Hot Town Summer In the City
Back of My Neck Getting Dirty and Gritty
In 1988, I was working in Montana and staying in the city of Butte. I had an approximate 35-mile commute the next morning. It was the 22nd of June, and I awoke to about 3” of snow. The commute took me over the Continental Divide which saw more snow than the city had overnight, but the highway was in fairly good condition – mostly just wet. On the way down the other side of the pass, the snow disappeared and the sun came shimmering through a mostly cloudless sky.
Two years later, I came to live and work in that area, and discovered, that the June snow was not that abnormal, and heard many tales of snow tarnishing Butte’s July 4th Independence Day celebratory parade. As I write this on June 17th, 2024 the weather for that area reads, “Heavy snow expected. Total snow accumulations 1 to 4 inches Butte to Anaconda, 2 to 5 inches at Ovando, Georgetown Lake, Macdonald Pass, and Homestake Pass. 5 to 14 inches in the higher terrain”.
Where I reside now in Southeastern Idaho, we do not expect any snow but a frost warning has been issued for the morning. My wife will be out this evening covering her precious plantings - I’ll show my support through a closed window.
This morning on the news I watched New York City Mayor Eric Adams warning his constituency of extreme heat and poor air quality that is in, and coming to the area. Temperatures will be in the lower 90’s and over 100° in the later afternoon hours as the humidity index is added. Naturally, the abundance of asphalt and concrete, known as urban heat islands, makes larger cities much warmer than even nearby smaller towns and rural areas.
The young climate alarmists will not be out picketing in the western states where temperatures are much lower than normal, but in the east, they will be chanting “Hey, hey, ho ho, CO2 , has got to go”, as they block streets, and put the citizenry in far more danger than slight sunstroke from a heated environment.
They cry that the number of current heat waves far outnumber those of the past, and the climate titans will evidence this with the National Climate Assessment report generated and prepared by 13 US federal agencies. It appears as follows:
But there’s a very prejudicial reason that the graph starts in the 1960s. Next is the Heat Wave Graph prepared by the US Environmental Protection Agency starting in the year 1895. First, note that the drastic heat wave index of the 1930s, and then the reduction in the heat waves of the 1960s and 1970s. The decrease aggrandizes the heat waves of the subsequent years.
This is what one sees when superimposing one graph into the other:
In the proponent climate change arena the appearance of falsehoods and perceptions is much preferred over fact. 1
From a 1966 hit song, I must give credit for the title and subtitle of this article to The Lovin’ Spoonful.