How's the weather?

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I can't bear the hot weather - I'm very much not built for it. But on a positive note, we got free ice creams in work today because of the heat.

[deanb]

Miserable as fuck. Gone from too hot and sunny last week to super dooper grey and wet today.

[Mal]

Micro-climates! I live near the split between 85°F-95°F and the 65°F-75°F temperatures. Now I know that I live on the hotter side. Earlier when the air was stagnant, temps was probably at least 90°F. With the breeze blowing, it's dropping to the cooler temperatures.
As for the 100+°F, I think they're due to poor placement near something that was getting heated by the sun. Not sure how ot explain the islands of low to mid 70°F temperatures in the 85°F-95°F zone though. Stagnant cool air not unlike those in the first floor of my place? Now that's micro-climating.

[deanb]

it's fucking horrible. It's warm and damp and when it's not warm n damp it's raw heat blasting across the expanse of space to your back yard. Which to be fair has made it good to dry clothese en masse, but on the other hand it makes showers horrible because you can never get dry. Oh also this morning some epic proper rumbly storms too (hence it being warm n damp today, everywhere got soaked in the morning then the sun just steaming it all up into the air).

And it's only June so we've the dry heat to look forward to as well. 

edit: Also since I've seen folks on Twitter be all "lol it's only 34c over there", worth noting we're not building our houses for Mediterranean weather and air conditioning isn't much of a thing in most homes and majority of other buildings. So yeah being inside doesn't let you escape the heat. It does let us escape the chill of winter though, which historically has been more of an issue (what with it being colder when most buildings were built).

[Mal]

3 hours ago, deanbmmv said:

everywhere got soaked in the morning then the sun just steaming it all up into the air

That's like the coolest and worst thing to witness. Like "Ooo, evaporation! Scienc-" but then it's turns into the soggy buttcrack of Florida in the span of in a few minutes when the ambient air temperature and the sun takes it to the logical conclusion. Or as my parents call it "Hong Kong". In cases where I encountered those or similar days, I had AC somewhere so it wasn't too bad. Also 34°C is about 93°F which is just about when things get shitty. You don't need 100°+F to be shitty. If it is humid though, the temperature needed to be shitty is lower. I'd argue that you can put it in the upper 80°F for the start because:

3 hours ago, deanbmmv said:

it makes showers horrible because you can never get dry

With higher temperature, the quicker it saps you of energy. With dry heat, you can kind of still work even at 110°F. It's an oven but you'd be fine and be downing water (with a salt source) like crazy.

[TheMightyEthan]

"Hot" starts at 95F, but given the usual weather in the UK I'll give them that high 80's are close enough (especially with no AC around).  When I was making fun of them on Twitter weather.com was still showing highs of ~80F.

[Mr. GOH!]

The fuck you talking about, Ethan? "Hot" starts at 80 degrees (27 C) if it's humid. If it's not humid at all, then "hot" begins in the upper 80s, maybe 88 degrees (around 31 C). I am going by the "if it makes Mr. GOH! sweat just to stand around) measure of "hot." I like cold weather, and I have to wear a suit outside and in the subway no matter the weather, so I admit I may be an outlier but, damn, unless it's super dry, I think most folks in the US would call the upper 80s "hot."

[TheMightyEthan]

Upper 80's are warm.  I'm going by my local weather, so ~80% humidity most of the time.  I will grant that living in Kansas we tend to have more of a breeze than you're probably used to, and that really does make a big difference.

Also I probably need to define "breeze", which is anything less than like 15 mph wind.  Anything less than 7-8 mph is uncomfortably still almost no matter the temperature (unless it's below freezing).

[Mal]

The micro-climates completely fell apart today. 100+ in the Bay Area, specifically San Francisco which broke their all time high of 103 with 106. We were forecast to be in the upper 80's to 90's. And I just came back from the inland area around Sacramento which hit 110 or so. Some areas probably got 115+. Where the fuck are we? Death Valley (they've been hitting 120...)?

[deanb]

It's broken.

 

Currently trending is "Red Sun" and "Yellow Sky". Turns out Ophelia is whipping up a bunch of saharan sand our way. It smells a bit too. Not like foul or anything, just...different to the normal background smell of the town.

 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

That's the kind of sky where I'd walk outside and be like "yep, it's tornado weather."

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Tornado weather in this country is ace. It makes the news when one appears as they're uncommon which is fair enough as an interest piece at the end, but the regional news especially tries to make out like it's a drama because a bin fell over or one tile blew off a roof.

 

Anyway, the reason I came here. When it's cold enough out to see your breath do you wonder/worry that the same issue occurs at the other end when you think you're parping with impunity out in the open air.

[Mal]

If you want to see cows flying... at about 1:00 mark.

[deanb]

Everything is on fire and it's 'only' July. Apparently today is the hottest July on record.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49106092

 

I'm currently in the kitchen, it's at the back of the house so the coldest part of the house at the moment. I think I might drag a monitor down and make this my base of operations for a few days. Lounge is too unpleasant to sit in even if it has the bigger TV. 

 

edit: did just that.

[TheMightyEthan]

Y'all are gonna have to start installing air conditioners soon.

[Mal]

The thing about the record for the UK is that they have some of the oldest records on the books. Hmm, we're breaking records everywhere and almost back-to-back. Old (UK and European records) and new (records within the last... decade?). What the balls are we (us here) going to see when we're 50? 60? 70?

 

Dean, install some mini-split AC system on your (?) property and hold on for dear life. 

[MetalCaveman]

You're all welcome here if you want.  We haven't gone past 22°C and most days have been cold and rainy.  Granted, March and April were hell on earth, but right now we're doing better.  

[deanb]

I'll be honest, I think having the go to response to dealing with heat being "install AC" might be part of the problem.

[Mal]

Dean, it's kind of the reality of the situation. UK's and most of the EU's (France comes to mind) homes weren't built for these sort of temperatures. Easiest patch is installing AC. AC powered by fossil fuels is a net negative (it makes the problem worse). AC powered by greener energy is about neutral.

 

It'll be interesting to see how many days of late spring and early autumn will be filled with records from our lifetimes. With a bias for our twilight years.

[deanb]

"easy patch" is pretty much the go to with the US in regards to climate change. Don't renewable still barely count for 10% of your lots energy? (and current administration unlikely to put much effort in pushing that higher). So having 85% of US homes with AC on 10% renewables compared to 0.5% of homes with 35% renewables is a bit lop sided on 'greener/neutral energy'. They're also not exactly cheap things to install and run, especially in smaller mostly brick houses. And pretty much all an air con does is take the heat and put it somewhere else, which when the outside is sweltering hot only increases the electric use.

 

This is the next week of weather here, right after the record breaking July temperatures. 

 

It's similar to the snow stuff.  extreme weather accounts for 1% of our annual weather so minimal purpose in spending thousands per home to combat. Ultimately still a colder wetter country than a Mediterranean one, so the better spent home improvements are insulation (which is gov't funded). 

 

Though now I think on it, it is kinda poopy that US still relies heavily on coal (30% v UKs <0%), barely any effort on renewables (10 vs 30%), rocking AC in majority of homes and it's europe dealing with the flash heat waves n tens of thousands of deaths attributed to that. (I'm well aware none of you guys can directly impact that.)

[TheMightyEthan]

3 hours ago, deanb said:

Don't renewable still barely count for 10% of your lots energy?

 

It's 11%, thank you very much. And another 9% from nuclear, so it's a paltry 80% that we get from fossil fuels...

 

 

*Edit - Though good news, my city specifically is looking to switch over to solar power.

[Mal]

4 hours ago, deanb said:

Don't renewable still barely count for 10% of your lots energy? (and current administration unlikely to put much effort in pushing that higher).

Depends on where you are at. As a whole, this is we were at last year.

(edit: I wouldn't be surprised if some of this has be fudged but it should be generally true.)

 

For someplace like California, coal is practically non-existent within the state (there's only one coal plant left). However, when California gets power from other states, our coal usage ticks up to sub-5%. Together with natural gas, fossil fuels accounts for about 50% of our use. Nuclear (another non-renewable) is at like 9% and getting lower since we're shutting down our plants (I get it but probably a bad idea...).

 

I mean, I think renewables is here to stay and grow, whether our current administration likes it to or not. Coal is dying for a reason and that reason can be purely financial ($/kWhr) and is kind of why coal hasn't came back. Natural gas is here to stay until we (as in humanity) figures out a good battery (chemical or even physical) so renewables can meet sudden or even a baseline energy demand (nuclear would be awesome at this...).

Edited July 27, 2019 by Mal

[TheMightyEthan]

@Mal Huh, interesting that our numbers are so different. I got my 11% here: http://css.umich.edu/factsheets/us-renewable-energy-factsheet

 

But yeah, coal is definitely on a downhill no matter what. Wind power is now cheaper than coal, so it ain't coming back.

 

*Edit - Oh, I think I found the difference: my source counts cars and trucks under the "petroleum" category, but yours only counts electricity generation.

[deanb]

Be a bit weird to have cars counted in energy source use when it's not like you can make a car run on geothermal energy (well you can...just only once and the passengers won't make it). If anything with electric cars won't it fudge your numbers given they get their power from somewhere and it's likely a mix of all the power stations.

Though funnily the Energy Administrator site has a graph which does imply cars running on renewables, 5% in fact

 

(I will note that your lots coal use, even if declining, is still 270X more than ours on a bad day and ∞X ours on a good day/week/fortnight/maybe month)

 

 

https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-how-the-uk-generates-its-electricity

Did find this cool map for us UK lot. Seems my main energy supply locally is nuclear from Harlepool, followed by various windfarms (which I think look quite pretty, you can see a big one from my mums garden). Interesting given just down the road the townspeople are "smoggies" from the old shitty air pollution. Still is loads of petrochemical plants around there, and coke burning steel works (famously closed down only recently).

Money pretty much is the key to getting things shifted, and US has some land ripe for renewable energy production. Nevada for example would do well as a home for a solar salt tower/energy weapon platform. Iceland is obviously the king of exploiting local geography for power, and we're kinda cheating too for our tidal power (though I think it's still a miniscule chunk), while not really able to do much on the solar front. Wind is also a big one for us, and I think parts of US would do great...not sure how tornadoes would work with them though.

 

[Mal]

Guys, this is a surprising reason why, for any decision making, you should consult with the National Hurricane Center, your local National Weather Service office and your local officials for the best information for your location.

And as always, if you make a mistake, don't double down in front of cameras.