HEAT WAVE

If the recent Live Earth concerts (I missed them myself--I couldn't afford to buy enough "carbon offsets" to watch it with a clear conscience) weren't enough to make you a Global Warming® true believer, maybe the heatwave that's currently roasting much of the nation is. But before you buy a hybrid lawnmower, you might want to check out this article in the NY Times.

Brutal? Yes. But those numbers are still nowhere near the records set in previous years for July 10, and according to weather experts, the heat today could easily be a lot worse. Back in 1936, when the record for Philadelphia was set, people there suffered through a high of 104 degrees. On July 10 in 1993, New Yorkers saw the mercury in their thermometers rise to a scorching 102 degrees.

This is also the day that the United States recorded its highest official temperature ever, which also happens to be the highest recorded temperature in the Western Hemisphere: 134 degrees, recorded at Greenland Ranch in Death Valley, Calif., in 1913. That is only two degrees short of the highest official temperature ever recorded on the surface of the Earth, on Sept. 13, 1922, when a thermometer in El Azizia, Libya, reached 136 degrees.

(emphasis mine)

It runs in cycles, people. Just like everything else in nature.