Posted by: @jo

That Black Sunday sounds awful, wagga and @Courtenay!  

It wasn't the almost-50 C heat that was so awful in the end — it was the death toll. 173 people lost their lives in that one day, many because the Country Fire Authority's "stay and defend your home" advice turned out to be horribly misguided, given the sheer scale of the fires. (We don't have mandatory evacuations in Australia.) The more recent Black Summer fires burnt a far larger area over a much longer time, but at least there was a much lower loss of life — well, of human lives. The impact on wildlife and the environment in general was absolutely devastating. I'm grateful that this past summer was nowhere near as bad.

I was also sad to hear about the tragedy in Lytton.

That Pacific Northwest heat has moved in our direction, moderated somewhat by its travels. The past weekend was hot and humid. But we got a nice steady rain last night, and today is pleasantly cool (about 68F/20C) and overcast. Very refreshing!

The clouds are supposed to break and the sky clear by tonight, so I'm looking forward to seeing the night sky after almost a week of missing it.

During these long, hot days of summer, today we had a reminder that winter is never far off here in the Northland:

The small town of Brimson in northeast Minnesota recorded a low of 30F/-1C this morning, coldest in the Lower 48.

(Nothing so pleasant here, though we've had lows around 12C of late).

We're into the middle of winter here in the southern hemisphere. I usually expect grey, wet and gloomy weather in July here, but we've had some days with sunshine that didnt really warm us up.  I need to get out and exercise to stimulate my circulation, but sitting indoors is easier.

Posted by: @courtenay

It wasn't the almost-50 C heat that was so awful in the end — it was the death toll.

How very sad!  

Posted by: @stargazer

But we got a nice steady rain last night, and today is pleasantly cool (about 68F/20C) and overcast. Very refreshing!

It is, indeed! I can hardly believe how much rain we are receiving this July! Most unusual for this month here in Ontario. In fact, the forecast for the next week is mostly ... showers! The gardens are loving it! Usually in July it is the opposite: heat and no rain for days. The humidity is creeping up a bit this week, including nighttimes, but manageable compared to what usually descends in July.

The daytime clouds have been really lovely too; we are having much more cloud cover than is the norm for this time of the year in our area.  

Posted by: @stargazer

The small town of Brimson in northeast Minnesota recorded a low of 30F/-1C this morning, coldest in the Lower 48.

(Nothing so pleasant here, though we've had lows around 12C of late).

That is quite something! Our lows the past two nights have been 11-13C ; 52 - 55F ... really lovely for sleeping.  

Posted by: @coracle

I need to get out and exercise to stimulate my circulation

Great idea! Go for it.  

I must mention something before I "Add Reply": every summer we enjoy fireflies around our property in the twilit evenings, but last night, whoa, I don't think we have ever seen this many. Hundreds, or so it seemed—twinkling and sparkling no less than a few per second for hours. 'Twas magical!

It's been years since I've seen more than a few fireflies at once. It sounds lovely, Jo!

Despite the rain I mentioned our drought continues to worsen. Wednesday may offer a chance for soaking rains. All the farmers in the drought area have their fingers crossed!

Our skies have been extremely hazy and the sun orange, especially when it's rising or setting. Only the brightest stars are visible at night, and even first-magnitude Saturn can be hard to pick out. This is due to wildfire smoke coming down to us from western Ontario. It, and the fires creating it, can be seen on satellite imagery.

The heat will be on again beginning tomorrow.

Posted by: @stargazer

It sounds lovely, Jo!

It really is, and they continue nightly. ♥

Has your drought let up at all, stargazer? I sure hope so!

We had a couple of very hazy (and humid) days recently from the NW Ontario fires; the sun looked so strange, as did the moon. Yesterday, however, the air cleared; the temperatures dropped, also, to the point where last night was only 10C / 50F here. Beautiful! I was able to get out on my walk this morning, which is SO unusual for July. The heat builds by Sunday, but then lowers a bit again next week.

We continue to have a decent amount of rain: the next batch comes tomorrow night into Saturday. Usually by this time in July, everything is dry and brown and quite parched, but not this year! Very grateful. My least favourite month is almost over, and there have not been long spells of nastiness this year, hurrah!   Our A/C bill will be a good bit lower this year than other Julys, that's for sure as a goodly number of days I have been able to actually leave it off, and open windows wide!  

Thanks for asking, Jo. Unfortunately, the drought continues to worsen with no real relief in sight. The latest Drought Monitor shows almost one-fifth of Minnesota in extreme drought and about 72% in severe drought, though it's much worse out West. It's hard to believe in the land of 10,000 lakes that streams would be running dry and lakes receding (not to mention the impact on agriculture, since most fields are not irrigated). Water use restrictions have been triggered in some places and comparisons to 1988 (the worst drought since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s) are being made.

The smoke can actually be smelled down at ground level at times, and the highest level of air quality warning (unhealthy for all) was issued the other day for some areas north of here. It has made the sun and moon a deep orange color, and even Jupiter is reddened. Very few stars are visible.

The string of 90sF/30sC days may go to the end of the month, with tomorrow pushing 100F38C. With high dew points the heat index values will be well over 100.

But hey, it's only 7 weeks till the possible snow season starts (which might be what it will take to extinguish those fires in northeast Minnesota and southwest Ontario).

We have emerged from our cool, rainy, early Summer and we are now having normal Kansas temperatures for this time of year. The next two weeks have highs in the mid to upper 90Fs. I don't see 100F in the forecast yet, but it's likely only a matter of time. Typically the first couple weeks of August are the hottest here. We'll see what happens.... 

@stargazer: The small town of Brimson in northeast Minnesota recorded a low of 30F/-1C this morning, coldest in the Lower 48.

So far this winter it still remains dry but the promised showers have arrived. But oh it is cold. 0 degrees C the day before yesterday minimum, and yesterday it was 0.5 degrees C. A lousy half a degree minimum. Temperatures stay low all day, with highs of 15 degrees C & we are all in lockdown. 

We've been seeing lots about bushfires in North West USA. Wednesday, I think it was, our biggest firefighting plane with a water tank was despatched to USA to lend a hand to American firefighters. We've had experience of these sorts of fires & I do hope with all my heart that everything eases up for you.  

We appreciate any help with the wildfires, wagga.  They're much worse in the west part of North America, but even here they are getting severe due to the drought.

Today is the worst air quality yet, with north winds bringing smoke in from north of the border. We don't have clouds, but the sky is a milky gray color, the sun is a dim orange ball, and there are fog-like conditions even at ground level. It smells like someone has a fire going out there - but the fire is hundreds of miles away. It's easily visible on satellite pictures.

At least it's holding the temperature down a bit - low 80sF/high 20sC, rather than high 90s/high 30s.

It is fairly dry here as well, which is a bit of a worry. We've been told that last July's average rainfall was only half of normal rainfall for normal July averages. At least the talk of our local dam overflowing has stopped for a while. It is still icy cold of a morning, but I keep moving around I don't feel it so much. Last week we were getting morning minimums at 0 C & 1C. It is winter here, of course, and I am not looking forward to high summer in the Southern Hemisphere. The lockdown drags on....

The skies seem dire up in USA. All we can do is pray.  

These forest fire issues remain such a concern.    Have you received any rain since your post ^, @waggawerewolf27?

In our area, we continue to have regular rainfall. I cannot recall a summer in recent years when the gardens have flourished to this extent, with the grass not showing a single sign of going dormant/brown. Amazing, really. We are grateful. A beautiful thunderstorm blew through our area just before dawn this morning, lasting a fair while, with lightning flashes every one or two seconds for about ten minutes. Really cool! Great rolls of thunder accompanied this, although just NW of us was hit with the storm right overhead and from what I have heard, the thunderclaps were sudden and very loud. A good soaking rain fell. More is coming this afternoon and tomorrow, while at the same time remaining hot, with the humidex being around 40C / 104F. Relief is coming on Friday after the storms, which will drop both the humidity and the temperature down to seasonal, even near single digits at nights on the weekend. A hint of Autumn will be in the air.

We had some welcome rain over the weekend, though the latest Drought Monitor indicates things are getting worse. Parts of Minnesota have entered the most severe category (exceptional), which hasn't happened as far back as their records go (2001) and the extreme drought area is spreading as well.

I saw a news report about farmers contemplating cutting their losses and harvesting corn and soybeans (the biggest cash crops in Minnesota) early. Another reason for doing this is to help recharge soil moisture in the event it does rain later in the summer, rather than have the current crop of thirsty plants drink it up and still give reduced yields, and deplete the ground water for next season as well.

Ironically, the weather over the next week is a very nice summer forecast otherwise, with slightly less heat and humidity than August is often known for.

The days are shortening noticeably now, and autumn can't be far off. Some trees have begun changing colors, though that could be from drought stress as well as the change of seasons.

@ johobbit: These forest fire issues remain such a concern.   Have you received any rain since your post ^,@waggawerewolf27?

Actually no. My rosemary plant is dying in this weather, which is too cold in the morning though the frost is considerably less than it has been. At the beginning of spring is a bad time for it to be so dry, here. It won't be long before water restrictions are reintroduced, if they ever went away.  

There is a lot of backburning going on to prevent the sort of undergrowth that encourages bushfires. We have heard bushfires are rife in other parts of the world, now. Greece & Turkey have had devastating fires, and I wonder how USA & Canada are getting on, now autumn is around the corner in those parts.