Scattered Thoughts . . .

E veryone seemed to have been complaining about the heat yesterday and television pseudo-weather forecasters clamoring about "record heat like we've never seen before".  Honestly, I'm very vulnerable to any heat above 80 degrees and I had few problems yesterday.  Actually, that record heat and relatively low humidity (in the 50s) was rather comfortable for the most part.  All the thunderstorms (some quite severe) bypassed Waterbury too.   Yesterday, the temperature was at a high of around 97 degrees (which was only for an hour or two late in the afternoon) but the humidity was only in the 53-60% range which made the heat quite tolerable.  That may be a record for mid-June, I suppose, but we regularly get into the triple digits in July so being in the 90s in June doesn't really seem so far-fetched nor highly unlikely.    In fact, my birthday barbeques which are always the last weekend in June or first weekend in July are often brutally and uncomfor...

I really enjoy astronomy and viewing the night sky but, damn, I live in Waterbury.  Most of the state could be clear and sunny but if you drive down in between Stowe, Sugarbush and Bolton Resorts... down into Waterbury... we are almost always covered in clouds and, usually, there is some sort of precipitation falling from those clouds. This description of Waterbury reminds me of Harry Connick Jr's "Bluesville" in The Happy Elf.  The clear skies are rather brief. I honestly don't think that Seattle has anything on Waterbury as far as overcast and wet days go.  I've lived here for about 23 years now and my first few years made it obvious that Waterbury was aptly named 'Water'bury for a reason. I keep saying that I'm going to track and record climate conditions daily in Waterbury for a solid year just to see how it differs from the rest of Vermont and, especially, how it compares to Seattle. Naturally, I haven't done it yet. Perhaps I've been ...