kevin_standlee (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kevin_standlee) wrote2021-08-18 08:55 pm
kevin_standlee) wrote2021-08-18 08:55 pm
A Break in the Weather
I initially thought that the weather forecast last night for today had accidentally come from a different place, but I could feel the temperatures dropping before going to bed and I was able to leave the swamp cooler off last night instead of pointing it into the bedroom the way I've been doing most of the past week. It was 10° C — that's Celsius degrees — cooler today than yesterday, i.e. 25° C versus 35 the previous day. The overnight lows were also much cooler, and that meant we were able to get a lot of the heat out of the house. I even had to start closing windows because it was getting too cold, and for a while this morning I was wearing a sweater. It was like a taste of autumn weather a few weeks early, and I was happy for it after the sweltering heat we've been having.
At first, I assumed that one reason it was colder was that we just were not getting any sun through the smoke clouds, but the wind shifted, the smoke rolled away, the AQI smoke index dropped back below 50 (clear) for the first time in many days. After lunch, Lisa and I put the small propane tank on the hand truck and rolled it down to Hanneman Service. It's needed refilling for some days now, but we weren't going out into that broiling sun the last few days, especially with AQI figures up above 250.
Lisa and I celebrated a temperate day with clear air by sitting out on the porch without face masks for an hour or so this evening watching the birds argue with each other over who had dibs on the bird feeder. With temperatures forecast to go down as low as 11°C tonight and good air quality, I'm expecting some of the best sleep I've had in weeks. Overall, I'm in firm agreement with the headline from this afternoon's statement from the National Weather Service: "...Cooler, Less Smoke - Yes We'll Take That..."
I am, however, unhappy to see a new large wildfire, the Caldor Fire, burning southwest of Lake Tahoe and as of the latest update I read, over 25,000 hectares, or 250 km2. Besides the general unhappiness about more fires, this fire looks to be about the same distance from my friend Rick's home in the Placerville area as I am from Reno.
At first, I assumed that one reason it was colder was that we just were not getting any sun through the smoke clouds, but the wind shifted, the smoke rolled away, the AQI smoke index dropped back below 50 (clear) for the first time in many days. After lunch, Lisa and I put the small propane tank on the hand truck and rolled it down to Hanneman Service. It's needed refilling for some days now, but we weren't going out into that broiling sun the last few days, especially with AQI figures up above 250.
Lisa and I celebrated a temperate day with clear air by sitting out on the porch without face masks for an hour or so this evening watching the birds argue with each other over who had dibs on the bird feeder. With temperatures forecast to go down as low as 11°C tonight and good air quality, I'm expecting some of the best sleep I've had in weeks. Overall, I'm in firm agreement with the headline from this afternoon's statement from the National Weather Service: "...Cooler, Less Smoke - Yes We'll Take That..."
I am, however, unhappy to see a new large wildfire, the Caldor Fire, burning southwest of Lake Tahoe and as of the latest update I read, over 25,000 hectares, or 250 km2. Besides the general unhappiness about more fires, this fire looks to be about the same distance from my friend Rick's home in the Placerville area as I am from Reno.