Talk about hot. . .

[papabug71]

The high temp for McAlester today was 116.

We had a big fire south east of town today. They had to call in 2 Chinooks to dump water & 5 dozers to push timber. I have never seen so many fire departments. They even called in the fire jumper guys from the national forrestry service. These boys were the real deal with chainsaws & everything. Two homes were destroyed near Blanco. Numerous folks lost barns, tractors & all their hay. They're still working on it, but I think they just about have it knocked out.

It's so dry here, all the trees are dried up. I have never seen Oak trees burn like these did. They just exploded.

Then it decided to pour down rain 10 miles to the East of the fire. WTH?

Hot,hot,hot.

[NM5K]

116.. probably a record for that date.. I was watching the radar, and saw some rain kick up
north of McAlester, and went across the lake to the east. Looked like my place got some of it.
I use this radar for the best zoom in resolution.. You can zoom right down to the neighborhood.
http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/? ... mm=0&hur=0
Yep, that's pretty wild for oak trees to go that fast.. Usually it's the cedars that act like that.
Usually the oaks will just get their trunks scorched, and another day..
The property I have burned in 2006. You can see signs of it, like scorched tree bases, etc..
But it really didn't do much at all to the larger oaks. You can see the scorch marks on the
cedar posts that I use for a pseudo gate at the entrance to my driveway. It burned down a
hunting trailer that was on the property to the south of me. Must have been really hot cuz
lots of the metal pieces were melted and mangled.
But when I bought the land in early 07, you could hardly tell a fire was ever there.
I didn't even realize it until after I had bought it, and tromped around a while.
That's how fast it will grow back. To tell the truth, I almost wish it would burn again,
as I have a lot of cedars that I would like to do away with. And a burn is the quickest and
easiest way to do it. Of course, the people that live around there would likely not be
too keen on the idea.. :/ I wish I could get rid of a lot of the cedars and just leave the
oaks. Dry cedars are like tree gasoline when fire gets to em.. The only good thing about
them is they provide some green cover and wind breaks in the winter. I've got some that
are probably 40-50+ feet tall.. And loads of little ones that sprout up. A fire will eat all those
little ones for lunch.

[tmcalavy]

Semi good news for us in West Tejas...we have a shot at only 98 next Friday. Man, what a cold front. 104 to 105 til then...can you say dog days?

[fireguywtc]

Semi good news for us in West Tejas...we have a shot at only 98 next Friday. Man, what a cold front. 104 to 105 til then...can you say dog days?

Lucky, I don't think that is in our central Texas forecast. Just more 100+ degree days until the end of time. Atleast that is what it feels like anyways.

[cdeal28078]

We got 4 1/2 inches of rain from about 5:30 am until about 4 yesterday! I couldn't believe how much it rained! We sure needed it. I think we got a little last night but I didn't check the rain gauge. It got to a high of about 74 as well.
clint

[lrjetmech]

It was 115 in Little Rock today. New record high temp for them. It got up to 108 here at the house out in the country.

Yeah, and it felt all of that. Amazing-cut my lawn 3 times the whole summer, just not getting much rain at all. Truck is missing me-just too darn hot to drive her when it's this hot. Definitely gonna get the A/C in her fixed this fall...

[fireguywtc]

How DRY IS It in Texas ?
A buddy out of Longview said he'd killed a mosquito that was carrying a canteen.
A man in Dime Box said the chicken farmers were giving the chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs.
In Lake Palestine , they caught a 20-lb catfish that had ticks on it!
But just this week, in Bryan , a fire hydrant was seen bribing a dog.
It's so dry in Texas that the Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling, the Methodists are using wet-wipes, the Presbyterians are giving out rain-checks and the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water.
Now THAT's DRY!

[tmcalavy]

Wow...that's some good rib ticklers fireguy...even my full immersion Baptis wife laughed. Our big news here in Lubbock is a 10 to 20% chance of actual rain through Sunday...with a virtual cold wave to boot....forecast is for 96-98 through Saturday and 92 on Sunday. Now if you good folks north of the Red River get any rain this weekend, or in next few weeks, grab a camera and tape it...then post it on Utube so's us poor panting Texans can see what it looks like...maybe smellavision, too, if you can manage it.
Speaking of hot weather and our trucks, I found an outfit online that sells portable evaporative coolers and non-HVAC AC for vehicles:
http://www.swampy.net/
we used to run swamp coolers out here in West Tejas until sheetrock replaced plaster in houses. If I can score some work, maybe even a steady job soon, I'm gonna try one of these in my F250...after I seal up the cab a bit. Can't drive anywhere here after noon without a 55 gallon barrel of drinking water with you, and that makes for too many pitstops. Just ain't worth it.

[papabug71]

A catfish that had ticks on it ! .

We got a pretty good rain last night, I got 1.6" But it varied all over town. Mom only got .5" & dad got right at 1" out at his place. We sure needed it. Had a little bit of wind with it too. Quite a bit of wind damage around town.

Thank goodness for the rain tho.

[tmcalavy]

Must be living or doing something right...got to watch rain roll off the roof in sheets and buckets about 9 p.m. last night, for about 35-40 minutes. Don't have a rain gauge, but I bet we got at least 2 to 3 inches. Woo-Hoo! Now if we can get another 6-7 inches, we might make our yearly average rainfall.

[fireguywtc]

Today was the 80th day of 100+ degree temps this summer. There are a couple of more in the forecast, but next week we are supposed to start dropping into the low 90's. That is actually going to feel good to us. We desperately need rain more then anything else and we still can't get any of that. Every time theres a sliver of a chance in the forecast it doesn't materialize. We have been having bad wild fires lately. So depressing, the lack of rain.

[hazelnut]

Today was the 80th day of 100+ degree temps this summer. There are a couple of more in the forecast, but next week we are supposed to start dropping into the low 90's. That is actually going to feel good to us. We desperately need rain more then anything else and we still can't get any of that. Every time theres a sliver of a chance in the forecast it doesn't materialize. We have been having bad wild fires lately. So depressing, the lack of rain.

Wish we could have sent yall Irene without all the wind, 11" of rain should have helped with everything being so dry.

[fireguywtc]

It is so bad here, we really want a hurricane or whatever just for the rain. seriously. And one is forming in the gulf right now but does not appear that is going to track our way.

[fomocoguy]

Wow, I thought our 104 degree day today was bad! To be fair I probably thought that because I had to work in an attic for the past two days. Yesterday I brought my temp probe up with me after lunch and it said 130 where we were working. We decided that was enough and came back early this morning to finish up before one of us got a heat stroke or something.

[tmcalavy]

Storm a coupla weeks ago...hot again since then. It's so dry the hydrants are chasing the dogs...but we have a shot at high temps in the 80's all next week. Woo-hoo, now I can stay out in the shop till 2 or 3 p.m. before I give out.