Lol, ahhh yes. We do have the occasional brush with heat and it's here now. I was working on a control system in Port Townsend yesterday @92° temps with no shade and death hovering over my shoulder. 26 years in the area seem to have transformed me from a heat/humidity tolerant southerner to a defenseless flower. 1 more day of the struggle and I'm off to watch some racing at Laguna Seca. Even with a return to normal temps there, I'll likely spend an inordinate amount of time watching from the available shade around the Corkscrew.
No... the problem is far deeper than that.
IT goes back to the actual data sets. We have official data sets and then we have snapshot copies that researchers have made of the years. We had access to those things as we were a bonafide research team.
In the 90s the official data sets started to mess around with the continental temperature sets (over land). They were "correcting" for older instruments, they said.
But at the same time they were not correcting for locations that had environmental changes from rural/suburban to suburban/urban. You see, concrete and asphalt absorbs heat whereas shrubs and forest do not... so a sensor placed in alongside a parking lot is gonna measure hotter than a sensor out in a field. But they weren't measuring that... so the end result was that for continental measurements there was a drift in time towards getting hotter measurements while at the same time they were correcting older measurements downwards.
The end result was unevenness on how the corrections were made, or not made. Some places were corrected downwards back in time, others were not corrected at all -downwards- in the modern times. Historically it was becoming a mess, the adjustments were not homogeneously applied.
Now, in our project we could have dealt with us since we didn't use continental measurements at all.... we just wanted to coastal measurements which then we could stitch into our oceanic data sets..... remember, we were measuring over the oceans, we only wanted buoys, ships and coastal measurements. No land, no ice masses.
But since the coastal measurements could come from either data set... and in some times it was borrowed from one to the other, we needed to understand the measurement biases in both so we could make the data coherent... We could adjust for biases for the data WITHIN the set but we also needed to adjust for the data BETWEEN sets.
And that's how we found out they were messing around with continental data sets and they couldn't make a plausible rational for their changes.
We ended up stitching data sets to remove their historical adjustments for coastal measurements and did some revisions to the modern measurements... but overall we were saved because over the ocean measurements were scant to begin with and they were never altered.
This information is known. But ignored by the politicized media.
Sounds like a fun job, working with the Earth's nature and all, doing data analysis. Better than validating a bunch of power on sequencing timings in a power supply / motherboard combo. That could be "poof - gone" in a couple-few years and who cares; it made the big corpo money during its product life cycle. The Earth however...
The NASA jobs didn't pay much but they were very fun indeed, everything is a prototype so instead of working with 200 engineers you work with 10 and get to do a lot of things.
But it has changed a lot. I started in the 95... then I went back in '19. I'm not going back. I thought about SpaceX but I got enough money stashed away so I don't need (nor want) the 60 hours a week anymore. I'm writing device drivers, easy stuff.
But it has changed a lot. I started in the 95... then I went back in '19. I'm not going back. I thought about SpaceX but I got enough money stashed away so I don't need (nor want) the 60 hours a week anymore. I'm writing device drivers, easy stuff.
I must thank the heatwave since it knocked my senses back in me, against buying a very nice class A SS amp 😎
It's already 104 F here in Phoenix, and the day ain't over yet. The days of using swamp (evaporative) coolers here is gone by several weeks. Once the dew point reaches a certain level, they just don't work very well. Without mechanical refrigeration, we'd all be sun-dried humans.
Makes you wonder the kWh of energy spent just moving heat from here to there, on a city wide, state wide, planet wide basis.
Out here in western Washington, they dont have houses with full basements, like they did back east in NY and MA. Maybe in such hot places, you just need a really deep basement. Give up the "surface life" during certain seasons. WFH - too hot to commute, too hot to cool the office building.
Homes built in the Puget Sound before 1950 did have basements, huh? I lived in basement rooms in Tacoma while in school... Truly I have no desire to live in a bunker again.
The issue in Western Washington is that the houses were built to hold the heat IN... so when you get those long, hot summer days the place gets pretty hot and stays so at night. So your home pretty much becomes a bunker without having to dig down. OTOH, they are pretty cozy during those long nights in January.
In SoCal our homes are built with much larger windows so we can get a much better airflow in and out. And being on the dry side we have significant swings in temps from High to Low. Near the coast we also get very good sea breezes.
In Phoenix, well, they don't call it the Valley Of The Sun for nothing. Do swamp coolers work up in Scottsdale? I figure your cost of water is significant but your electricity is quite reasonable.
The issue in Western Washington is that the houses were built to hold the heat IN... so when you get those long, hot summer days the place gets pretty hot and stays so at night. So your home pretty much becomes a bunker without having to dig down. OTOH, they are pretty cozy during those long nights in January.
In SoCal our homes are built with much larger windows so we can get a much better airflow in and out. And being on the dry side we have significant swings in temps from High to Low. Near the coast we also get very good sea breezes.
In Phoenix, well, they don't call it the Valley Of The Sun for nothing. Do swamp coolers work up in Scottsdale? I figure your cost of water is significant but your electricity is quite reasonable.
When I first moved out here, I had never heard of the housing term "Rambler". Imagine a time when you could just have a place put up quick, stay there while the work was available, then move on with wherever the work went. I assume logging or something... I had always thought "Rambler" had something to do with not bothering with a basement.
Not being anything like the character in Dylan's Tangled Up In Blue, my wife and I decided to retire instead of pull up and move to Portland, when Intel quit DuPont. But we're Wimps, compared to some others who chewed real hard to keep their local home and job down there. Or up in Microsoft's locale.
Not all had that grind; one fellow - who arguably had the world's best manager - told me he WFH for 5 years with zero issues. He's an engineer, but with no "lab" component to his job.
Nowadays a lot of work is remote. In the 90s we started to set up the "labs" so they were remotely accessed.. mostly because they didn't want lots of people in the lab.
As residential Internet speeds became faster and more reliable work migrated from the corporate Intranet to remote VPNs over the Internet.
I can reach the lab, 1200 miles from home, and reboot the targets as needed.
Covid make a big turning point and many places, even though they want to go back to local work, can't find the people.
As residential Internet speeds became faster and more reliable work migrated from the corporate Intranet to remote VPNs over the Internet.
I can reach the lab, 1200 miles from home, and reboot the targets as needed.
Covid make a big turning point and many places, even though they want to go back to local work, can't find the people.
There is quite an amazing thing about discussing Climate on this website, and that is most/near all understand the 4 factors:
Frequency, Amplitude, Modulation and Intermodulation.
So, when it comes to > Drought, Flood and Temperatures, there is a high degree of understanding that ongoing measurements DO tell the truth.
( global, instant, accurate measurements )
Frequency, Amplitude, Modulation and Intermodulation.
So, when it comes to > Drought, Flood and Temperatures, there is a high degree of understanding that ongoing measurements DO tell the truth.
( global, instant, accurate measurements )
That's an extremely simplified view of science.
What is a "measurement"? That's an extremely complicated thing.
A singular measurement embodies many prejudices. A data set made of millions of measurements personifies the biases of the people making the measurements.
Taking an electronic measurement in a standard lab environment with a standard, specific lab device should be easy and repeatable... yet, amplifiers of identical ratings sound different.. Huh?
Imagine, taking what should be an objective set of measurements turns out to not capture subjective differences.
Now, that's an easy one... imagine taking measurements out on the field... it becomes extremely dodgy as the data is very seldom coherent over space and time!
If the models to understand an electronic amplifier are inadequate, where the data is rather objective and repeatable... imagine the problems with the models that use field data that is non repeatable and incoherent over time and space!
Yikes!
Read The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. Specifically look into the gestalt of "looking" at the World.
What is a "measurement"? That's an extremely complicated thing.
A singular measurement embodies many prejudices. A data set made of millions of measurements personifies the biases of the people making the measurements.
Taking an electronic measurement in a standard lab environment with a standard, specific lab device should be easy and repeatable... yet, amplifiers of identical ratings sound different.. Huh?
Imagine, taking what should be an objective set of measurements turns out to not capture subjective differences.
Now, that's an easy one... imagine taking measurements out on the field... it becomes extremely dodgy as the data is very seldom coherent over space and time!
If the models to understand an electronic amplifier are inadequate, where the data is rather objective and repeatable... imagine the problems with the models that use field data that is non repeatable and incoherent over time and space!
Yikes!
Read The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn. Specifically look into the gestalt of "looking" at the World.
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The high pressure system came back. Yesterday's temperature reached 103F. Today is expected to be hot too. I can tell because we did not cool down at night.
We also got a small amount of smoke from wildfires. At least the electricity stayed on and the earthquakes have been minor (below magnitude 3). There is never a dull moment living in California. 😉
Ed
We also got a small amount of smoke from wildfires. At least the electricity stayed on and the earthquakes have been minor (below magnitude 3). There is never a dull moment living in California. 😉
Ed
You get ones bigger than magnitude 3 all the time too, along with the fires of hell and damnation. Its almost like somebody up there wants all of you gone.
The HEAT never seems to be the thing to knock out electricity in TX. The cold does, because they don’t count on natural gas lines (for the peaking units) freezing. We did have one long-ish (12 hour) outage locally here in the wilderness at the very start of that latest heat wave - but it was just trees knocking out power lines with 100 mph straight line winds. And a couple short ones since, for the same reason. When I originally inquired about above vs underground for the power feed to my new place, Oncor flat told me it was underground or nothing - they won’t do a 600’ run above ground anymore unless it crosses a highway (And only the crossing would be above ground). Now I know why. They’re tired of fixing this $#1+. In California you have to worry about fire knocking the lines out - even the lines on the 220kV towers will melt if the flames are high and hot enough. All the 7200V secondary distribution would just be gone - nothing left to “fix”.
Ever since the remnants of that hurricane came through it’s just been back in the low 90’s. But steamy.
We get small earthquakes weekly, medium earthquakes every year or so, and large earthquakes every decade or so. The state is a gigantic amusement park ride. 😉
(The Maggies in my photo are attached to their bases).
Our electricity companies have been competing with natural disasters by causing man-made disasters. They charge a ridiculous amount for this too (44 cents/kwh).
Ed
(The Maggies in my photo are attached to their bases).
Our electricity companies have been competing with natural disasters by causing man-made disasters. They charge a ridiculous amount for this too (44 cents/kwh).
Ed
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Heat wave in the NYC subway system -- since the trains are now air-conditioned, and they still use dynamic breaking -- even when the temps are in the mid-80's above ground it can be near 100F on an IRT platform when the train pulls in.
In Kerry last week the temps barely got into the 70's
Lovin' Spoonful:
In Kerry last week the temps barely got into the 70's
Lovin' Spoonful:
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