A Hot Spell

Technically, a "heat wave" must last at least three days hereabouts. The temperature must reach 90° each day. So far this season we've been at ninety or above fourteen times. This current run above ninety has been in fits and starts. But from June 16 through June 21, we were ninety and above every day that week.

 Then it cooled. On June 26 we managed to get down to 48° at night, a pleasant break indeed. Then yesterday we climbed to 102°.

 Throughout the day the temperature tickled one hundred. This is my Mail Pouch (replica) thermometer on the garage, nestled in the shade, beneath the overhang of the roof.

Likewise, the kitchen thermometer read the same. But when I took these pictures - as much to prove that I had three thermometers all registering the same reading - the day's high was still an hour or two away. Here's the actual graph of our June 28 temperatures:

 The high recorded by my digital weather station was 102.4 at 4:22 pm. That's the highest we've been since August 17, 1988 (it was 102° that day also).
 Just as impressive is that last night's official low as recorded by the National Weather Service was 80°. That's the highest low ever recorded in Dayton in 119 years of record-keeping. I, on the other hand, bottomed out at 75.3° owing to our open, rural location.

 Added to the concern of such heat is the lack of rainfall in this area. Though the Drought Monitor does not show the immediate Dayton area in a drought, we are classed "Abnormally Dry" and as near as Preble County, actual drought conditions exist.

 I suspect, if we don't get a rain this week, the next drought monitor will place us into a drought category. My measured rainfall this month is 1.50" and we have but a single day to go. Normal for June is 4.22". I water the garden most evenings but I worry about every drop. Living on a well, the source of the spigot is seventy feet below our feet and we have no one to depend on but ourselves.

 Hot and dry ... there is little more to say.