coauthors and I have traveled around Southeast Asia and have seen firsthand how quickly AC units have been deployed at scale. Adding AC window or split units to buildings is done with little contemplation of the effects on surface temperatures, and the climate of and heat in a city. The units work by rejecting the heat from the air in a room to the outside. Rejecting heat outside the buildings along the façade leads to sidewalks and areas around buildings becoming very hot, and many spaces becoming unusable. Our technology does exactly the opposite; it provides opportunities to regain thermal acceptability in various parts of the city without having to build a huge park. You can install these cooling panels outside and build "cool havens" where people can gather, eat, and play.

How important is this experiment in paving the way toward a world where people are cooled without AC?

Teitelbaum: It will take more than an 8-month experiment to change the way people think about comfort systems and energy efficiency in the built environment. Much of Professor Megger's C.H.A.O.S lab's research has focused on expanding the knowledge bubble of thermal radiation's influence on comfort and efficiency. The Cold Tube experiment created a lot of new knowledge, which is a great academic success. Commercially, while there are companies that manufacture similar technologies, there is still a need to continue to demonstrate and experiment with new concepts to not only further the technology, but also this paradigm shift. The shift away from air conditioning towards more holistic comfort design would help us act as stewards of the planet as well as our own built environments. In many parts of the world, such as Singapore and other tropical areas that are increasingly seeking ways to condition spaces, significantly more energy goes towards dehumidifying the air than just cooling the air. This is one of the places that we believe our comfort paradigm will have the greatest efficiency increases and impact, since dehumidification is not required for people to feel comfortable.

Sorry but when humidity levels hit 90% it is NOT going to be comfortable in the room.

I keep my living room around 78-79f and 36% humidity in summer... not over cooled like some people do. I dress for summer, shorts, tank top... I keep all south and west facing windows covered in summer to stop that heat gain(and in winter open to get solar gain!).

And there are millions of people who cannot handle heat and humidity. Makes it very hard to breathe fr them stressing their hearts... see my other post about how long our ancestors lived...

[Winger Ed.]

How many of our ancestors died early from the stresses of extreme heat? ..

There's always some exceptions, but yes- a hot climate definitely thins the herd.

[hoodat]

There's plenty of us who have to work in this heat, get the job done, and -- not die. My favorite personal cooling device is a light cotton shirt. Soak with water, put it on, wear till dry -- repeat.

We've been hitting 100 degrees every day for awhile now, and out on the asphalt it's prolly more like 120. My eyes are gonna get stuck in "permanent roll" position if I listen to more people who work in the AC building, whining about the heat.

I drive delivery truck, short haul, mostly to residential construction. My day consists of building my loads, loading my truck, driving to job sites, and unloading my truck with either a truck mounted crane or piggy-back fork lift. About a third of my day is spent behind the wheel enjoying the AC.

The guys I deliver to, (framers, roofers, dry-wallers,) they don't get to spend much time in the AC. I haven't seen any of em drop dead lately, although they've got good reason to. jd

[deltaenterprizes]

No rain here in East Texas for me! 100+ for over a month!

[BLAHUT]

YOU THINK THIS A GOOD IDEA ? GIVE ALL THIS A TRY. AND LET ME KNOW HOW YOU FAIR? IN SUMMER I CAN ONLY TAKE OFF SO MANY CLOTHES. IN WINTER I CAN PUT ON MANY MORE. IN MINNESOTA I HAVE SEEN -50 DEGs IN WINTER WITH ABOUT %10 HUMIDTY TO OVER 100 DEGs IN SUMMER WITH ABOUT %90 HUMIDTY I WILL STAY WITH AC>>>> I WORK OUTSIDE YEAR-ROUND.

[David2011]

Forrest Meggers, Molly Seltzer and Eric Teitelbaum should try their idea on the Texas/Louisiana coast. Where are they going to get cool water? Tap water is over 80 degrees F when air conditioning is needed most. Without the extraction of moisture from the air the insides of buildings will grow mold and mildew in short order. Most days in the 8 month long cooling season exceed 85% humidity. The only way to be comfortable at that level of humidity at any temperature above the upper 60s is to sit down and not do anything that requires moving around.

Problem number one is that the idea was developed as a college research paper by wide eyed mush brained students educated by professors with an agenda. There are buildings in the downtown Houston area that are cooled with chilled water but the infrastructure for such cooling is massive, expensive and uses lots of electricity.

[David2011]

There's plenty of us who have to work in this heat, get the job done, and -- not die. My favorite personal cooling device is a light cotton shirt. Soak with water, put it on, wear till dry -- repeat. jd

Yeah, try that with high humidity. The shirt wouldn’t dry until you took it off and put it in air conditioning or laundered it. I’ve lived in deserts and swamps. At 95 degrees with 20% humidity the heat isn’t a big deal. At 80 degrees with 85%+ humidity it’s oppressive.

We’re finally getting a break from the heat. It’s supposed to dip down to 77 degrees at night next week.

[sparky45]

Hey; see you're from Baytown. My Grandson used to race B Mods down there. He didn't like the sweltering temps though.

[Land Owner]

Go into a city or town and unplug all of the electric vehicles from the grid. That'll help.

[varmintpopper]

100 Years ago, 1922 the life expectation for the average Man was 47 Years.

Good Shooting

Lindy

[elmacgyver0]

100 Years ago, 1922 the life expectation for the average Man was 47 Years.

Good Shooting

Lindy

And many of them lived into their high nineties, you need to tell the "rest" of the story

[HWooldridge]

I grew up in San Antonio during the 60’s and we didn’t have AC - or central heat. There were only two radiant gas heaters in the house for winter and ventilation fans for summer. Most of the schools didn’t have AC either, which was supposedly the reason our annual break was always in summer.

Our AC went out over July 4th this year and took a couple days to fix. I was OK with fans but I thought my wife was going to a motel, because she was pretty miserable. She does have a narrow comfort range, while I’m generally good from the 40’s to about 100. Much past 100 and I have trouble getting cool.

And we hit 50 days over 100 today - hottest July on record since 1885, with no rain in the last 70 days. Freightman, I’m happy for your blessing, please send some down here.

[BrassMagnet]

We were in drought and the grass was brown and crackly. Now we have had three days of rain with more rain tomorrow. The grass is now green!
I was planting berry plants. Now I can’t rototill until it dries a little. Oh, well!

[Texas by God]

It rained 12 miles away yesterday.
Still crispy here.
My beloved late uncle Morris from Muleshoe used to say, "Why I remember one time it never did rain."

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[rockrat]

Poured down here about 2 miles South of me. Sprinkled at the house enough to get my truck windshield dirty, but that was about it. Been awhile since one of those thunderstorms came over us.

[HWooldridge]

Used be a local weatherman here in SA named Dow Sherry. His forecast every night during summer was, “Hot and dusty…!”

[Idaho45guy]

How many of our ancestors died early from the stresses of extreme heat? When my dad's side of the family came to MN they built a sod hut into the hillside and broke 160 acres of virgin prairie to start a farm. This part of MN sees 100f+ in summer with humidity hitting 90+%... miserable and they worked in it! They did dam the spring and had a 60 degree swimming hole to jump in to cool off now and then...

More than likely, the humidity levels were much lower back then. Why? Because there were less acres of crops planted.

Corn sweat is a real thing in Iowa and Minnesota. An acre of corn will put an extra 4000 gallons of water in the air every day.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2016/07/22/corn-sweat-iowa-midwest-heat-wave-evapotranspiration/87442376/

[Idaho45guy]

Found a link that confirms my hypothesis...

https://glisa.umich.edu/media/files/NCA/MTIT_Historical.pdf

The search for trends of humidity is complicated by the
relative lack of quality observations and past changes in
sensor technology. Most existing studies suggest that
humidity levels across the Midwest have increased in recent
decades. For example, Gaffen and Ross (1999) reported
positive trends of both relative and specific humidity across
the USA, although the relative humidity trends were weaker
than specific humidity trends. Dai (2006) found relatively
large changes of 0.5-2.0% per decade in surface relative
humidity observations from 1976 to 2004 across the
central USA while Changnon et al. (2006) reported a steady
increase of the frequency of high dew point days during the
period 1960-2000. In a very recent study, Schoof (2012)
found increases in maximum dew point temperatures
during the summer season across the Midwest which
partially offset flat or decreasing maximum air
temperatures and a wide variance in trends of resulting
apparent temperatures. A likely cause of higher dew point
temperatures during the growing season is the significant
increase in plant density from earlier decades, which
greatly enhances the transpiration of water from the soil to
the atmosphere (Changnon et al. 2003).

[WinchesterM1]

Dang 25 people just died to flooding where I’m from….

[David2011]

More than likely, the humidity levels were much lower back then. Why? Because there were less acres of crops planted.

Corn sweat is a real thing in Iowa and Minnesota. An acre of corn will put an extra 4000 gallons of water in the air every day.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2016/07/22/corn-sweat-iowa-midwest-heat-wave-evapotranspiration/87442376/

Absolutely! People in both northwest and southeast New Mexico are complaining about the humidity. It’s hitting 40%-45% where it was 15%-20% before pivot irrigation was introduced. Yeah, I know. Lots of us would love to have that kind of humidity but that is truly man made climate change and the tree huggers don’t even want to acknowledge it.

A single pivot irrigation system can consume 400 gallons of water per minute. They’re sucking the aquifer dry in SE New Mexico and West Texas.

I had a minor problem with the condensate pump on the mini split in my reloading room today. In the process of fixing it I realized that it was making about a gallon of water per hour for an area equal to a 12’x14’ room with an 8’ ceiling. It’s tight and well insulated. Just can’t escape the humidity.

[bedbugbilly]

I read something the other day where it has been literally POURING in places like Washington, Oregon, Kalifornia, Illinois, New York, Washington DC and a couple other places . . . then I read the article more closely . . . . when the author said it was POURING . . . . he was talking about MANURE . . . . NOT "rain".

[Thumbcocker]

I will give up my air conditioning when they pry my cold dead fingers off the thermostat.

[Handloader109]

Yes, most of us really can live without AC. Those of us who live or have lived in the deep south don't want to, and it does alter your work habits. Oh, and while you can work on a hot roof putting shingles on when it is 100f very few will and those that do aren't 60 years old either. Young man's job. Humidity is the key, and which is why you won't see a swamp cooler in the south. Yeah, that shirt ain't drying till you take it off.
Sleeping at 80f in MS with a box fan at night is something I don't plan on doing again. The foolish writer cut her ac off any time she wants. Get near mine and it's trouble. And yep, unplug that car, and computer and all those electric appliances. Go back to the stone age.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[jonp]

There's plenty of us who have to work in this heat, get the job done, and -- not die. My favorite personal cooling device is a light cotton shirt. Soak with water, put it on, wear till dry -- repeat.

We've been hitting 100 degrees every day for awhile now, and out on the asphalt it's prolly more like 120. My eyes are gonna get stuck in "permanent roll" position if I listen to more people who work in the AC building, whining about the heat.

I drive delivery truck, short haul, mostly to residential construction. My day consists of building my loads, loading my truck, driving to job sites, and unloading my truck with either a truck mounted crane or piggy-back fork lift. About a third of my day is spent behind the wheel enjoying the AC.

The guys I deliver to, (framers, roofers, dry-wallers,) they don't get to spend much time in the AC. I haven't seen any of em drop dead lately, although they've got good reason to. jd

Try those cool cloth gators or towels around your neck. Soak in water, stretch or snap and put on. Cools the blood going to your brain and are amazing in how well they work

[David2011]

Try those cool cloth gators or towels around your neck. Soak in water, stretch or snap and put on. Cools the blood going to your brain and are amazing in how well they work

Those require at least some evaporation to work. I have one. It works great in low humidity, cooling as the water evaporates. In high humidity it warms up to the ambient temperature and stays warm and wet.

[MaryB]

98 yesterday with 60% humidity... no evaporative cooler can handle that! I watered garden(I do it by hand to conserve water, just put it on the plants that need it) yesterday and my tank top was saked with sweat within 5 minutes of going outside. It was NOT evaporating... cooled down today, 78 but 62% still so muggy.

[popper]

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-qa-multiple-benefits-world-air.html Complete BS!
Even the indians (native) lived in mud huts to keep cool and MOVED to cooler locations when possible. Mormans went across the 'desert' of Ks in summer, using hand carts. 1/2 didn't survive. Only reason for Sante Fe trail was to connect to lower Ca. and Mexico. ost natives were moved to the plains states by the Gov., from cooler eastern states.

[waksupi]

We could use some rain. Elmo II fires is ten miles south, and headed this way. Windy day, to boot.

[HWooldridge]

We could use some rain. Elmo II fires is ten miles south, and headed this way. Windy day, to boot.

Yeah, we are starting to burn up, too. In 2011, I could go home in the afternoon after work and could see smoke in any direction. Looks like we are headed that way again - weatherman says we are about 25" behind on rainfall. The grass starts like gasoline - pretty much any spark can set it off.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

A drought with a heat wave can really get on one's nerves after a few weeks. We have had a mild summer so far with frequent rain. Cools off nicely at night so sleeping has been good. With our long, cold Winters we deserve nice summer weather.

[GregLaROCHE]

It’s been hot here in southern France for the last couple of weeks too. Hitting 100*F most mid afternoons. Our parries are all brown. We need to feed winter hay to get through these weeks. It’s not unusual for the end of July and the beginning of August to be this way. We’re always waiting for thunderstorms that usually begin after mid August.
We are lucky that we live at around 3000’, so it’s not as bad for us as others. Half of the downstairs of our house is built into the hillside, so we can get along without A/C. Fortunately, it’s pretty dry and gets cool at night. We keep our windows closed during the day and open at night.

[Finster101]

Mid-point of rainy season here in SWFLA. You can pretty much count on it every afternoon and when it starts the squall line will have the rain going sideways. I have a 24' wide pole barn and nothing in it stays dry in the summer no matter where it is parked. In a month or two I will have to be running the sprinkler to keep the grass and my plants from dying. Mid to low 90's everyday and about 80% humidity. It does cool off nice in the evening after the rain though. I'm not giving up my AC anytime soon.