2016-07-22



Yours Truly upstairs at Baan Thai, Washington, D.C., last Friday night, July 15, 2016, with Andrea and friends.

Jake took this picture toward the end of the night. That is a small table with a large chandelier-like light fixture hanging directly above it. I think the table is really more to keep people away from the low-hanging fixture.



Note: This was not the entry I intended to post. Rather, I started a political-themed entry with a links to various pieces by the writers I like and respect about the dreadful Republican National Convention hatefest, in particular, the amazingly courageous and quite possibly amazingly foolish but nevertheless certainly gutsy thing that normally-incredibly-awful Sen. Ted Cruz did last night, as well as Trump's bleating, angry, fearmongering speech tonight that -- as Garry Kasparov pointed out in a tweet he sent out a short time ago (see image below) -- Trump's pal, Vladimir Putin, could have given.)



However, I simply did not have enough pictures or time -- given how late it is already -- to complete that entry. I'll try do to so over the weekend.

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Home tonight after a less-than-stellar productive day at work but a good, multi-part gym workout tonight including jogging and some decent weightlifting, a core workout, and a swim.

The much-anticipated big heatwave will be upon us across the mid-Atlantic including here in shitty D.C. starting tomorrow and lasting well into next week. It is already going strong across much of the Midwest, Great Plains, and up and down the Mississippi River valley.

NWS weather advisories updated 0429UTC (12:29AM EDT) July 22, 2016.

This image does not include the legend but the color-coded weather products in effect in the middle of the U.S. include heat advisories and excessive heat warnings.

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Temps are forecasted to reach about 98F for highs in the D.C. area on Sunday and Monday with elevated dew points (70F or better at times), but some of the models have it even hotter -- surpassing 100F even at KDCA. At least there is a chance for thunderstorms.

NWS high temperature forecast (in Fahrenheit) for Saturday, July 23, 2016 for much of the eastern United States in a map prettied up by WeatherBell.com.

This image and the one directly below come from this CWG entry.

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As usual, Sterling (LWX) -- with its hyper-legalistic focus on achieving the criteria established within its county warning area (CWA)* of 105F to 109F heat index for a heat advisory and 110F+ for an excessive heat warning, except it never states where exactly or over how large a geographic area nor for how long those thresholds must be met -- refuses to issue any excessive heat products unless it absolutely has to do so. It certainly won't issue any "watches" ahead of time.

The 0Z European model showing 2-meter dew point temperatures (in Fahrenheit) for the Mid-Atlantic region centered on the Baltimore/Washington area, valid at hour 102 / 0Z July 26, 2016 (Monday evening), in a picture prettied up by WeatherBell.com.

Those are widespread dew points of 74F to 78F across the D.C./Baltimore areas, which if combined with forecastedĀ heat in the upperĀ 90s Fahrenheit would translate into heat indices of 105F or greater.

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*My understanding is that different NWS forecast offices can use their own criteria for excessive heat products in their respective CWAs. It is clear that Mount Holly / Philadelphia (PHI) has a significantly lower threshold given how frequently it issues excessive heat warnings. At present, as the image below shows, much of its CWA is under an excessive heat watch including stretching right through most of Maryland's Queen Anne's County on the Eastern Shore while there is nothing on the western shore in Sterling's CWA.

The Mount Holly / Philadelphia (PHI) NWS forecast office webpage showing county warning area (CWA) weather advisories updated at 11:00PM EDT July 21, 2016.

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At least there will be a chance of t-storms on most days here.

OK, that's all for now.

A lovely sunset at Fort Smallwood Park, Pasadena, Md., July 18, 2016 in a photo by Flickr user The Bay Photos and reposted in this CWG entry.

This park -- to which I've been only once or twice in the 35 years my mom and Ray have lived in northern Anne Arundel County, and certainly not in the last 20 years -- is located where the Patapsco River sort of merges into the Chesapeake Bay.

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For tomorrow, I need to have a productive work day. Thank God it is also payday as I'm flat broke.

I don't have any specific after work plans, so I might just come home before going out later, although I wouldn't mind doing the Cuba Libre happy hour with Andrea (we didn't do it last week but instead a larger group of us met at Baan Thai -- see lead image to this entry). I love Cuba Libre's cool, airy, darkness on hot summer days.

Saturday is a planned gym-and-chores day followed by Old Ebbitt Grill Old Bar on Saturday night, although I intend to post a jukebox Saturday night entry. In fact, that might be my next entry since I'm probably not going to post anything after work tomorrow (Friday).

Oh, yes, I should have noted a numerical oddity in my previous entry: It wasn't just entry #1,969 -- corresponding to the year I was born -- but it occurred on July 21st, and July 21, 1969 was the day the Apollo 11 astronauts walked on the Moon, becoming the first human beings to do so.

OK, that's all for now. My next entry might not be until Saturday evening / night.

--Regulus

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