The AM Forum

95 degrees, wind, no rain, sun beating down, lousy sleep at night, dragging my tail all day....I'll take 10 below zero  8)  any day over this  :P and it isn't even mid July yet.  Can't hardly do any work at home when I get there....fire up anything and operate AM or CW?  ya gotta be kiddin' me.    Oh man it is   HOT

Summer hasn't even arrived here yet. The skies are overcast the plants aren't growing, I have to mow my lawn every two weeks as its growing so slow.  You can send me about 20 degrees and we will both be happy.

Eric

I chuckled a bit when I read this Rob, because I've been watching the temps throughout the country and it's been warmer(hotter) in the northern tier lately than it has here in the south. That's pretty much ending this week, though. Mid-90s through the rest of the week into next week. The month of May and much of June were cooler than April here.

Fortunately I got a lot of the work done on the transmitter while it was 'cooler' (70s-80s vs. 80s-90s). Hopefully I can get things sussed out for 40m in the mornings before the heat builds up too much in the garage/station area. It cools off with both garage doors and the back door open, but it also lets in all kinds of critters from flying to crawling.

Just in time for massive static. Had hoped to make some contacts last night but the noise was pretty bad. It's amazing too how much the heat builds back up in there even at night with the tubes lit.

114 in Phoenix yesterday @ 8% RH.

We can't wait for July & August.... :P

73DG

It got all the way  to 80 or something out here, maybe in 85.

I guess I shouldn't say that.

It hasn't been bad in upstate NY but we are forecasted to have mini heat wave, 2 days of 90+ with high humidity, but then back down into the low 80's for the Field Day weekend. Nothing like the rest of country is dealing with and no fires. My son just moved from Houston to Tucson. The first day there it was 104 in the shade but very low humidity. He was there for 3 years in the 90s while in the AF...he knows the drill.

Seems as I age, it gets more uncomfortable.   Also, I am no longer used to Southern wx.  When it is up over 90 deg. I feel slightly nauseous outside.  I need to get more exercise.

At the hamfest on Sunday I watched two hams who each bought a SX28, break into a sweat just moving them into their vehicles.  And, they each had a younger guy helping them.  Now, the SX28 isn't a plastic radio, but it isn't a 100 lb p.s chassis either. 

You boys need to come up to Naknek for a visit....No heat wave here ....although the wx has been warmer than the past few years..Last summer it rained every day....we have had only 3 rainy days in the past 3 weeks and temps in the 60's....

You're breakin' my heart :'(.

At least you don't have to shovel sunlight...

73DG

95 deg up here and I went out yesterday after supper and cut the grass!!

Been out in the garage every day / evening running machine tools!!

You just gotta suck it up and "git er done". Hot and sticky beats the hell out of 10 deg and snowy! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! You dont have to break yer back shoveling 95 deg of heat. I dont start complaining till it gets over 100+ and 80-90% humidity. When the air gets so thick that you have to chop yer way through it with a machette I might think about hibernating inside. Summer is too short to waste it inside!!

I live for summer! ! ! ! !

I remember seeing a bumper sticker distributed by some ski club up in VT or NH:

THINK SNOW.  SUMMER STINKS!

I'm with you, Frank.

Went up to Inner Harbor Sunday and saw the Tall Ships and the Blue Angels,  the water was like glass.

Same as the week before -- parked the cameraphone on the windshield and pressed record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JBwzpoYZ1w

I hear it is hot outside here in Ct. I love summer.

Ha, you can have it.

You can also have:

The bugs
The bird poop on your car
The lightning
The "ozone action alerts."
The tornadoes
The yard work
The West Nile Virus
The DEET gunk that's almost as bad as bug bites, maybe just as bad
The high A/C bills
The crappy band condx and QRN
The street parties and idiots blasting music at 10 p.m.
The lawn service contractors blocking streets with their equipment
The frozen foods you just bought melting on the way home
The kid solicitors who get bused in to sell magazine subscriptions to supposedly make money for college, or some other hard luck story
The road construction delays

have at it; enjoy.

addendum:  (I'm getting forgetful) The humidity
Field Day

Now the heat is supposed to be moving to the northeast.  Glad you got the rig work done Todd!  We're due for a cool down here over the weekend and into next week.   

It was 94 here in central IL yesterday and I went for a 10 mile run, it is a sense of accomplishment in that weather kind of like the feeling of success when you restore a much abused piece of vintage gear back to proper operating condition :)  I like running in the hot and humid weather still because it reminds me of running cross country in high school back in Mississippi.  Of course I was a lot faster years ago.

I had hoped the unusually dry weather would reduce our Japanese beetle problem but it just delayed it for a few weeks.  Normally they show up when the roses are blooming but this year they missed the blooms but started feasting on the leaves.  A few of them showed up 4 years ago but since then it is a plague every year and they are very difficult to control.

Some cooler weather will be nice because I am having to water gardens every other day.  Even though we got .97 inches of rain Saturday by Monday the temperature and wind made the ground (and plants) look like it had not rained in weeks.  I am looking forward to getting back to the TN mountains later this summer.  In the meantime I am using my solid state receivers more to cut down on the heat generated inside the house.   I just paired a Ranger 2 up with a Anritsu RG52A receiver which works well together but leaves something to be desired aesthetically!

To be honest there are a few things I like about summer:  Ice cream, hamfests and being able to get in the car and go without having to scrape ice.

But, we have something to celebrate now: 

Tomorrow the Days Start Getting Shorter!!!  ;D ;D ;D 

I can't wait to get them over with, September too. From about a month ago, it has been too unpleasant to work outdoors all day. We have much humidity in DFW and it is even worse for our Houston colleagues. I really do not know why anyone would want to live there in 100 degree 99% RH environment only 10FT above sea level but they do. It's go to be the money, or the attraction of shooting a signal out over the sea for distance. Maybe it is better up a tower where there might be a little wind.

I feel for those in hot places. I have colleagues in out PHX office.. Last time I was there it was about 110 but it was dry so it didn't feel as hot.

Once the cooler weather is back, it'll be a pleasure to spend more time outside.

I too hate the humid, hot summers. A friend of mine from SLC who was born down near HOU dropped by last year after visiting kin in HOU. His comment was, "When I stepped off the plane in Houston, I thought I was walking into a dog's mouth".

My friend Ash who used to live in CO, and now lives in Ireland said that "Boulder is nine months of winter and three months of bad skiing".

First time I visited Ireland, back in August 2004, the temp in Greencastle, Co. Donegal way up in the northern end of the island got up to 75° F, and the locals were whinging (their word) about how "hot" it was. I told them, "I'm leaving out a week after Wednesday, why don't y'all come back to DFW with me. I've got something I want to show you". They simply could not comprehend temps of 113° F (45° C). Didn't understand how we could survive at that temp. I told 'em sometimes we wondered if we could survive. I love the WX in Donegal. Highs usually not higher than 70° F, it rarely freezes due to the Gulf Stream (or as they call it, the North Atlantic Current) and you can tell it's summer when the rain gets warmer.

I'm ready for highs of 75° F and lows in the 40s. Come on, fall! Or winter!

101 most of the ride home yesterday. 98 at the house

It was 97 here yesterday, have no idea what it is right now, but I was unloading hay most of the morning. Talk about hot, sweaty, and dirty work.

My daughter who is in NYC said:
"This weather is perfect. I don't know why people complain. First time I'm not cold! Finally some proper summer temperatures

Kind regards,

Samantha"

Of course she had lived in Singapore

Add:

Ticks (maybe they fall under the category of "bugs")
Poison ivy (although the stems and roots of the plant remain toxic year round)

Permethrin in a 0.5% solution sprayed on clothing prior to wearing works for me, as an alternative to DEET sprayed directly on the skin.  If you can't find it, try looking at gardening and ag supply stores; about $6 buys 8 oz. of 10% solution.  Dilute it 20:1 in a spray bottle and treat your clothing an hour or two before putting them on, to make sure it is completely dry. For ticks, make sure you spray it on boots and socks as well. It is said to remain effective on the clothing through 3-4 washings.

5 minutes after I got home the power went out.
15 minutes later I got the generator running and threw the transfer manually.
1 hour later the power came back on.
Time to replace the cranking control relay so it will be automated again.
The power company said there had been several outages.
I guess it is the first heat of summer, it is showing up the items needing maintenance on large and small scales alike.

Dateline Naknek....The temperature soared to 70 degrees F today under clear blue skies...Local residents flocked to the beach on Bristol Bay to seek some relief from this heat wave in the cool waters of the Bering Sea.  Tommorrow's forecast calls for more of the same with highs in the mid 70s.   Villagers fear their pipes may burst.

Sorry Heat Haters.  I'm loving this heat   

I also like the winters that kill the bugs - well at least slow them down  ;D

Al

Hit 100 yesterday, here in B-more. That was bloody hot! ! ! ! !

Had to use the A/C in the truck for the first time this year! (and it felt good)
100 is hot past the point of getting comfortable with it. But ya know what........
After the sun fell a little lower in the sky, I was out in the garage doing some machining. It wasn't too bad, and the big fan kept it quite bearable.

I love summer and the hot wx, but 100+ and high humidity is a bit opressive

The picture-poifikt summer day is anywhere in the 80s to and lower humididity.
Low 90s isn't bad if you have a little breeze to go with it. Yesterday evening, after supper, I came out on the back porch and drank a 32oz mug of hot coffee (one of the designated smoking areas) before heading off to the laboratory. (garage)

There you are Frank,
Coffee in the morning on the front porch.
Coffee in the evening on the back.
Coffee all the rest of the day,
In your brick paved lab.

Aren't you glad your back porch faces east?
& Where else can one see the walls decorated with shelves of motors? (rhetorical)

I like sitting outside too. We don't feed the birds but they sure 'enjoy' dodging yellow jackets while trying to take a dip in the birdbath.  Now that I try to keep filled.  Amazing the antics and aerial holding patterns of birds wanting to use it next.  A couple of big jays own the periphery and guard it jealously but allowing the cardinals next, and so on down the line to all the rest of the unknown, little grey birds.

Drove into San Francisco yesterday. How many times have I done that in the summer? Dozens of times.
Still I forgot to take a jacket. That was a mistake.

Naknek, Alaska (see Steve's post) had SF beat by 20 degrees.

dropped down 1 degree yesterday for the ride home. 100 and down to 97 by the time I got home.
AC cranking at home. I like hot but prefer it cool when I sleep.

K5UJ; I am with you this stupid weather no rain, hot burning temps, is for the BIRDS, no maybe I am wrong it is for the CAMELS, I dont want to live in a desert if I did I know where two good ones are located on the earth.

We do have a lot to be thankfull for but I would be a lot more thankfull if it would rain.

John W9BFO

Don't forget about the dreaded castor beans!

I count those as positives, not something to bitch about.  I intentionally planted them several years ago, and they do seem to keep moles away from the veg garden. Don't have to plant new ones in the spring; they re-seed and come up like weeds now, but don't do well except in cultivated soil.  That reminds me...  I need to sew those jimson weed seeds I collected last year.

I wouldn't know a castor bean if it bit me on the ankle.

It has cooled down here now so wx while dry is not miserable like it was earlier in the week.  I get lousy sleep at night when it is hot.  in winter when it is minus 10 outside (actually it never got that low last winter when winter never happened much) I turn the thermostat down and the house cools down to 55 degrees and I sleep like a log.  Well, in summer if I ran the a/c to do that I'd go broke.   ???   

I have been out to the Bay Area for my job a number of times.  I do the same thing.  It will be 85 in Palo Alto and I'll go into SF on the Caltrain and freeze my butt off--it will be 55 in S.F. and I'm wearing a T-shirt and shorts.   Chicago is a bit like that too.  Out here in the far west burbs it is hot but in the City with the Lake cooling and wind off the Lake blowing down the streets it can be relatively cool.   I hardly ever go into the City but out west I'm a tourist on weekends.

100 on Thursday, 102 in Denver yesterday, 102 again today. Upper 90s this coming week. Will probably be hottest Denver June on record. Occasional choking smoke from area forest fire. No chance of significant rain in near future. Everything is browning up. Radio stations off air due to A/C failures.

The only worse things missing are plagues, pestilence and the Kardashians.

Can't wait for July and August.

Bill

Given a choice, I'd take plagues and pestilence.

Heat front has broke here in WVa.  Enjoyed watching a UWay sponsored baseball game today as well as the start of Stonewall Jackson ARC field day activities (3A) with the civil air patrol manning one of the stations. 

It hit all of 83 deg. -On a puffy clouded, blue sky and low humidity day. 

It got up to 96.3° by 1130 this morning here in North Central TX and ran us off the shooting range. Sure glad we'd started at 0800, so we got some good shooting in. It's down to 91° now and fcst for 73° overnight. As far as I'm concerned, the overnight temp is just about right for a daily high.

Not better in this part of the world. Here, in Rome, we had almost 40°C! (around 105°F) and very humid ???. As Frank said, the summer, to be agreeable, should have a much lower temp. with a light breeze :) if not, it’s much better the wintertime! 8)

What call was the SJARC using? I think I may have worked them on 75.

I can't stand hot and humid weather.  If and when Martha and I ever downsize, we will be moving to a cooler climate on some body of water.  People talk about getting all this outside work done in the summers but in oppressive heat and humidity I just stick to the inside projects like I do in the winter.

73,
Joe, GMS

Me either so I looked it up. The sentence that stood out for me:

According to the 2007 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, this plant is the most poisonous in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_oil_plant

Yes, they are very poisonous. Be sure to keep small children away from the plants. This is what I've heard.

I detect a general summer allergy here?  ;D

-A power spoiled nation.
If power ever went off in the south for whatever reason, the people stampeding back to the north would rival the Columbia river dump when an ancient lake broke through after the last ice age.

Houston used to be a small, hot oil town, basically just a crossroads where all the buildings had open windows and everyone somehow wore long sleeved white shirts to work.   If you wanted any sort of breeze you went to Galveston.  Cities in the south didn't cancerously grow until A/C.

Same with the Carolinas.  - off to Myrtle, the mountains or Nags Head for cooling off. Florida was for the Seminols.  Only after WWII did the great migrations south "for the weather" (winter only, thank you) begin.  You turn off the air in Florida during the summer these days and your tight house turns green.  No verandas and open air houses these anymore,  just Legionairs bacteria lying in wait for you wusses.  ;D

When you hop from your A/C'd house into your A/C's sucvee, walk three feet to the A/C'd store, no wonder you catch every alphabet disease invented by man.
You've lost the ability to adapt locally to modest changes in temperature, let alone to the changes of whole seasons.  So you invent all sorts of bogymen, the more grand, the better, all the way up to "climate change"...   not having even experienced remotely real climate.

Sagan was right.  We live in a demon haunted world.
 
This diatribe is somewhat rhetorical because many of us in younger days lived in the pre A/C'd world, but if the shoe fits.....  

Huh ???  ???

I keep the A/C'ed areas in my house at 80-82°, not exactly icicles dripping off the overhead. The A/C in my pickup hasn't worked for two years, I live in North Central Texas where seasonal temperature variations range from single digits in the winter to triple digits in the summer (with attendant humidity) and I haven't been sick from anything but food poisoning in the last six years or so. And that includes the common cold. So, I must ask, "Your point?"

BTW, if the power went off in the south, there's a lot of us Southern Boys who'd stay right here and get the power back on. Wouldn't have near the load to meet after all the snowbirds ran back north  ;D

I experienced rain in a Houston hotel room once. Hot moist air blowing in from a window that wouldn't close met the overly cold conditioned air inside. I thought that was amusing.

Indeed AC does use a lot of electricity but it takes something or other to keep us Northerners warm in winter, except me of course. The SF Bay Area must have the most mild weather in the lower 48. Now excuse me while I check my earthquake supplies.

Pretty neat, a miniature cloud chamber or micro climate warm front encroaching.

Pete, point? No point really, ("Oh I'm a ramblin' man") just commenting on perceived summer aversion.  Fun on the board this evening.

Here in central Texas it hit 100+ today. The XYL has always been liking cool, and we have debates over the summer thermostat setting. I had to compromise on 74, and even there she "burns up" at times. My 16 year old daughter wears winter clothes, and a sweater when mom is having a burning hot day.  ???

I just got word that I need to be in Portland, Oregon tomorrow. So a last minute flight gets me there before lunch time there. Portland is between 50-80 with rain forecasted. Big change.

Jim
WD5JKO

It's more fun and interesting to talk about AM, radios, electronics, and all that good electronics related stuff since that seems the major board interest. There's always ramblingman.com  for all the other stuff. It's hot, it's cold, it's wet, it's dry; it's snowing; it's raining; who cares; it's called weather. We see and feel it every day.

I must be the odd one in all of this, I prefer having the windows open over running the A/C. Truck, car, house, anywhere. A few weeks ago I was in the shack with the amp running and on the air for almost an hour, lots of heat coming out of it. Just had the window open a crack and to me it was cooler in there than it was in the rest of the house that had the A/C on.

I prefer open windows too but when it is 85 or 90 or higher there's no benefit.  There's fresh air I guess.  I also like open windows because I figure the fresh air is better than breathing indoor air that's been trapped for who knows how long and may contain gasses like radon.  I sure liked outdoor air when that glass epoxy pc board burnt last winter even though it was 25 degrees outside  ;D

Yes, we've all mostly adapted to A/C.  I have said for several years that we'd save a lot of energy if folks just got used to hot wx, opened windows and lived like they did 50 years ago.  Back then it was hot but we just dealt with it.  The exception would be hospitals and nursing homes and elderly folks or anyone in poor health in general.  

We lost electricity last night from 9:28 to 10:12.   Whole part of town I'm in was out.   I was pleased to see the backup power supply I bought surplus for five bucks kicked on and kept the computer running so I didn't loose all my open windows etc.  I'm gg back and get a few more of those.

Having said that, it is supposed to hit over 100 here Thursday!  Yikes  :o  Get ready East Coast--this one may be heading your way.

Last four days in Denver. Today's 105 tied the all time high temp for the Mile-High city.
Tomorrow I get to try restoring a mountain top radio station that was burned by the fire near Ft. Collins. Having a National Guard escort, they want me up there by 6 and out by noon. Hopefully will have some cell phone pix.

I am soliciting contributions for my June home water bill.

Today Monday105
Sunday 102
Saturday 104
Friday102

Whew! Looks like your at the portal of H.. From what I've seen on the news.  Spent a few at USAFA so scenes like Garden of the Gods being closed due to fire brought back memories.
Hope you get the facility back on line.

Denver officially 105 again today,

I don't envy you guys the +100 deg temps.....What is the low at nite? what time of day does the the Hi temp start to drop?....Sounds like siesta time in the heat of the day...... and early mornings  to get the outside stuff done.....Nap in the middle of the day...Evenings outside when it gets cooler....I think we should try to adapt as much as we can  to the wx and the climate because the energy used to keep the human body in the "comfortable zone" is tremendous/costly ..People don't seem to be as adaptable as they used to be.....

It was 107 in my back yard today. Regardless of the comfort or not, I don't think the temperature affects radio signals very much if at all. It seems to have more of a mental effect, making things seem more annoying than they really are, up to the point where illness begins.

Most gear is inside, but if the ambient is too high it is harder on some of it, especially that which can't tolerate a large rise like solid state gear relying on heat sinks and some LCD displays. I had a display go bad when its temperature hit 140 degrees. That's not a normal temp. for human beings, but it makes me wonder if at 110-120 degrees a display would begin to suffer slow or incremental damage.

I speculate that high temperatures is where tube gear can do well (assuming the iron is not cheap or under-rated). Many tube envelopes are rated 150 degrees C or more with full dissipation and it gives them an edge in heat differential over solid state stuff which frequently has little dissipation ability once it gets that hot. There is a case for using military surplus gear in the summer heat. During the time I was in the State Guard, I learned that air conditioning was for the radio radio gear we used and not for my comfort! It was about 80 degrees F in the communications enclosure. Not comfy cool but better than outdoors.

A friend of mine told my the VY0 operators reported two feet of snow on the ground when they landed to set up for Field Day in Nunavut.  Sounds wonderful to me. 

101 for the high here today  :P   I heard on the radio that over 1 thousand records have been broken around the country which usually only happens in July or August.

3-digit temps predicted for this weekend.  Plus high humidity (yuck!).  It's been georgeous all week.  Sunny, blue skies, low humidity, tolerable temperatures, but dry as a bone.  Open burning restrictions are popping up everywhere, and in town, they have temporarily prohibited fireworks until further notice. QRN was low last night.  I actually got on 75 and had a fairly long QSO with Frank up in S. Dakota. 160 was also quiet, and I would have tried that if I had heard any signals on, but I rarely get any responses to CQs late at night on 160, even when QRN is non-existent.  40m sounded good as well, but I didn't hear any AM signals except for foreign broadcast.

Hit 102 here today with a little humidity.  Daughter and I spent much of the day in the pool and then I went for a shorter than usual (4 mile) run carrying a large bottle of frozen Gatorade.  It didn't stay frozen long :)

The heat is making the always territorial red winged blackbirds even more aggressive than usual.  It is fun to watch them drive hawks and other large birds out of their territory but there is one at the 1.2 mile point on my usual running route that swoops in tapping me on the head with his/her claws while making a loud squawking noise.  I am pretty animal friendly but this one is starting to push it.

Sposed to be near 100 tomorrow, I am going to be standing over a grill, out in the sun, cooking most of the day.

now.............the question is, do I melt into a puddle or do I shrivel up into a raisin  ???  ??? I guess time will tell.................

Rodger,

Hmmmmmm................ Can you say pot of soup  :o  :o

Or do you prefer your bird fried? ?  ;D  ;D

Wow Frank, outside grilling and not even the fourth yet.  Big company and family I guess.
I'll think of yah as I hole up in the basement.

Yeah, gotta admit the A/C will be full on.  Lowest temp outside last night wa 80.

A couple of my co-workers made dashboard cookies yesterday. Took a few hours, but they were completely done. Thermometer in one of the cars got up to 170° and the OAT was only 97°. And summer's barely started.

Well this old fart is very thankful for an air-conditioned ham shack/shop, here in East Texas.  Last year the summer was just freaking brutal.

I've lived or worked all over the country at various times and the only place I've been where air-conditioning was truly optional (for me) was Capitan, NM at 6500ft elevation.   Even on the hottest days of summer it was still 50ish at night and sleeping with the windows open was delightful.  On the other hand it froze at night 6 months of the year.  The sunshine was intense, especially in the summer.   You could always tell who was a "tourista" because they were the only people who actually wore short sleeved shirts outdoors.

73 Jack KZ5A

friggen winter, I blew a brake line two nites ago going to the rear of my truck. It broke right at the fitting going into the hose. It looked funky last fall when I painted it. I'm yanking the bed hitting a boat place to get some high zinc paint and doing it up. Ordered stainless steel brake line kit.
At least when it is hot your car doesn't rot away going down the road. 

The first time I went to Calif. for my job around 20 years ago I could not get over how well preserved all the cars were.  People were riding around in old VWs, Saabs, Volvos, a few old Mercedes along with American makes and beemers.  it all seemed very weird to me.  Then one day on Hwy 101 south of S.F. a Mustang went by that was all rusted out and looked like hell.   I had thought maybe they didn't allow anything like that to be driven around in California.   As it went by I noticed it had Illinois plates and felt briefly back at home.

Body rot and old rigs are the norm in Naknek...We are not on the road system....There is 13 mi of road once you get here and we use the beach as a road as well...It cost $2500 to barge a vehicle in here so we keep the old ones running ...I went out in the parking lot in front of the shop and took these pictures....

more

A couple years ago I noticed many old cars missing from Ca roads. Back in the 80s is was common to see '60s cars with only faded paint and fried dash pads but perfect bodies. I brought back a '78 firebird and just sold it.

103 here yesterday. Over 100 predicted today but it topped out at only (?) 96.

Now there are tornados in the area. This is the third big set of storms with winds in as many days.

And now marble-sized hail.  :P

108° here yesterday.

You often see severe wx along the northern edges of the high pressure system where there is a heat wave.

Lots of bad stuff along the edge of this heat.

http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2012/06/30/mid-atlantic-storms-knock-out-power-to-nearly-2-million/?test=latestnews

Anyone monitoring their AC line voltage?  After a power flicker a little while ago I decided to connect the DMM to monitor the voltage.  Starting off at 121 after power came back I watched over a 30 or so minute period. The voltage dipped down to 109 for a minute or so. It's been bouncing between 116 and 118.  I imagine the 109 dip was due to everyone else coming online at the same time before things settled.  Would've been curious to know what the V was just prior to going out.

I just came home from Church and had to turn the heat on, its 65 deg in the house and probably about 60 outside. I could realy use a week of sunshine about now.

73

Eric

That was going on here today.  I shut some things down until it settled down.  the computer is on a backup supply and seemed to be okay. 
We had a fast moving line of storms come through here around 2 p.m. today.  There were hail reports, up to half dollar sized but fortunately I was missed.  It's a good thing too since my garage is now my antenna and rack maintenance shed and my car sits outside.  Wind blew real hard and a lot of rain.  No damage here but I drove around later and a lot of streets were closed because trees had blown over.   :o

Can you imagine these temps with no AC? People acclimate but wow. Here's a photo to distract from the triple digits:

one bright spot to the miserable heat.... if you use propane for winter heating fuel the dog days (and the drop in oil prices) have been good for the price.
towards the end of last summer I paid just north of $2.00 / gallon for the stuff. I just bought 800 gallons @ $1.39 /. I think it may even drop further, if it stays dry here in midwest I dont think the farmers will be using much to dry grain. I've got another 1000 gallon tank to fill so I'm keepin my fingers crossed.

Yup. Just spoke to a friend of mine in the Washington, DC area. He's been w/o power since Saturday. At least he has a basement, but still.....

I'm just outside Washington DC.  No power.  No AC.  Plenty of heat.  And a noisy generator that barely powers the refrigerator and well. 

C'mon  Pepco...

Hope you get your power back soon.

Dominion Power outage map here. You can zoom to street level. I was surprised to see so many outages just up the road in Richmond, VA.

http://outagemap.dom.com/DomComFlexOutageViewer/index.html


PEPCO outage map here.

http://www.pepco.com/home/emergency/maps/stormcenter/

I hope our sleezy power company sent a couple crews to help you guys.
All the wiring is still pretty much JS since our outage.
They have been cutting trees along the roads more this year.

the mother of thunderboomers took out power out around 11:00 friday night.
It rained cats, dogs, cows, pigs and even a few horses! ! ! ! !  It rained so hard that I couldn't see my neighbors house 50' away! In my 57 years I have been out in storms, hurricanes, etc, but I have NEVER seen rain come down like this!! And blowing sideways too boot!

Within 30 minutes, I had ankle deep water in the basement and getting deeper.
I had to brave it and go out and fire off the genny out in the garage. My old, decrepid 1948 U.S. Power and light genny came to life and ran it's ass off till monday evening around 6:00 PM

My genny will run everything ELSE in the house but the A/C. After pulling off the "blackout cookout" on saturday with 2 hours of sleep from friday night, and 2 more days of 100deg temps with no relief, I was totally spent by monday night, and actually sick from the heat. That's no A/C, no Cable TV, no Phone, and no Internet. We were all joking about "Living Amish".

When the power came back on on monday night, all of the neighbors were out in the street hoopin and hollerin in celebration of getting their A/C back. I just fired it up and layed down to cool off and relax! ! ! ! !

BUT, when you think you got it bad, someone else has it worse! ! I talked to some friends on my cell phone who told me they still didn't have their power back yet as of last night, and they only live 1.5 mi from me!
Sometimes, we're lucky and don't even know it!