Monday: 2 July 2012
Yesterday was supposed to be a little cooler than Saturday (107F, previous record 103F) and, of course Friday (109F, previous all time record 108F). The most official record I can find for Sunday was 108F, but the usually reliable local personal stations were reporting up to 110.
Weather Underground’s historian has a two part article on this week-long heat wave that moved across the country. Here’s the second part, on the southeast. And yes, the derecho that whipped through the northeast and Atlantic states was correlated with this heat wave.
Yesterday was reminiscent of August 10 2007, the last time we had heat like this. We were called to an all-department wildland fire emergency in north Oglethorpe County.
This time, too, we had a fire call for a structure fire just before 1pm and it lasted until 5pm.
The staging field looks a little empty now, because several trucks are back to Double Bridges Road to the hydrant, to get water. Ultimately there were seven departments and Forestry represented with eleven engines, and a couple of brush trucks. The truck on the extreme left that you can just see the back of is nursing another truck that is in turn nursing the attack truck at the house that you cannot see.
Charleen is returning with her load of water. She and I brought two trucks, and made three trips for water in the tanker, or pumper. It was very very hot.
No pics of the burning house, sorry. It was fully involved when the first firefighters arrived, and the idea was to just keep the fire from spreading to the woods and fields.
Then too, I’m just a little uncomfortable taking photos of the actual events, especially if they involve vehicles or people’s houses.
The good thing that happened was the strong wind that blew through the area in the early evening, and dropped the temperatures 20 degrees in a half hour. Later, we had thunderstorms that dropped 0.36" of rain, the first we’ve had in over two weeks.
Weather Underground’s historian has a two part article on this week-long heat wave that moved across the country. Here’s the second part, on the southeast. And yes, the derecho that whipped through the northeast and Atlantic states was correlated with this heat wave.
Yesterday was reminiscent of August 10 2007, the last time we had heat like this. We were called to an all-department wildland fire emergency in north Oglethorpe County.
This time, too, we had a fire call for a structure fire just before 1pm and it lasted until 5pm.
The staging field looks a little empty now, because several trucks are back to Double Bridges Road to the hydrant, to get water. Ultimately there were seven departments and Forestry represented with eleven engines, and a couple of brush trucks. The truck on the extreme left that you can just see the back of is nursing another truck that is in turn nursing the attack truck at the house that you cannot see.
Charleen is returning with her load of water. She and I brought two trucks, and made three trips for water in the tanker, or pumper. It was very very hot.
No pics of the burning house, sorry. It was fully involved when the first firefighters arrived, and the idea was to just keep the fire from spreading to the woods and fields.
Then too, I’m just a little uncomfortable taking photos of the actual events, especially if they involve vehicles or people’s houses.
The good thing that happened was the strong wind that blew through the area in the early evening, and dropped the temperatures 20 degrees in a half hour. Later, we had thunderstorms that dropped 0.36" of rain, the first we’ve had in over two weeks.
