Monday, August 08, 2011

Well, it doesn't look like this is going to be our century.


2011 vs. 1980

Eric Berger, SciGuy:

I’m running out of superlatives to describe this summer’s heat, so this week I’m going to focus in on 100-degree days, especially after the run of them we’ve had to start August. So far every day this month has reached the century mark.

All told this summer we’ve had eighteen 100-degree days. That’s more than three times the normal for a Houston summer, which is five. But it’s not the most.

The city’s record for most 100-degree days came in 1980, with 32. The following table shows how our 100-degree days each month stack up. We’re already seventh this year with just one-quarter of the month gone.

Rank June July August September
1. 10 (1902) 18 (1980) 14 (1993) 5 (2000)
2. 8 (1980) 13 (1998) 10 (1999) 4 (1995)
3. 7 (2011) 10 (2000) 9 (1902) 3 2005)
4. 7 (2009) 7 (1909) 8 (1998) 2 (1909)
5. 4 (1906) 5 (1978) 8 (1962) 2 (1907)
6. 2 (1998) 4 (2011) 8 (1907) 1 (1985)
7. 2 (1934) 4 (2009) 7 (2011) 1 (1980)
8. 2 (1930) 4 (1995) 7 (1951) None
9. 2 (1911) 4 (1986) 7 (1909) None
10. 1 (2006) 4 (1969) 6 (2009) None
.

Interestingly there’s never been a 100-degree day in Houston in May, although it did hit 99 degrees in 1996.

I spent June through August 1980, my last summer before graduating from Lamar University, as a laborer at the Mobil (now Exxon Mobil, of course) refinery in Beaumont. Two things I remember ...

1. Just as Eric's chart above indicates, it was 100 degrees or more nearly every day in July (August was strangely cooler). I was assigned to the coking unit and they took the furnaces down for a maintenance turnaround. We would crawl into them, clean them out for a few minutes, and then come out. It was about 115-120 even after those giant ovens had cooled overnight, and exiting them into the one-hundred-degree air outside felt like opening the freezer door in your face -- an instant but brief blast of coolness.

2. Just before I was about to leave the plant for the fall semester, Hurricane Allen swirled into the Gulf and rapidly strengthened to a Category 5. That hurricane was so big that the radar pictures showed him filling the entire Gulf of Mexico. We spent a couple of days scrambling all over that coker pulling down hoses and buckets and mallets and wrenches and anything else that could conceivably become a projectile in a gale-force wind.

(If you haven't already read the Wiki link above, Allen eventually went in just north of Brownsville and took a straight shot at Big Bend before petering out.)

That was the hottest, dirtiest, meanest, nastiest summer of my life. But this one's coming close to it.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Response blew into Houston, raised the temperature a few more insufferable degrees, and left quickly without spending any money or delivering any rain. The Texas Progressive Alliance, meanwhile, is praying for a cool snap and drought relief as it brings you this week's roundup.

There's still redistricting going on, as Harris County tries to redraw its county commissioners' precincts. So far, the main thing they've done is attract a lawsuit from Latinos who say they have retrogressed the one Latino opportunity district. Off the Kuff has the scoop.

The Response had better than expected attendance, a very diverse crowd, and the event's sponsors made a sincere effort to have the event be all about one man (not the governor of Texas). Having praised it, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs then proceeded to rip it. Wide open.

Our economy is in bad shape and is unlikely to get better any time soon. WCNews at Eye On Williamson tells us the reason why: The politics of the economy are upside down.

Prior to The Response, Letters From Texas predicted the response to the response to The Response.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is disgusted with the republican campaign to destroy the middle class, kick the poor to kingdom come and abandon the elderly.

This week Left of College Station began Rick Perry's Texas project, telling the truth about the governor's record in Texas. From Perry's scores on climate change to the fact that the Texas economic miracle was really a stimulus miracle.

Lightseeker offers his take on Why Democrats Lose Texas Elections. Hint: It's NOT because we are too Liberal! See the whole analysis at TexasKaos.

This week at McBlogger, Harry offers forth from the Book of Balczak his take on Prayerapalooza.

Sunday, August 07, 2011

Sunday Funnies


Is god willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

-- Epicurus