44 is a bitch to escape!  Especially if the minimum does not go down.  Do you get a sea breeze in the afternoons?

Currently London is complaining about a heatwave where the temperatures reach 33!  Makes me want to find the nearest Brit and slap them.

Do you have a fire plan?  Even if it's not close, clear away any brush, clean your gutters of leafy kindling and load a bug-out bag with the precious valuables so you're ready to evacuate at a moments notice.

I'm having another Mother hen moment.

OY!!! Check in, damnit!!

Well, let's see - -

I live in the Mojave Desert.  An ocean breeze would first have to go across the Coast Range of mountains, then across California's central valley, then across the southern end of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, and finally slide downhill into our valley.  Or it could come up across the Los Angeles basin, over the mountains to its east, then come up over the 4,000 foot high (1219 meter high) hills to the south of our town, then slide downhill into our valley.

Either way, by the time ocean air gets to us it's lost all its cooling capability.  And during our "monsoon" weather cycle, air usually carries a LOT of moisture.  By the time it reaches us, it can't generate any more rain, but it's still humid enough to keep our evaporative coolers from being effective.  So no, sadly, we don't get those wonderful afternoon ocean breezes to help us cool off.

There's a reason they call this the Mojave DESERT - - it's usually hot and very, very dry during our summer.  This week it just isn't as dry as it usually is.

But for the rest of the State, now that we've re-entered our more-or-less normal drought phase, fire season is in full roar.  I feel sorry for those folks!  Our own heat - we can deal with it.  Maybe not comfortably, but that's one reason we're not overrun with folks trying to escape Los Angeles - - they don't want to deal with our nice warm summers.

Just wait - - later on our daytime temps will get up into the 46-50 range, or a little above.  But at that time of year our relative humidity generally falls to under 2%, and we're fine.

Check in please!!

Alfi, you didn't check in after the last one!  Check in now!!

Hi Jen - - golly, and here I thought I'd checked in.  Oh well - -

Aren't there new fires raging?

50,000 people evacuated as deadly flames destroy hundreds of buildings

More than 50,000 people have been evacuated in Northern California bushfires that have killed six, including two children and their great-grandmother, as fire crews battled on to quell flames that have destroyed entire neighbourhoods.

Officials said a second firefighter, who died fighting a huge blaze near Yosemite National Park, was among the six confirmed deaths.

California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff said on Sunday (local time) that 12,000 firefighters were battling 17 significant fires in California.

She said the state had experienced considerably more fire activity this year than it did over the same period of time last year, with the worst part of the fire season still to come.

The Carr fire, the deadliest and most destructive of nearly 90 fires burning from Texas to Oregon, has charred 36,095 hectares of drought-parched vegetation since erupting last Monday.

Yes, there are.  And not only in California, but throughout the West.  Many of those fires are the result of arson.

Tragic situation all around!

From my front door, usually I can look to the west and see the eastern face of the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range.  For the past two weeks and more, we haven't been able to see it at all, and it's only about 9 miles (about 14.5 Km) away.  Not even a hint through the dull brownish-gray haze.  And our eyes are beginning to be irritated.

We don't deny weather and climate change, just debate humanity's contribution to it.