WILTING

I know I've written several blogs about the weather we've experienced since moving to the Pacific Northwest, but that's because we've had some STRANGE patterns since arriving last fall. This winter we had two straight weeks of snow and we were pretty amazed as it piled up and up and up. I remember blogging at that time that it felt like we were in the middle of an Iowa winter. At that time, people kept telling us that it was so "unusual" and we took them at their word and chalked it up to a winter we probably wouldn't see again soon.

Until a few days ago, we were having absolutely lovely, summer weather. Our family in New England has had a cool and rainy summer and the Midwest has had unusual cool weather as well. Something weird is definitely happening here,though, as we are breaking all kinds of HEAT records, with 103 degrees at the Seattle airport today. Our thermometer in B'Ham recorded 99 degrees and again the local reports are "this doesn't ever happen here"! We are starting to wonder if we are bad luck...well, actually, we are having very good luck as we have a/c in our house. And, I know people are not exaggerating when they say this heat is unusual because about 99% of the homes don't have a/c. My heart really goes out to most of my fellow Pacific North westerner's as they wilt in this warmth.

It will be interesting to see how this weather breaks. In the Midwest, we would usually have a good, old-fashioned thunder storm and a front would bring the desired cool air into place. Such storms are very unusual here and I haven't seen any lightening since our move here. I thought I heard thunder once in my sleep...but, that may have been a dream. There's still snow on Mt. Baker tonight, but with all this heat, who knows how long that will last!