5361

I had outdoor cats before my last little guy, and they absolutely roamed for hours out in triple digit weather. Now this is extremely hot even for what they would’ve enjoyed, but they still went out and came back. One of our oldest kitties back at the farm house, she would sit right front our wood stove and child me was worried she would just spontaneously combust because her fur would get so hot sitting on that stone platform, like hot to the touch… and of course she did not catch fire. They just seem to like heat well above our comfort levels.

Just keep an eye on them, more about the water than the food. Wet food counts as water.

5362

Food can also be put in a dish for them. :)

5363

:-P

5364

What gives you this degree of confidence about not having more terrible heat? I mean “I want to believe” and all that, but weather forecasting is extremely hit or miss more than 10 days out or so, right? It does tend to get hotter in late July/August so why would it not do so?

5365

I mean, I’m not assigning a particular confidence value to it, I don’t know shit about weather, but it’s simply that what caused the high temperatures in this instance was a particular confluence of events that as understand it is unlikely to happen again soon. Even with global warming, a hot summer without another strong heat dome (4.4 sigma, apparently) is unlikely to produce temperatures quite so high again.

Sure, it will get hotter than the normal June temperatures have been, and probably hotter than recent summers based on long range forecasts. But these crazy high termps aren’t a new baseline - as evidenced by the fact that it 's supposed to drop sharply tomorrow. The question remains whether this apparently rare event is going to be as rare as it has historically - my guess is not. But it’s still an aberration.

5366

Thanks, I guess I have to learn about what had to come together to produce this particular event.

5367

I believe that the jet stream has made a loop that hangs down the middle of the US. So the left side of the loop makes a barrier over the rocky mountains holding heat in the west.

I may of course be completely wrong.

5368

Goddamn Rocky Mountains. We should level them.

5369

You are technically correct!

image

Image from: Pacific Northwest bakes under once-in-a-millennium heat dome - CBS News

5370

BTW, some context on the 4.4 sigma event claim here (read the replies, not just the main thread):

5371

I’ll take it. :)

5372

I would like to extend an invitation to the Omega Block to move further south and hover over New York for a while.

5373

That phrase ‘standard deviation’ sounds familiar to me, but then I remember that I got a C in statistical analysis and the memory fades. I think the main reason I got a C in that class was because I found it fascinating that I could see my professor’s hot flashes come on, this creeping wave of red that would work its way up from under her collar to finally flush her entire face. Speaking of hot flashes, it’s 94 degrees Fahrenheit in my home office right now at 11:09 am.

5374

I second this invite as long as it includes eastern PA.

5375

I realized my comment might be interpreted as wishing more hot weather on the West. Absolutely not–I just liked the colors I see up in Canada.

5376

That’s some craziness. It was 75 when I went on my jog today…and that was at 1 pm! Hope y’all stay cool out west.

5377

We’re over a 100 before noon. I am pretty sure that’s pretty new. According to my car we went up 17 degrees this morning in about an hour. I vacated Costco before it turned into an oven people willingly go into, and I was not the only one with an early run this morning.

5378

I love big weather graphics.

OMEGA BLOCK

5379

It’s noon. It goes to 111! Again!

So that’s a big old nope from me on going outside again today.

5380

Oh dear lord. You’re right. The forecast went up. When I went to bed I thought it was 106, now they’re saying 110. A this rate of increase it seems highly likely we’ll surpass that. It’s already 104.