Not hot, hazy or humid

I am enjoying these all too few, lovely days of June, those rarest days of almost summer, when the weather is neither hot, hazy nor humid. If the entire summer remained as nice as the weather was this week, I’d thoroughly enjoy summer. That won’t happen, of course, especially not in these days of a warming climate. In fact, by Tuesday of next week, the weather will be hot and humid and hazy—the dreaded 3H’s of summer.

The 3H’s typically last for at least good two months, now. A wait of two-and-a-half months before the weather breaks is not unlikely. Even mid-September can sometimes be sweltering, and by then even most of the summer aficionados are weary of it. Oh, we will have (I hope) a few days of rain and a few days of not-quite-so-terrible weather along the way, but they will seem few and far between to me. I know it will be more than two months before the year truly turns towards fall and nicer weather.

In the worst of the summer I tend to read books about Alaska, hoping the descriptions of unfathomable cold help me survive the worst of the heat. Around August, I begin to search web cams in the Yukon and northern Alaska, looking for that first bit of “termination dust” (new snow on the high peaks) that promises an eventual break in the heat down here.

But for today and for another few days, I don’t need to think about that. I can enjoy the bright, clear mornings and the crisp nights that call for a sweatshirt.  I can enjoy the deep green forest of midsummer. And I will start counting the days to when the weather will turn cooler and more pleasant again.