SUMMARY: It was hot this weekend. It's still hot. How hot is it?
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| Above: Temperature out on back porch and inside kitchen at 5:00 p.m. today. |
San Jose (well--lots of places--but that's where I live, and work--in an unairconditioned, poorly insulated house) has set an all-time record for number of days with temperatures over 90. And I believe an all-time record for nights that don't drop below, I dunno, 70 or so--no one talks about that, but that's what makes the days so miserable: you can't cool the house down at night, you can't sleep, and the house starts out 10 degrees warmer in the morning than the outside temperature and goes up from there.
Even as the temperature cools in the evening, you realize that you're doomed. Open a cupboard in the kitchen--hot air rushes out. You pick up the phone--it's very warm to the touch. Everything in the house is holding the heat in. Even if you're lucky enough to get cooler air blowing through for a couple of hours (hard to do when temps don't drop), it's not nearly enough to overcome 20 hours of heat absorption.
The dogs are alternatively bright and idiotic about the whole thing. If I head outside for whatever foolish human reason I have, they'll all follow me out there, but within 3 minutes, it's even odds on whether any one of them will (a) have retreated into the house to lie on the cool tile on the slab floor or (b) be lying--not in any of the many shady areas of the yard--but in the middle of the patio, which is so hot that I can't walk on it barefoot, in the full sun, panting his or her brains out.
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| Above: Slightly more normal temperatures and humidity the week of July 6. But then: | Above: Week of July 16. Hot and not quitting, day or night. And then: |
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| Above: This week so far. And I'll tell ya, I never saw it go below 70 in *my* yard overnight last night, let alone 66. | Above: California ISO chart for electricity demand vs. supply today. Status:Critical. |
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