Damn, it’s been hot around the country. I had to work over the weekend and both on Saturday and Sunday here in central NC, and the temp hovered 100 degrees. And we lost power during an overnight wind storm on Friday (it was back on Sat morning); it messed up A/C so it was 89 degrees in some parts of our office. When I went outside in the late afternoon, the temperature in my car was 121. Nice and balmy, huh?

I can say that I’m thankful that we’ve not had the problems with power outages, rolling blackouts or brown-outs in this area that I see people are experiencing in the Northeast. Electrical wires are underground in my part of town, so the storms that have taken out trees haven’t affected this area as much. But much of the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods have above-ground electric wiring, and thus are vulnerable to outages from these summer storms.

And the conservatives say there’s no global warming. Look at this video from Eau Claire, Wisconsin. From the 29 overpass motorists stopped to look at a massive ramp like crack/road buckling that authorities had not yet cordoned off. They noted most cars slowed down for this horror, but it was hard to avoid damage if your car goes airborne like the General Lee on Dukes of Hazzard. Good thing this car wasn’t a Mini or Smartcar.

What are you experiencing in your part of the country? I do recall that when I lived in NYC the summers, while not as blazing as here in the South, were miserable because most people didn’t have A/C (and there were no “cooling centers” back then). A ceiling fan in your house isn’t doing anything once all of the air is roasting hot. I can only imagine the strain in big cities as people buy those portable A/Cs and plug them in.