Heatwave Moves Over US and Canada

Brutal. Even my car said so.

Ooof! That's hot! _{Put your seatbelt on... please}

As we know, I live in Fargo, ND. Moorhead MN is our sister city. At around 2:00 PM local time on wednesday 20 July, Moorhead, Minnesota had the highest dew point (and highest heat index) of any regular reporting station on the planet. 134F! Actual air temp of about 100^o, and dew point of 88^o. Wed night it was 88^o at midnight at my house. We have had three tornadoes touch down within fifty mile of here in the last week or so.

Well, at least I have the -28^o and five foot snow drifts to look forward to.

That's unbelievble. How common is residential A/C there? Not many have it here, since it typically cools off in the mountains at night. But like you, we'll be in the 80's tonight.

My son took that pic in my Sue-baru before we buckled up. Poor kid, he left New Orleans to summer with me, thinking he'd escape the southern heat. Hah!

This is the third summer I have lived here in Fargo. I have two in-window units that are keeping my small house comfortable enough. The first year, I only ran one of them a few days. Last year, I installed them both and never used either of them once. This year (bless their chilly little electric hearts), they have chugged nearly nonstop for two weeks. Though not in the market for another one myself, I understand an in-window unit is IMPOSSIBLE to find... a fellow here at work contacted a friend (who was driving up from Spearfish SD) to bring him one... all gone there as well.

I detect some kind of market opportunity for LynDoor Industries...

an over-and-under-unity doublet recombobulator, perhaps, for sale to the over-heated and weary...

The Keep-Um-Kool Division of LynDoor™ Industries has a product in development, the operational project name is, indeed, the OverUnity Recombobulator^®. This device is intended for use in compact vehicles. We envision our core customer to be a discriminating bon viveur, a spirited individual who refuses to accept convention.

Like this recent subject of CR4 discussion:

And I raise my glass to Willis Carrier! Hear, hear!

Whoever solves the heat storage issue will be a hero, eh. My sympathies (and encouragement to LynDoor. Necessity is the mother, right?)

You wrote, "Whoever solves the heat storage issue will be a hero, eh."

I may have solved it by accident. It seems to be stored inside my garage.

Every time I go out there it is like walking into a large industrial oven.

Then that would make you...Sudoriferous Hero?

I would gladly wave that title as well as the heat in my garage.

Well then, promptly convert it into fuel for the winter... or for the BBQ

Could the free heat in your garage industrial oven be used to convert wood into charcoal? You would end up with 7500 kcal/kg, cw around 4500 kcal/kg for dry wood....

Sure, you need a chimney or two... Or maybe you can bottle the volatile gases, and store that as well...

You would end up with 7500 kcal/kg, cw around 4500 kcal/kg for dry wood....

Why is it I have this feeling of an impending inrush of mass free over unity hobbits?

The heat is freeeee!!!! It's freeeeee!!!

Arrr the crime of faux levity Ay - keep this up and you may have to see Del after school

Who let it out?

I would just like to say that my heart bleeds for you. That's what I'd just like to say - but....

Wouldn't it be interesting if our armies of esteemed scientists could work out a way of trading weather between regions of cold, cold rain and drought-ridden heatwaves?

But, being a hewer of wood from the frozen north, I prefer it cold and would be inclined to send the heatwave back!

Mother Earth is busy doing that adjustment with Her ocean currents - maybe our scientists could help by putting lots of turbines in the currents?

I'm going to gloat. It was a high off 88F today. The river was a cool 65F, with a nice mellow breeze blowing out of the West; a bit of Paradise.

Well... I'll have to be a stoic as usual about the weather and its consequences. Yes, our weather conditions this week have been ideal for anyone beleaguered by the heat wave. Pleasantly warm, breezy, cloud cover and some mix of sun and rain. But the tourists who should be enjoying it, can't afford to come here. The word 'default' is muttered high and low, the Canadian dollar is high, gasoline is high, and in the industry depending on tourism, sales are down by around 40% this season since people who by rights should be drinking a cool one and watching the whales jump, are sitting at home sweltering in their own juices. Since there's no work to do, I'm forced to enjoy the summer passtimes in their stead.

I would like to raise my glass of cold beer and give a toast to Willis Haviland Carrier.

a great genius and benefactor!

and Warren S. Johnson for the thermostat.

Spring brought us plenty of rain during the planting season so the plants were able to establish strong, healthy root systems.

Then the rain began to taper off to nothing.

The previous 37 days have netted us 9/100th of an inch of rain.

Yesterday we received 1.7" of rain over a 3 hour period.

I did not know what to do with my self this morning, didn't have to get up at 3AM to drag around 300 feet of hose to keep the vegetable plots watered.

Last week with all of the extreme heat, I was watering mornings and evenings!

On the up side,my two acres of grass has gone dormant so no mowing has been required.

On the down side, the few patches of crab grass I have here and there are thriving perfectly in the drought and heat. Crab grass must must have a root system that extend to the water table.

I have a greenhouse that gets too hot, and we've had a few bouts of hot sunny weather with a UV index of 8, basically scorching even to heat loving plants like tomatoes.

I noticed that, for the sunny week, I was getting typically one fruit set per cluster of 8 or 10 blossoms. The week that was cloudy, full clusters formed. Then I got a shade cloth on the go, to try to protect them. I read that, above certain temperatures, pollen is sterilized and so you get no fruit. Have you noticed any issues like this, in the heat wave?

Greetings artsmith,

Prior to the heat wave, my cantaloupe, cucumbers, watermelon, green pepper, sugar snap peas, pumpkins all were blossoming nicely.

I noted that even with the frequent watering, most of the plants began aborting blossoms on average of 30% to 40% per plant.

Of the various plant blossoms that remained and have began to produce, production has only been about 10 - 15%.

Sounds pretty much like what you experienced.

Another oddity, my tomato plots have done very well, many, many green tomatoes for the last two weeks but at this point they are staying green - still viable but still green none the less.

I have 5 different varieties of tomato from two separate supplier's so I can not blame it on any one variety or supplier.

The shade cloth is an excellent idea. Wish I could utilize that but my plots are spread out over just under one acre and unprotected from wind.

I worked on protection at the root end, soil fabric and 3 to 4 inches of sterile hard wood mulch which seems to have helped some.

I have also read about the temperature/pollen issue in a Mel Bartholomew book.

It is supposed to cool to high 80's to low/mid 90's this week so we shall see what happens.

After yesterdays ample soaking rain and having this morning to sleep in after a week of getting up 3AM to water, sounds like I will be back to the 3AM shift this week.

Well I'm glad to hear it will be cooling off a little. That's the great thing about these crops, if they have a bad week, they will still produce when the conditions improve. My peppers also dropped blossoms in the heat, and the cucumbers and peppers needed shade as soon as the sun shone.

It sounds like your tomatoes didn't mind it - they must be heat tolerant. Or maybe my greenhouse is really difficult to all but the most tolerant of temperature extremes. Do you have a favourite variety, that is reliable in hot weather?

I read that a heavy fruit set, as you describe, can delay ripening of the whole crop. That would explain the situation, which is better than blossoms dropping and no fruit. Cheers!

Is your glass house construction suitable for removing/hinging, bits to get more ventilation?

That would take major reconstruction, alas. It is 12 X28 ft, attached to the south side of the house, with a window in each end that is not too bad for ventilation as long as there's a breeze, also a fan in the ceiling which the plants don't like so much.

Luckily, the shade cloth seems to be working.

Probably the best answer. . As misting without a good air flow is likely counter productive (like the fan)