Hot Enough For Ya?

 Congratulations! You made it through the bulk of the summer which, in case you are unfamiliar with my calendar, included Flag Day, My Birthday, Father's Day and The Fourth of July. Now all you have to do is survive until Labor Day and you're home free. 

It's practically Fall!

Now, if you got stuck at the phrase "survive until Labor Day," you must be one of those "readers" who expect me to explain. 

So here goes: For only the second time in one hundred years, a category five hurricane has rolled into the Gulf Of Mexico last week, leaving at least two dead in Jamaica with thousands left homeless from the destruction. 

In Death Valley, California temperatures toyed with the one hundred thirty degree mark, making it  the hottest temperature ever "reliably measured on earth." If you needed the unreliable measure, you would have to take the word of a fourth grade girl in one of my PE classes this past May who insisted it was "about a million degrees out here."

In Paris, the Summer Olympics are preparing to unfold and those clever French decided to make their Olympic Village AC-free. Climate-wise, this was very forward thinking. Competitive athletes and their coaches have other ideas. They will be toting their own air conditioning units along with the rest of their gear once things get underway. 

My wife once upon a time drew a series of cartoons called "Planet of the Slow Learners."  These were drawn in the last century. Since then the average annual temperature increased by 0.18°C (0.32°F) per decade, which is more than twice the rate from 1880 to 1980. We are currently being saddled with terminology like "web bulb temperature" and "heat dome." Feel free to file these next to "bomb cyclone" and "atmospheric river." These will all make interesting conversation starters in the underground bunkers into which we will all soon be retreating. 

Slow learners, indeed.