It's damn hot in Oklahoma. Yesterday it was 106 degrees. I can drive down roads where more and more trees, of every kind are loosing their leaves. Some are probably going dormant, but others appear to be just dead as a doornail. It's so hot that heavy duty plastics used in yards are melting. Check out this mailbox from the OKC Metro area.
The heat has been brutal on the animals. The little cotton tail I wrote about 2 days ago, was taken to a wildlife rehab. He had some wounds on his skin. We hope the baby is doing better. Unfortunately my cat has brought home another cotton tail. This one was dead. And yet another was roadkill just down the street. They are probably looking for food and water and perhaps somewhere cooler to hole up.
Yesterday we went driving around, we saw many unusual things. Even during the heat of the day, the frustrating thing in these parts is watching the cumulous clouds pop up with afternoon convection, and then form what might be an isolated storm or shower, but then move off into the distance.
Yesterday that didn't happen. Scattered storms dumped rain in various places all over the state. We were lucky enough to watch some form. We even witnessed some short lived gustnadoes over the stubble of hay fields. They kicked up so much dust, that I thought at first there was another fire. My heart sank, til I got a good look at what was really happening.
Then the gust fronts started moving in, and the trees, folded their leaves, praying for the rain they knew was coming. You could smell it on the wind and feel it in the air. The temperature dropped a bit and the air was moist suddenly, where it had been unbearably dry.
And then off on the horizon, virga. Shafts of Payne's grey streaked from the cloud base to the ground, accompanied by low growls of thunder. We stopped and marveled at this display, wondering if it would rain in our area, in our direction. We purchased some ice cream sandwiches and got back into the car, heading home.
It started raining on the car, and the kids rolled down their windows putting their arms out, turning their faces up to the sky, to try and catch precious drops of moisture on their lips.
The mundane had just become miraculous.
8:51 AM PT: Here is a way you can offer the wildlife in your drought stricken area, a small reprieve. http://www.dailykos.com/...
10:29 PM PT: 2012 July Heat Broke 1930's Dustbowl Records: http://www.cbsnews.com/...
and if it keeps up and our trees and sod die, it will do more than break records, it will help us to revisit some very bad old days.
The average temperature last month was 77.6 degrees. That breaks the old record from July 1936 by 0.2 degree, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Records go back to 1895.
""It's a pretty significant increase over the last record," said climate scientist Jake Crouch of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In the past, skeptics of global warming have pointed to the Dust Bowl to argue that recent heat isn't unprecedented. But Crouch said this shows that the current year "is out and beyond those Dust Bowl years. We're rivaling and beating them consistently from month to month.""
The article makes particular mention of the high daytime and night time temperatures! I know that has been a significant issue here. When it's past 10 pm and it's still 99 degrees outside, and makes it down to maybe the low 80s just before dawn.