Good Riddance to Summer
Seating, Laguna Gloria, Austin
Good riddance to this summer of 2011.
32 daily temperature records set for Austin; almost one day in three topped a previous high for that date. One, of 112°F (44°C), matched the highest temperature ever recorded for the town. 85 triple digit days in all; that’s 85 days over 37.8°C for folks that follow a sensible temperature scale. We would normally expect 10 to 15 days that high.
1,600 homes lost to wildfire in and around nearby Bastrop; we would normally expect none. It beggars belief.
It was hot in Texas, this summer. Actually not just hot: The heat Texas experienced in June through August are the hottest on record in the U.S., the National Weather Service reports. npr
Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate, Rick Perry, doubts the scientific evidence for human contributions to global warming (contradicting 97% of professional scientists). He wouldn’t spend a cent to combat it. In an year of ‘exceptional’ drought, he signed a state budget that cut funding to the agency responsible for fighting wild fires. It beggars belief.
This heat (coupled with despair at the self-centered stupidity of all politicians) has mostly limited me to movement between air conditioned house, air conditioned car and air conditioned office but I did take a slow walk around the Laguna Gloria grounds last weekend; moving like a drunken crab from shade spot to shade spot while taking photographs.
