WEATHER II: Hell on Earth

[Thad]

Thad, you live in Arizona. I don't think you can legally call it "winter".

Scottsdale, a week and a half ago

[Yoji]

In the year my son was born, we took an impulse detour to the Grand Canyon on our way to see Antelope Canyon. We didn't count on it to rain cats and dogs, but it worked out anyway; the canyon was shrouded in clouds like I'd never seen before, and it was downright magical. I think I did more than a few reality checks to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

But I think your snow has us beat.

[Mongrel]

Hey come on, it snows in the Sahara too.

>:)

[Mongrel]

Just FYI, the flood risk prediction from NOAA for spring 2019 is "pretty much everything east of the Rockies."

[Mongrel]

Thundersleet.

Had to drive in it too. Luckily it wasn't thundering yet, but man what a absolute mess. This is what happens when clouds shart.

[Thad]

I don't remember ever seeing a winter or spring like this before. Remember how it was cold enough to snow in Scottsdale back in February? Now we're hitting the end of May and getting the kind of weather we usually have in the middle of March. We did get a couple of 100-degree days (as in two of them), but it's backed off and most days have been below 90.

It's a little warm in the afternoon, but evenings have been fucking gorgeous; just perfect. I've been trying to get some time outdoors every day, doing my best to enjoy it while it lasts.

[Thad]

It's 105 out, with a forecast high of 109.

Monsoons are late this year. We got a little bit of rain yesterday, but I'm talking such a small amount that it literally doesn't count; rain gauges are bone dry and the official tally is 0.0 inches.

A week ago I was playing in the ocean, dammit.

[Mongrel]

Looking at 80% - 95% humidity for a week solid, if not longer. Raining on and off but it's not going to provide relief.

Fuck me, I hate summer in this town, and this is why. I'd quite literally rather be in fucking Phoenix than to dare that soup. As it is, Starr ad I are hiding in the A/C as much as we possibly can.

[Silversong]

Similar in Michigan now. Except I don't have A/C and I walk a mile and a half to work. But I'm getting a dehumidifier tonight!

[Joxam]

The heat index for the next week is around 100-105 and I work outside on cars all day. yaaaaaay. We do get a ton of ice water and are encouraged to take breaks as often as possible but I still come home just absolutely disgusting with car grime and sweat every evening when its this hot. Its fucking disgusting. On the other hand I lost like 30 pounds when I started the job and then another like 30 when it got hot so I have that going for me.

[Mongrel]

On the other hand I lost like 30 pounds when I started the job and then another like 30 when it got hot so I have that going for me.

So what you're saying is that you're now human long jerky.


Up here, the humidity is now fully 100%, such that the sky is actually, uh, sweating, without it actually being rain or fog.

When I was out today it was mercifully during a window when it was overcast and there was a breeze. It's insufferable.

[Silversong]

So, turns out dehumidifiers actually create a lot of heat? No one told me. :( So I can have a dry, 90 degree room or a wet 80 degree room.
We blessedly got some storms every night through the weekend that cooled it off enough to sleep. Now the heat wave is broken and while it's still 95% humidity we're looking at a week with highs in the 70s. Huzzah.

[beatbandito]

I have a portable A/C that I got from Home Depot like five years ago that's basically just this thing that also works as a dehumidifier.

You may not be lucky enough to have a convenient second-floor glory hole behind some plywood on the wall of your apartment like I did for the exhaust, but either way it's great for quickly sucking the moist air out of the room like what's coming up. It's also okay for regular air conditioning if you only need to cover the area of about one bed.

[mharr]

You can passively collect humidity by pumping ice water through some spiral copper piping, which shunts the waste heat production to your freezer. Lots of faff if you don't already have a water-cooling junk pile to work with.

[Mongrel]

Spiral copper piping, you say?...

[Thad]

Monday we had a storm, but the rain was negligible; it was mostly blowing dust.

Last night was our first honest-to-God thunderstorm of the season; it freaked the dog out but we finally got a measurable amount of rain (a little over a tenth of an inch, according to my rain gauge; not sure what the official measurement is but probably around there). I'll take it.

A good big chunk of Flagstaff is on fire. (Recap in case anyone's lost track: I went to college in Flagstaff but haven't lived there since 2005.) Some rain could help with the fire (wind and lightning not so much) but could also cause floods.

[nosimpleway]

On Sunday I was invited hy a friend's mother to look into the dietetic internship options in Flagstaff, where she worked. Reading that a chunk of it is on fire and a presumably different chunk is bracing for monsoon floods disincentivizes that a little.

[Thad]

From what I've read, it sounds like most of that stuff's on the outskirts of town. Most of the city is pretty tightly focused around the downtown/campus area.

For what it's worth, if I'd been able to get work in Flagstaff I never would have left. Driving around town is pretty terrible (way more people live there now than when the roads were designed), but notwithstanding that it's my goddamn happy place.

It's also 35 degrees cooler than Phoenix. So it's got that going for it.

[nosimpleway]

(way more people live there now than when the roads were designed)

This is also Denver, and as I understand it, both Nashville and Atlanta. So, everywhere I've lived.

I tend to ignore it by just taking public transit, but idk how Flagstaff measures up there.

[Thad]

Me neither. I didn't own a car when I lived there, but I biked everywhere (including 3.5 miles uphill to work every day when I had a summer job; I was probably in the best shape of my life then, though I've lost about 4 inches of waistline in the years since).

There's no rail (there's an Amtrak station but that's for trips out of town, not around town). There are buses, but I've never used them so I can't speak to how convenient they are.

I lived on-campus and most everything I needed was in biking distance. Later on it was nice having roommates who had cars, mostly for hauling groceries, but occasionally we'd drive out to the mall to see a movie. (Annoyingly, that's the only movie theater in town now. There's no theater in walking distance from campus anymore, which is a goddamn travesty.)

And of course this was back in the days where "ride-sharing" meant you posted a note on a bulletin board and maybe somebody would call you. I'm sure the age of Uber and Lyft is more convenient for getting around town without having to drive yourself.