Tattered Writers Athens

Monsoonal flow. Okay, that’s when the upper levels are pulling in moisture off the gulf, all that far away. I’ll stick a water vapor satellite picture at the end of this. A ridge is High pressure, and in this hemisphere air circles clockwise around high pressure. you can see the NNE-SSW ridge running from just east of El Paso up to Central Nebraska pulling water west across TX and curling it back along the Rockies. Jostle it, add a little heat, thunderstorms. We’ll see some mostly along the Palmer Divide and higher terrain after 2pm. As they go east the hinterlands might actually get some heavy rain in spots. All that will end by midnight.  

Highs today mid 80s south metro, it’ll make 90 around downtown. North of there to the Wyomaniac border it’ll hit mid-90s.  

Best chance for metro bumper are Friday and Sunday, a lot of moisture moving around then. Drier on Saturday, Monday Tuesday we might see some action. 

Let’s see, there are e-coli alerts on most front range streams, listed as “impaired” in the health department language. Right when everyone is floating them, so, don’t drink the water and get a shower like quick. If you’re cooling your beer in the water you might clean the can before you pop the lid.  Two children died yesterday from “Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome”, linked to Covid-19. Masks, would ja’?  Gardiner’s got his re-election hopes on the Great American Outdoors Act being signed by little-finger, so he can claim some kind of eco-cred in spite of one of the worst records on the planet, to the planet. Americans are pretty dumb, might work as ‘Looper says little to his constituency beyond “Yup, I’m a good ol’ boy.”  Little finger pumped Pfizer with about $2 billion—with a b—for fast tracking a vaccine.  Gotta’ pass the FDA, but hey, Pfizer’s been running the FDA for about 4 administrations so betcha’ it’s gonna’ pass just like Little Finger’s cognition test.  Suppose to be “free for individual Americans” which seems wholly out of character for both the industry and administration, fine print to come.  

Yeah, weather is boring here most of the time.  Little flashes or terror but largely the climate here is close enough to great we only have a little heat to gripe about between perfect moments.  This morning was perfect, cool early, low 70s until now, around 10:30.  To quote a conversation with my daughter in muggy Georgia this morning, me sitting at a table under trees next to my favorite coffee kiosk, gentle breeze rustling leaves, flowers everywhere, painful perfection in the temperature of a crisp, dry 70, my espresso was, yeah, perfect. My daughter, drawing from a deep Georgia muggy sympathy; “I hate you.” 

I think there’s an instagram picture of a swarm of mosquitoes carrying a cow not far from her.

More of the same today, a little moisture pulled in over the mountains by an upper ridge moving out into the plains, airmass on the plains drying out under it, so thunderstorms in the mountains this afternoon, maybe a few squeeze over the front range but we’ll get little or no water front range eastward. Go water the begonias.  A few more bumpers Thursday but not many.  Friday through the weekend a bit more moisture, but still high based gusty thunder bumpers with a little rain possible, but not much. A bit wetter starting Monday, might even get some of those little flashes of terror next week. Naw, let Kansas keep the drama.  

Masks people, we’re creeping up.  Really, really we don’t want to be Arizona. Even in the best of their times, sure as hell not now.

All that time learning to read lips and now everyone is in masks. Oh well. We’ll see some bumpers today starting around 2 or 3 and not as hot. Mid-80s on the high, maybe a touch warmer toward downtown.  The jet has moved north of us and realigned west to east, along WA/OR MT/WY borders on east to rattle about loudly in Minnesota and northern Michigan. At the surface we’ve a bit of low pressure centered up in Wyoming and another around the Okie panhandle with a warm front connecting the two, running down to the east of the front range. There’s an easterly flow with that warm front, bringing up our dew points. We’ve got some moisture around that Okie low being pulled in from the southeast, Texas doing it to us, and that’s what’ll feed the thunderstorms as they move east of us. It’s possible we’ll see some hail along the I-25 corridor but most likely all that will happen out east of us where they’re more used to it.  They might even see a tornado or two out there, slight chance of that.

In hypocrisy that must have been painful, the Republicans are jumping all over Hick’s record of sucking up to the oil and gas industry while governor. Hick’s not saying anything, leaving his abysmal actions to stand on their own. He’s going to have to say something, eventually, some form of mea culpa. O &G can’t figure out who to throw money at. Mandatory masks now, Sheriffs in El Paso and Weld Counties say they won’t enforce it. Afraid enforcing the law will “erode public trust,” which says a lot about why law enforcement looks like it does. 

Have a good one, all. 

Hot, again. Tired of it, eh? Expect to see 3 digits along the I-25 corridor, the record was set at 99 just last year, we’ll likely set a new one today. Part of that “new normal” I guess.  A few thunderstorms this afternoon, high on the bases so not much water. Gusty winds with them just to remind you they’re there.

Cold front tonight, a little cooler, near normal, tomorrow.  Few thunderstorms in the afternoon yada yada… Might see a larger concentration of bumpers mid-week, more seasonal temps.  Working on that tan, eh?  

News, lessee, Little Finger, having alienated the military, sent federal HSA agents dressed and armed like front line Army units into Portland, kidnapping, injuring, detaining and searching people without charge. Basically showing what he thinks of the constitution. Let’s call them Little Cesar’s Praetorian Guard. Et tu, Brute?  Colorado’s unemployment hanging in at 10.5%, a lot of people scrambling out there. Take a moment and see what you can do for a local food bank.  

Hey, we having fun yet?   

Hot. Again. Maybe triple digits, the record is 102.  No thunderstorms in the metro. A bit cooler north toward the Wyo border. Somewhat cooler tomorrow, like low 90s is cool. Slight chance of t-storms Saturday along the front range but not a rock and roll day. Same Sunday, little hotter. Monday same, still a little chance of bumpers. Cooler, more seasonal Tuesday with a bit better chance for bumpers. Again Wednesday.  Today it looks like the Dakotas will get the snot beat out of them, and tropical storm Fay is off the Virginia coast moving north, so rain and t-storms from Baltimore north through the day, heavy stuff NY north.  Tropical storm Christina is south of Baja, should make landfall south of Mexico in a day or two, might ease into the first Hurricane of the season crossing into the Caribbean.  

Governor Polis said, “Just wear a damn mask!” He says we had 50-100k Typhoid Marys out of Florida and Texas here over the 4th. I like the guy, but masks should be mandatory as every health advisory group is saying. Meanwhile, the Idiocracy down in Douglas County voted to leave Tri-County Health because they’re being too strident about this silly pandemic, so that bunch’ll be doing their best to spread it around.

Again, and for the foreseeable future. Today not quite as hot, but still hot, tomorrow maybe shoot for the record which is 102. Bumpers east of Sterling-Limon line, might get a severe out there.  Maybe next Tuesday we might get storms in the metro.

Times today, looks like SCOTUS ordered Orange Littlefingers financial records opened to NY prosecutors, but not to be released publicly until after the election. Still threatening to cut funding to schools that don’t open on time, get those kids into the showers. Post-election, if he’s in place, he’ll have consolidated power enough he won’t have to worry about laws broken in his financial records. We’ll be occupied with sick and dying kids.  Hmm, even with all that snow early last winter, draught is still in place. Southern Colorado, northern and eastern NM, northern AZ and Utah are all in extreme draught conditions. We didn’t get spring snow, and our snow melt happened quick. Hydrologists are starting to rattle the word “Megadraught” around, not sure I want to know what that is. Next story , an independent audit says Facebook is still pushing back against basic civil rights.  Hmm, we’re out of PPE again, all the hospitals filling across the south.  Churches reopened, letting god feed the ICUs across the Bible Belt.  Those “essential” Oil pipelines shutting down, and oh yeah. The Army Colonel that testified in the impeachment hearings? He’s being forced to retire.  White House had him investigated to find evidence of misconduct, which they couldn’t find. An honorable man did what his oath required, and he’s paying the price in this version of America. United plans to furlough 36k people as soon as the freeze from all that tax money they took to buy back stock ends. Guessing the bonuses at the top would exceed our puny imaginations. Puerto Rico, dang. The forth horseman has ridden in with the pandemic, draught, starvation, and Trump on the lifeguard stand little fingers flying on the Twit account.  Harvard and MIT are suing to stop the Trump Visa rules. China’s choking down on Hong Kong, Trump watching with some envy. Mexico’s president is in DC performing some manner of fellatio.  

Mid-90s, that’s cooling for today.  We missed the 100 degree day so far, looks like Friday for that. Drier, we’ll see scattered clouds develop around mid-afternoon, shouldn’t be any bumpers for the metro. Maybe a few up near the Wyoming border, and out toward the Nebraska border there might even be a severe develop. Afternoon gusty winds, not as bad as yesterday, start around 2.  Looks like the middle of next week before we see any relief from the heat. 

Yesterday the Times listed countries that are still welcoming Americans in spite of our ‘Rona self-destruct. Going with Groucho on this one, don’t think I’d want to go to a place that would have me. Let’s see, Hick & Gardiner are set to spend $19 million on TV ads between now and November, so the new TV season will be hard to watch. Good time to grab a Tivo. Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District Republicans (Craig, Steamboat, Rifle) went batshit with Lauren Boebert and her associated conspiracy stuff like Kennedy was assassinated because he’d found out about the secret government, HRC was running a pizza parlor for pedophile trafficking, all that. No masks in northwest Colorado but a lot of tinfoil hats.

Stay cool out there.

Hot. Might make the century mark today, the record’s 102F. That’s from 1989, nobody had cell phones so I can’t show you a stack of sweaty selfies and whiney text messages. Back in the day we suffered in stoic digital silence. We did it like god intended, on bar stools in dark places with cold beer while stuffing quarters into juke boxes full of Indigo Girls and Journey ballads. None of which we can do today.   

The wonderful NWS weather people up in Boulder managed to get about 1500 words out of the atmospheric stuff inflicting this on us, but essentially it’s what we’ve seen; Jet coming in over northern Cali and turning north to Canada along the Rockies, mild surface stuff coming off that. It’s dry, a little mid-level moisture leaking in that’ll make some clouds but not much in the way of thunderstorms. It didn’t cool last night like we expect Denver to do, but it should tonight.  Might even see some 30s up in the mountain valleys.   We’ve got a hot week coming, Thursday a little cooler but still 90s. Fire danger is high, and still got a bunch of illegal fireworks sitting in garages and beer in the associated fridges.

I see a Gallagher repeal will be on the ballot this fall, the legislature’s attempt at getting us out of the Mississippi category on teacher pay, schools and first responder services. It’ll take a lot of effort to get it through and we can’t knock on doors, so getting our kids and firemen what they need seems unlikely. 

Need something else to panic about in 2020? We may be losing coffee: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150728-coffee-the-bitter-end-of-our-favourite-drink?ocid=ww.social.link.twitter

Keep cool out there.

Weather, just read any of the last week. Again, with a little less moisture, so maybe some isolated to scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. Wind shouldn’t be as bad. Drying, hot this week, Thursday just a little itty-bitty bit cooler then back in the oven on Friday.

Scanning the paper, news looks like yesterday too. America’s strange brand of stupidity has reached pandemic levels in the pandemic. Genetic? Possibly, fluoridated water maybe? About half dozen mass shootings last couple days, it doesn’t even make headlines anymore. Couple billionaires are talking about running trains through the Royal Gorge again, Tennessee Pass on up to Dotsero. Freight and passenger, would love to take that.  Colorado has a lot of old rail lines rusting away, as late as the 60s you could catch a train in the southern San Luis Valley and ride into Denver. Littwin says Polis should mandate mask usage, I agree. 

Yada yada yada. Again. Starting over the mountains around noon, moving east, scattered bumpers. You can start the Jaws theme around 1, this time earliest will come off into north metro/Fort C, start a little later down south metro.  Less moisture today so won’t see the flash flood warning out in the hinterlands of Aurora and whatever the heck benighted landscape is beyond that, but out in that beyond a couple of them might go severe so we may have something to keep the news guys yapping and furrowing eyebrows over. 

Boring, right? I did weather stuff at the airports here a few years, this time of year in Denver that’s getting paid too much for doing nothing.  A LOTTA Netflix. 

Great sunsets and sunrises, though. Down along the gulf coast, New Orleans down around Florida, it’s does the same day to day, too, but a bit with more panache. “Well, we’ll see the sh*@ get beat out of Mobile today, might swing north as far as Anniston. 30% chance of trailer parks in Tampa leveled.”

NYT today talking about Jaws, the movie. “The first summer blockbuster.” We were living on the Gulf Coast at the time Jaws came out, the movie pretty much kept my wife out of anything bigger than a swimming pool for a while.  That summer, 1975, America was reeling. We were hurt. Wordlessly, quietly, grieving something bigger than we could understand.  Jaws came out in June that year, 7 months after a president resigned in shame.  2 months after we’d watched America lose a war, watched Saigon falling in technicolor detail over long days of impossible newsreels. Yeah, we were ready to panic about a shark and forget the world we didn’t seem to have a handle on. 

We’re about due another spectacle that’ll take us away, eh? Wonder what it’ll look like, with films and public spaces gone. Hmmmm.