Hot! Hot! Hot!
Yesterday was probably the most humid hot day I’ve experienced in twenty years in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve experienced plenty of hotter days, but I don’t think any were close to yesterday’s humidity.
This morning was worse.
People joke about our heat and make fun of comments about “dry” heat not being as hot as humid heat. Reality is that the summer heat index in our area is almost always LOWER than the air temperature. Not so yesterday. Not so this morning – overcast, no wind, temperature of 78 degrees, heat index of 98 degrees.
Normally, when it gets hot here, it is even hotter east of the Cascades and the warm air starts rising over the desert. (Yes, Eastern Oregon is a desert – it’s directly north of Nevada.) When the warm air rises over the desert, low pressure is created at ground level and air from west of the Cascades starts rushing up the river valleys and over the passes to fill the low pressure. Anybody who has ever been in Ellensburg, WA or Hood River, OR on a hot day can tell you about the strength of the breeze.
We are located in what can be described as either a broad canyon or a narrow valley along the North Umpqua River. As a consequence, we normally get quite a bit of wind on hot days – hot, dry, wind because our normal humidity is very low on hot summer days. The wind is not always a nice cooling breeze – sometimes it feels more like air blowing out of a furnace. Still, if you have enough to drink so you sweat well, it helps keep you cool.
Yesterday, humidity was I don’t know how high. Highs were in the mid 90's. The air was dead still. There was absolutely no breeze.
Last night, the air didn’t cool off. When we have 100 degree days here, the overnight low is often in the high 50's or low 60's. I think last night’s low was almost 80. We opened all the windows, but the house really didn’t cool off much.
Today has been hot and sunny. The high was something like 105 (41C). Fortunately, the humidity dropped when the clouds burned off, or things would have been worse. We even got a little canyon breeze.
I’ve been outside to hose down the alpacas five times already today, and I expect to hose them down at least once more.
There has been no fiber progress today – it’s just too hot!
This morning was worse.
People joke about our heat and make fun of comments about “dry” heat not being as hot as humid heat. Reality is that the summer heat index in our area is almost always LOWER than the air temperature. Not so yesterday. Not so this morning – overcast, no wind, temperature of 78 degrees, heat index of 98 degrees.
Normally, when it gets hot here, it is even hotter east of the Cascades and the warm air starts rising over the desert. (Yes, Eastern Oregon is a desert – it’s directly north of Nevada.) When the warm air rises over the desert, low pressure is created at ground level and air from west of the Cascades starts rushing up the river valleys and over the passes to fill the low pressure. Anybody who has ever been in Ellensburg, WA or Hood River, OR on a hot day can tell you about the strength of the breeze.
We are located in what can be described as either a broad canyon or a narrow valley along the North Umpqua River. As a consequence, we normally get quite a bit of wind on hot days – hot, dry, wind because our normal humidity is very low on hot summer days. The wind is not always a nice cooling breeze – sometimes it feels more like air blowing out of a furnace. Still, if you have enough to drink so you sweat well, it helps keep you cool.
Yesterday, humidity was I don’t know how high. Highs were in the mid 90's. The air was dead still. There was absolutely no breeze.
Last night, the air didn’t cool off. When we have 100 degree days here, the overnight low is often in the high 50's or low 60's. I think last night’s low was almost 80. We opened all the windows, but the house really didn’t cool off much.
Today has been hot and sunny. The high was something like 105 (41C). Fortunately, the humidity dropped when the clouds burned off, or things would have been worse. We even got a little canyon breeze.
I’ve been outside to hose down the alpacas five times already today, and I expect to hose them down at least once more.
There has been no fiber progress today – it’s just too hot!
posted by Upper Alpacas | 7:33 PM
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