Good morning! Already warming up quickly on this Thursday. Mostly cloudy  and 77 degrees in Delmar. Calm wind. The dew point is 70 degrees. As the sign along the road says,  89 days until Election Day.

Listening to Bumble Boogie by B. Boogie and the Stringers as I head to work. 

Hot and humid but otherwise mostly sunny after the clouds burn off, with a high of 91 degrees at 3pm. 10 degrees above normal. Calm wind becoming southwest around 6 mph in the afternoon. Maximum dew point of 72 at 10am. The record high of 98 was set in 1944. The sun will set at 8:01 pm with dusk around 8:32 pm, which is 1 minutes and 25 seconds earlier than yesterday. Today will have 14 hours and 2 minutes of daylight, a decrease of 2 minutes and 29 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 10pm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Partly cloudy, with a low of 74 degrees at 3am. 13 degrees above normal. No relief from the heat tonight.   South wind 3 to 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. A good thunderstorm would be refreshing. Maximum dew point of 71 at 6pm. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1987.

Cloudy periods:
Friday – Mostly cloudy from 7 am to 11 pm.
Saturday – Mostly cloudy from 4 am to 7 am. Cloudy from 7 am to midnight.
Sunday – Cloudy from midnight to 8 am. Mostly cloudy from 8 am to midnight.
Monday – Mostly cloudy from midnight to 11 am.

Rain expected:
Today 4 to 10 pm – slight chance of rain and thunderstorms
Today 10 pm to Sat. 2 pm – chance of rain and thunderstorms – 0.76 inches expected
Saturday 2 pm to Sun. 2 am – rain and thunderstorms – 0.29 inches expected
Sunday 2 am to 8 pm – chance of rain and thunderstorms – 0.5 inches expected
Sunday 8 pm to Mon. 8 am – rain and thunderstorms – 0.36 inches expected
Monday 8 am to 8 pm – chance of rain and thunderstorms
Monday 8 pm to Tue. 8 pm – slight chance of rain and thunderstorms
Tuesday 8 pm to Wed. 8 am – slight chance of rain
Wednesday 8 am to 8 pm – chance of rain and thunderstorms

Muggy periods:
Today 8 am to Tue. 10 am – Max Temp: 91, Heat Index: 98, Dew Point: 75
Tuesday 5 to 9 pm – Max Temp: 79, Heat Index: 79, Dew Point: 65

There are 2 weeks until State Fair Opens when the sun will be setting at 7:39 pm with dusk at 8:09 pm. The average high temperature is 79 degrees, with a record high of 99 in 1947.

Today so far we don’t have any men climbing the wall of Trump Tower. That news story yesterday was pretty hilarious.

It’s pretty hot and humid this out there. Most of the week I will spend in air conditioned buildings but it’s not pleasant when I get home. I guess it’s summer and beats the frigid winters. I’ll take blazing hot summers over and mild summers. I guess I should move down south.

Today in 1965, the Watts Riots begin in Watts, Los Angeles. It would be one of the most destructive and deadly riots within the context of hundreds of race riots that would occur in the sixties. 

Back in 1972, the last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam – marking a stepping stone towards getting our country out of the mess known as Vietnam. It’s amazing how a half century later so much of our country is still super bitter about Vietnam. I think most of the rise of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is tied into bitterness of how the Vietnam War ended. 

The past few nights I’ve been watching parts of the American Experience series on the modern presidency. Last night being so  hot I watched most of the special on Lyndon Baines Johnson. He definitely was a super interesting politician, although as much an imperfect person as the rest of us.

Almost missed the bus because I was busy playing on my phone looking at the advantages of the 30-06 versus the .308 Winchester for the Remington 783 bolt action deer rifle I’m looking at getting. Great sale at Dicks this week. Both are pretty good rounds. I want to think about it a bit more and talk to some friends before I plunk down the cash for it. But I need to decide by Saturday, as that’s when I think I will check out the new store.

I upgraded to QGIS 2.16 which seemed to break things. So for now I’m out of the map making business. It first disabled all the vector functions then accidentally overwrote my adapted QGIS plugin. I’m fixing that, and hopefully I’ll be able to start making new maps this weekend.