Summer Heat Wave

A summer heat wave is insinuating itself onto the mountain for a few days. Up here where I live, the day’s high temperature is nearly always a few degrees lower than down in the open suburbs. The trees offer both shade and protection from the worst of the heat. Unfortunately, the mountain offers me no respite from the humidity. Indeed, sometimes I think the trees make the humidity feel even worse, especially on those days with little breeze.

The current heat wave will be a mild one and only barely qualifies. In this area, to be termed a heat wave, the weather must be at least three days in a row of 90 degrees or more. This one might run to four days, but two of those days the high temperature is only to be right at 90 and the other two days are only predicted to be 92 or 93. So it shouldn’t be too awful, plus it is July and weather like this is to be expected here.

What constitutes an official heat wave varies from area to area, though meteorologists have an official definition that says the daily maximum temperature should be at least 5 degrees above average maximum temperature for five consecutive days. Apparently, the more commonly used definition in the U.S. is the 3-days and 90+ degree one, which was defined in 1900. Other countries have their own definition. In the Netherlands, for example, a heat wave is 5 consecutive days above 77 degrees F., providing at least 3 of those days are also above 86 degrees F.

In any event, it’s summer and it’s hot, which is the main reason why I am now officially reporting that the start of winter is just 158 days away. Even so, I will be happier when fall arrives but will begin to improve once fall migration starts, which is usually before that. Shorebird migration might even be starting now, but as I don’t live near a shore I can’t quite bring myself to count that. Still, if I’m lucky, a few shorebirds may pause briefly on one or the other of the snowmaking ponds. I can only hope.