Butrfly's Wonderings

112 degrees here yesterday, supposed to be 115 today. At 5 am this morning it was already 84. California is in stage one power alerts. I sure hope they don't do rolling power outages. I don't think I can take this heat for very long without at least a fan if not air conditioning.

Chronicle article here if you want details of the heat records:

Excerpt:

Even veteran meteorologists expressed amazement at the scorching temperatures.

"Tons of records were smashed, and not just in the interior part of the state," said Basil Newmerzhycky, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Mike Pechner, a consulting meteorologist based in Cordelia, said Saturday and today should set state temperature records not just for their dates but for the entire month of July.

"This is the hottest weather we've seen in California in at least a decade or more," he said.

Vallejo reached 111 degrees Saturday, which Newmerzhycky called "unfathomable."

"It is very, very rare for Vallejo to hit even 100, let alone 111," he said. "When all is said and done, this could be the worst heat wave ever for the Central Valley."

Newmerzhycky said the Sacramento record for consecutive days exceeding 100 degrees is nine, and the city has now posted seven straight days of such temperatures.

"We're not going to see any relief at all until Tuesday or Wednesday, if then," he said.

Really glad I'm not in Alameda where we didn't have air conditioning at all.

I tip my hat to the inventors of the air conditioner with a link to the history of the life saving device:


Excerpt:

In 1902, only one year after Willis Haviland Carrier graduated from Cornell University with a Masters in Engineering, the first air (temperature and humidity) conditioning was in operation, making one Brooklyn printing plant owner very happy. Fluctuations in heat and humidity in his plant had caused the dimensions of the printing paper to keep altering slightly, enough to ensure a misalignment of the colored inks. The new air conditioning machine created a stable environment and aligned four-color printing became possible. All thanks to the new employee at the Buffalo Forge Company, who started on a salary of only $10.00 per week.

Carrier said he received his 'flash of genius' while waiting for a train. It was a foggy night and he was going over in his mind the problem of temperature and humidity control. By the time the train arrived, Carrier had an understanding of the relationship between temperature, humidity and dew point.

Another heatwave is on the way. Seven more days of 106+ temperatures. My A/C bill is going to go through the roof this month. I try to keep it set at 83 with a small fan blowing on me but it doesn't help cut costs much when it is already 80 inside after having the windows open all night. There isn't any breeze at all during the night to cool down the apartment. Makes me miss the foggy summer mornings in the Bay Area.