As you know, I'm a Scot with one red-haired allele (thanks, mum), so my melanocortin-1 receptors function poorly compared to wildtypes (biology-speak for normal people). This means that going out in the sun comes with a moderate risk of exploding into flames - I think the official term for us half-gingers is Daywalkers. Dom hails from Eastern Canada and inherited pasty Irish skin from her mother, so perhaps moving to a city known for really hot, humid summers was bad planning.
Still, we knew to expect this before we moved out here so are content to spend our summers scurrying from shadow to shadow, desperately seeking out somewhere that sells factor 250 sunblock. I did have visions of spending the summer lounging around in the sun, having barbeques and drinking fine USian beers. This was the case for April & May, but the daytime temperatures are now regularly hitting 35C and above - it got to 40C yesterday, setting a record for the warmest weather I've ever experienced.
One thing that is quite striking about weather forecasts in the US is that they tend towards the hysterical, so we tend to get warnings about tornados, wild fires, torrential flooding, snowmageddon, baking sun and rains-of-frogs on pretty much a daily basis. A consequence of this is that one begins to ignore the weather warnings and have a little smug giggle about how much more hysterical the US media is than back home (unless you read the Daily Mail or any of the Murdoch rags, of course...)
So, we took yesterday's weather warning about the incoming storm with the usual pinch of salt. Then the storm came - I've never seen so much lightning before: there were a few flashes every 1 or 2 seconds, and this went on for a few hours. I tried standing outside when the storm first hit, but with all the bits of trees flying around at face-height and the driving rain soaking me to the skin, I decided that it was best to retreat indoors lest I turn my wife into a widow.
It was breath-taking to be out in though, truly exciting to witness such an impressive weather phenomenon first-hand. Although it was easy to enjoy it with the privilege of having an nice, dry house and air-conditioning to retreat too. I can't even imagine how much it would suck to be homeless in that storm. For us, it seemed pretty impressive and our electricity went down for about an hour but then came back, so we didn't think the storm was that bad.
And then we had a walk around our neighbourhood this morning. As I'm not the most articulate fella in the world, I'll give you some photos to give an idea of the carnage that was around. Click on the photos for the full-sized images.
Most of the houses on our street (actually, I think all of them except for our block) are still without power, as is most of the local neighbourhood. Our local pub was on of the few places open, so we were able to grab a lunch, a pint and Wimbledon before giving up on our shopping tasks for today. According to the Washington Post, 1.3 million homes are still without power, and regional "cooling centres" have been opened so that people without power, and therefore air conditioning, can go somewhere to hide from the heat. Today was a bit milder, at a mere 36C. More storms are forecast for tonight, so I might take the weather warning a little bit more seriously this time.
I'll leave you with a wee ditty that I learned at primary school:
Still, we knew to expect this before we moved out here so are content to spend our summers scurrying from shadow to shadow, desperately seeking out somewhere that sells factor 250 sunblock. I did have visions of spending the summer lounging around in the sun, having barbeques and drinking fine USian beers. This was the case for April & May, but the daytime temperatures are now regularly hitting 35C and above - it got to 40C yesterday, setting a record for the warmest weather I've ever experienced.
One thing that is quite striking about weather forecasts in the US is that they tend towards the hysterical, so we tend to get warnings about tornados, wild fires, torrential flooding, snowmageddon, baking sun and rains-of-frogs on pretty much a daily basis. A consequence of this is that one begins to ignore the weather warnings and have a little smug giggle about how much more hysterical the US media is than back home (unless you read the Daily Mail or any of the Murdoch rags, of course...)
So, we took yesterday's weather warning about the incoming storm with the usual pinch of salt. Then the storm came - I've never seen so much lightning before: there were a few flashes every 1 or 2 seconds, and this went on for a few hours. I tried standing outside when the storm first hit, but with all the bits of trees flying around at face-height and the driving rain soaking me to the skin, I decided that it was best to retreat indoors lest I turn my wife into a widow.
It was breath-taking to be out in though, truly exciting to witness such an impressive weather phenomenon first-hand. Although it was easy to enjoy it with the privilege of having an nice, dry house and air-conditioning to retreat too. I can't even imagine how much it would suck to be homeless in that storm. For us, it seemed pretty impressive and our electricity went down for about an hour but then came back, so we didn't think the storm was that bad.
And then we had a walk around our neighbourhood this morning. As I'm not the most articulate fella in the world, I'll give you some photos to give an idea of the carnage that was around. Click on the photos for the full-sized images.
Most of the houses on our street (actually, I think all of them except for our block) are still without power, as is most of the local neighbourhood. Our local pub was on of the few places open, so we were able to grab a lunch, a pint and Wimbledon before giving up on our shopping tasks for today. According to the Washington Post, 1.3 million homes are still without power, and regional "cooling centres" have been opened so that people without power, and therefore air conditioning, can go somewhere to hide from the heat. Today was a bit milder, at a mere 36C. More storms are forecast for tonight, so I might take the weather warning a little bit more seriously this time.
I'll leave you with a wee ditty that I learned at primary school:
Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not.
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot.
We'll weather the weather,
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!
Classic!
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