We’re headed for the red zone.
Last night’s fiery sunset was a glimpse of things to come.
The weather wizards say we’re in for a run of hot weather, with temperatures inching up this week toward triple-digit highs by the weekend.
“Yeah, but it’s a dry heat,” we quip.
Ho, ho, very funny, says meteorologist Andy Church. Not.
Clouds for now … but not for long.
“This heat, especially in the Middle Rio Grande Valley, with these types of temperatures this early, this high, is a pretty rare event,” Church told the Albuquerque Journal. “It is going to be a dry heat, but we know that doesn’t necessarily make much of a difference. We’ve got no clouds and little shade.”
And we’re light on river water, too.
The Bernalillo County Water Authority announced in early July that it would stop pulling drinking water from the Rio Grande, which is looking less and less like a river every day, and rely on groundwater throughout the summer.
Water resources division manager Katherine Yuhas told the Journal this type of shutoff usually doesn’t happen until August or September. It is also anticipated to last longer than in wetter years, she added.
“A lot of the snow sublimated, and we didn’t get the runoff we had expected,” Yuhas said. “With these dry conditions, the water authority wants to be off the river.”
Say, just how many horsemen are there in the Apocalypse these days, anyway? It seems to be staffing up.
Tags: Albuquerque Journal, hot weather, water
July 7, 2020 at 7:45 am |
Robbing Peter to pay Paul as far as water is concerned. Southwest wasn’t designed for this many people and all their water desiring activities.
July 7, 2020 at 10:22 am |
I had no idea how crowded that part of the country had become. Phoenix is bigger than Dallas, Tucson is bigger than Atlanta, and Mesa is bigger than Kansas City. Mother Nature spent 300,000 years showing Homo sapiens where the hospitable parts of the planet were, and then in the last century we kinda said, screw that, we’ll put our golf courses wherever we feel like.
July 7, 2020 at 11:04 am |
If everyone wants a house, two cars in the garage, a lawn, pool, golf course, more kids, then you add more people moving here, etc., etc., then it ain’t gonna work.
Between putting too much of a demand on the piping systems and dicking around with the climate so Our Lady of the Perpetual High Pressure System will be sitting on our heads semi permanently, I think its time to move back to the north country and let this place deal with its eventual dust choking demise.
July 7, 2020 at 12:55 pm |
The Greater Phoenix Clusterplex is an abortion. It is the apotheosis of Ed Abbey’s aphorism, “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”
I remember visiting an uncle in Scottsdale as a squirt and thinking, “Wow, what a cool little burg.” Dude had a little bungalow with a small pool that (if it survives) is probably worth eleventy-gazillion dollars today.
Now whenever I visit McDowell Mountain Regional Park I approach from the northeast or southeast, and limit my urban safaris to Fountain Hills.
I’m part of the problem, of course. I’ve lived in various corners of what used to be called the Great American Desert since I was 8 years old; San Antonio, Colorado Springs, Alamosa, Greeley, Tucson, Pueblo, Denver, Española, Santa Fe, Westcliffe, Albuquerque. I am a delicate desert flower that has failed to thrive elsewhere.
July 7, 2020 at 3:56 pm |
Speaking of unsustainable clusterfucks, what is happening with the proposed Santolina development?
July 7, 2020 at 4:35 pm
Well, PNM is building a big-ass ee-lectrical substation out to there. It will feed the Amazon “fulfillment center” in addition to the Chingalina — pardon, “Santolina” development.
Here’s a 2019 article on Santolina from Dissent magazine.
Meanwhile, we just got an invitation from PNM to help “conserve energy” by having a gizmo installed on our AC unit to throttle compressor “on” time by 50 percent whenever Amazon needs extra juice to turn its death ray on unruly workers or teleport them to Mars, where Elon Musk needs slaves to construct his spaceport.
Sure, why not? We’ll just order up a few sacks of dry ice from Amazon and set ’em in a hubcap by the fan. Don’t want the fuckers turning that death ray on us. It’s gotta be an easy shot across the valley from the West Side.
July 7, 2020 at 4:47 pm
Sprawl and climate change go together like Trump and stupidity. Sometime in the future, when humanity has caused its own extinction, our epitaph will be “there are no limits to growth”
July 8, 2020 at 8:44 am
Good piece in Dissent. Thanks, bro!
July 7, 2020 at 7:57 am |
there’s a cool article in the newest national geographic about people creating their own glaciers since the ones they rely on for drinking water are vanishing.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2020/07/one-way-to-fight-climate-change-make-your-own-glaciers-perpetual-feature/
July 7, 2020 at 9:05 am |
We have been having a heat wave since May here in Northern CA.
My memory of living in ABQ was that only a handful of days were over 100 (maybe 3-5 a year?)–which is about the same as CA (although our hot days are generally in Sept/Oct). The rest were around 90 or low-90s. Has it been consistently hotter since you have lived there?
July 7, 2020 at 9:49 am |
Its been in the nineties here in Fanta Se the last few days. That’s weird.
July 7, 2020 at 1:47 pm |
I haven’t done the research, but this year feels warmish. I noted an 80-degree day in April, and more than a dozen 90-degree days in June.
For sure precip is below average. The trails have devolved from kitty litter to talcum powder.
July 7, 2020 at 10:27 am |
FourMore Horsemen, now hiring!July 7, 2020 at 2:10 pm |
At least one millennium’s previous experience with cataclysm, 666 references, and pre-employment drug test required.
July 7, 2020 at 11:28 am |
“Too many people, with too much technology, using too much of nature, too fast.” Dr. David Suzuki –
First time I heard that was watching an episode of “The Nature of Things” in the 90s. I wrote it down and never forgot it. I use it as one of the signatures in my Apple email app. As far as water goes, people don’t give a shit until the well runs dry, and then they run around looking for some one to blame. Must be Obama’s fault, heh?
July 7, 2020 at 1:15 pm |
Damn right it’s Bronco Bama’s fault. Fox News says on March 12, 1978 he left a faucet dripping in his kitchen ALL night!
Sixth straight day here in the 90’s. No rain over that time too. Rare indeed. Great Lakes were at record high levels but that will change fast if this goes much longer.
July 7, 2020 at 1:52 pm |
The bad news is, we’re running low on water.
The worse news is, everything’s on fire.
“Aw, hell, Cletus, let’s just th’ow sand at it.”
“But it’s 14,000 acres, Scooter.”
“So git a bigger shovel, dipshit!”
July 7, 2020 at 2:57 pm |
That’s fine branch water you have mixed with this Maker’s Mark. Hell son, that’s distilled piss you be drinking. Came from our new Tesla Water Recovery Wall.
July 7, 2020 at 3:28 pm |
Oui oui! Or is that “wee wee?”
July 7, 2020 at 8:12 pm |
https://www.drought.gov/drought/
July 8, 2020 at 8:43 am |
FOURTH NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT
CHAPTER 25: SOUTHWEST
https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/25/
July 8, 2020 at 10:16 am |
Patrick, after reading the above links, your subjective opinion on the climate is verified as true. So, buckle up boys and girls, the next 10 years will make or break the world. We need to quit shitting our own beds; forget about smelling good, because it’s too late for that.
July 8, 2020 at 12:29 pm |
I encourage all to read William Debuy’s “A Great Aridness”. Heard him lecture ten years ago in Flagstaff, AZ and thus far his prognosis has been spot on .. and very depressing.
July 8, 2020 at 2:17 pm |
Park Williams is a familiar name. I think he was at LANL for a while.
July 8, 2020 at 2:18 pm |
Oh, and this one.
July 9, 2020 at 7:49 am |
No camping in Phoenix or McDowell Park this weekend. Unless you are in a Mercedes van conversion with full hookups. A high of 117 will be bad, as in brownouts and some deaths from heatstroke.
https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=33.4483&lon=-112.0758#.XwcgGy05TOQ