I can imagine some might call those Down Under wimps regarding the cold, but you might laugh at our similar reaction to the heat. I know your temperatures tend to be higher than ours in the summer, but is it really humid there? (How high do your dew points get?)

Last week was like a sauna, with heat indices exceeding 110F/43C, with dew points higher than 80F/27C. It's like walking into a thick wall of very wet air, and tends to be really draining to do work in (yes, I picked the hottest week of the year to move).

Today is so much cooler and less humid. It's so nice to be able to breathe again! Too bad this will be short-lived, with heat again next week.

Did you know that in 1988, when you said there was drought in Canada, we were having heavy rainfall and floods here?

I well remember that summer, as (speaking of moving) we were making a major move then. Hot, hot, hot and dry! Thankfully we were moving to a home with a pool, so, yay! Especially when the house, itself, has no central air.

I will just Ditto your post, stargazer, as that is exactly our situation, except, as usual, a day later than your area. Today is very oppressive ... hoping for some thunderstorms this evening, but they may pass us by. Still, it is becoming gradually darker here. Tomorrow we are to have some relief. While still warm, the humidity will be much less, hurrah! And then another big heat-up again next week with little rain in the forecast all around. Maybe some showers over the next few days, though unlikely.

We still have a campfire ban (for about a month now), and look forward to when that is lifted when we receive some prolonged precipitation.

1988 brought unusual drought to much of the central US as well. I've never seen the Mississippi River so low. It remains the hottest summer of the last 50 years in Minnesota.

We're in typical August weather now, hot and humid with occasional storms and refreshing Canadian air offering a little relief. Great mosquito weather, alas.

Early August brings Lammas Day, the old cross-quarter day that marks the midpoint between the first day of summer and the first of autumn. Despite the heat of the 'dog days' there are signs of autumn's approach, with the shortening days, tall corn, and abundant late-summer wildflowers.

I can imagine some might call those Down Under wimps regarding the cold, but you might laugh at our similar reaction to the heat. I know your temperatures tend to be higher than ours in the summer, but is it really humid there? (How high do your dew points get?)

It doesn't get all that humid here for very long, so much so that I would have to get you to explain what is meant by the term "dewpoint". On the other side of the Great Dividing Range, including the local Blue Mountains, great humidity is somewhat less likely than it is along the east coast, the highest rainfall being at a place called Bellingen, nestled between mountains and the north coast of New South Wales. Queensland and Northern Territory are more humid, especially in the monsoonal north where it can be unbearably wet for much of summer.

I gather that dewpoint is something to do with the dew in summer and surprisingly heavily frosted lawns in winter, which we are still getting in mid-August despite some really nice warm middays, with a maximum yesterday of as high as 26C. Spring is definitely on the way, a good two weeks before Wattle Day (1st September). We do get mentions of high pressure and low pressure weather systems crossing the continent in our daily weather forecasts, and we usually get humidity readings as well. By the time they get much above 80% it is usually raining, or threatening rain, anyway.

Yes, there is an overall opposing effect I can see between both Americas on the one hand and Australia, Indonesia, Japan and China on the other. At least in 1988. But I don't remember what our 1988-89 summer was like. Rainy and not so remarkably hot. There was an economic downturn at the time, in 1988, which wasn't very helpful. The worst bushfires I remember were in 1981-3, which coincided with the Ethiopian famine, and then in 1993-1994, and again in 2009-2010, October 2013, and we had more last summer, though last January was surprisingly wet.

By the way, it seems that the hole in the Ozone layer over Antarctica, which caused so much concern in the 1990's is healing up nicely. One less thing to worry about.

The last few days (and continuing tonight) have seen 'training' thunderstorms (so called because they develop along a front and follow a similar path, like train cars on a track). Some areas in central Minnesota have received close to 12 inches (300mm) in a very short time, causing flooding on roads and in farm fields. The Twin Cities received slightly less but low-lying roads still flooded in time for rush hour this morning.

It doesn't get all that humid here for very long, so much so that I would have to get you to explain what is meant by the term "dewpoint".

Dew point is an absolute measure of the moisture in the air (as opposed to relative humidity), so sometimes weather geeks use it as a more-precise measure of how humid it is. (Read all about it here).

The dew point is expressed as a temperature, and it cannot exceed the air temperature. For reference, very dry areas might have dew points under 10C while humid areas (like Florida or even Minnesota at times) might have dew points approaching 25 or 30C. Even with similar air temperatures (say 85F/28C), it's the difference between very dry air and the feeling of walking into a wall of water. The air feels very heavy, you cannot sweat, and it can be stressful for those with respiratory issues like asthma. (Just thinking about it makes me sit closer to the air conditioner. ).

1988 brought unusual drought to much of the central US as well. I've never seen the Mississippi River so low. It remains the hottest summer of the last 50 years in Minnesota.

We're hogging everybody's rain apparently. I believe it was August 6th that they said so far this month we had had 6+" and 886% of our normal rainfall total for the month of August. We actually had quite a bit of flooding too. This morning it is raining again.
This past weekend we went to a farming event where it's normally well into the 100Fs so I packed clothes for my kiddos under that assumption. (I think they predicted it was going to be 93F?) It barely made it into the 70Fs and it was raining. My kiddos were rather cool that morning. Thankfully the misting rain stopped an hour or two later and then we were comfortable. Still, that's unheard of for this time of year.

It speaks well of the Creator when His creation can still flourish in conditions we would call oppressive

Beautifully said, and oh so true!

We're hogging everybody's rain apparently.

Apparently. Up until two days ago, anyway. Friday and Saturday were such adventurous weather days! Torrential rain, magnificent, billowing clouds, wind ... interspersed with sunny breaks. 'Though this did not dispel the awful humidity (of nearly 110F) right away. It took until last night before that nastiness was gone. 'Tis a warm summer day today, but without that dreadful moist air.

Before Friday, we had not had any measurable precipitation for 100 days ... the longest dry spell on record for SW Ontario. We have had over 30 days above 30C/86F, which is an awful lot for our area of Canada. This summer is going down as hot and dry and humid as the infamous summer of 1988.

Warmth and a bit more humidity build again this week, but showers will be on the radar too. With mid-August around the corner, hints of the feel of fall-time should be arriving soon. And certainly the corn (feed-corn) is now tall enough for that autumn look, although the cobs need more time to develop fully. They seem a bit behind schedule, but we're not surprised with the parched ground.

I buy local corn from the market and, after brushing it with olive oil, we BBQ/grill it. Oh my, the best!

It's actually been quite wet here this summer; it comes in fits and spurts but everything remains lush and green and the crops look good (if not too wet in some spots). The farmers' market and street corners are bursting with local produce - yum!

Yet even in the heat of these dog days and the lush green of summer, today I saw signs of the inexorable march of the seasons and a reminder that here, winter is never far away. The sumac is turning burnt orange and I saw a few maples beginning to display fall colors (sometimes a dry summer will cause trees to drop leaves prematurely, but that's not the case this summer). And the days are becoming noticeably shorter, a trend which will accelerate as the equinox nears - and with it, my favorite time of the year!

We had our first taste of Fall this week. It was 59F outside this morning when I got up. It's going to warm up again over the next couple days and then another round of storms and cooler temps are moving through.

Glad you've had rain, stargazer. We had our first significant rainfall in weeks the weekend of August 13th. 'Tis amazing how the brown, dormant grass greens up quite quickly with that much-needed precipitation.

My heart starts to beat faster with these first signs of autumn. Reading your post, 'gazer, makes me so eager for this favourite-of-all seasons.

Nice, fantasia! Here, too, we are in a big cool-down: it was only 50F this morning, so I could walk again after many weeks of not being able to because of the heat. However, the next few days are warming up again, with showers on Thursday. We're finally on the right side of ol' summer now.

I buy local corn from the market and, after brushing it with olive oil, we BBQ/grill it. Oh my, the best!

I really must try corn on the cob that way. Most of the time we brushed it with butter. Or margarine for us oldies with dietary modifications in mind. Alas, we might not get to many BBQ's because of fire restrictions if we have too hot a summer.

We had our first taste of Fall this week. It was 59F outside this morning when I got up. It's going to warm up again over the next couple days and then another round of storms and cooler temps are moving through.

Something similar happened here. We had a couple of weeks of quite pleasant weather, and planning for spring started to enter my head. But a couple of times we have had quite sharp drops in the heat as well. We feel it by 4pm or 5pm. As chilly as an ice-cube down one's back, and we start reaching for the warm jackets again. Last Wednesday was a sharp reminder that winter hasn't given up on us yet, with freezing mornings and evenings and not much warmer at midday. It rained. And rained, easing up finally by yesterday morning (Friday).

We've had the reverse here, wagga, so to speak. The occasional glorious autumn-like day (low humidity, highs around 65F/18C, and blue skies), like the one we had Thursday to spend at the Minnesota State Fair, still punctuated by late-summer days of heat and humidity and heat indices touching 100F/39C (expected again next week). But the days are shortening rapidly now, with over 2 hours of daylight lost since the solstice in June.

American TV weather fans may be familiar with the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore's excitement over thundersnow (a fairly unusual phenomenon that is fun to experience). Lately I came upon this video of an excited toddler watching Cantore's antics. Very cute.

Likewise here, wagga. I could pretty much ditto stargazer's first paragraph. Once in a while we have a glorious sneak preview of autumn weather, then end-of-summer days roar back in to douse us with heat and humidity (humidex tomorrow is 95F+), but mid-week much more comfy temperatures (low 70s) are arriving, hurrah and hooray!

We have had regular rain off and on for two weeks now after a very lengthy (2 months) dearth. and showers expected tonight and tomorrow. With days of extreme heat, we have had a few tornado warnings over the past couple of weeks. Very serious damage was done in the Windsor area on Thursday evening, 'though no loss of life, thankfully. and while we had very heavy rain that evening with ominously impressive skies, there was no tornado touchdown in our area (a couple of hours NE of Windsor).

wagga, what is your favourite season?

Cute video, 'gazer.

wagga, what is your favourite season?

Probably the autumn, when the temperature cools down and isn't so excessive. Temperatures are about 25-29C, maximum, neither too hot nor too cold. Spring can be delightful, too, especially in September. But often by the October long weekend (Labour Day is first Monday in October), the temperature can climb to well above 30 C. The thought of a boiling hot summer ahead, complete with bushfires, is not something to look forward to. A lot depends though on state of health, since the older one gets the more body parts and systems wear out. I expect in Canada that autumn, with your coloured leaves to look forward to, would really be magnificent. I'll enjoy reading about the forthcoming visit to Canada of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, at the end of next month, since such newspaper articles usually have lots of photos to accompany what they say and do there.

@stargazer: Thank you for your explanation of dewpoint. Since the Centigrade/Celsius scale of measuring temperature is based on the boiling point of water (100 C) and the freezing point of water (0 C) it becomes easy to see why dewpoint is never more than atmospheric temperature. We'd all really be in trouble worldwide if atmospheric temperature was 100 C.

After several days of a return to toastiness, storms are moving back into Kansas with several chances for rain over the next three days. I noticed tonight that northwest KS is already getting storms. They will likely be here tomorrow....along with cooler temps.

High of 79F on Saturday which we plan to be at the Kansas State Fair!!