Weird weather!

At least I assume it's unusual for here.

We've been having really warm and humid weather (90's, occasionally low
100's, near 100% humidity) for the last couple weeks. That, I think, is
normal. But we've had torrential rains at least 3 nights a week with some
really impressive thunderstorms. It's probably a good thing that the
storms have been at night, so I've been at home with the cats. I'm not
sure they'd be really happy dealing with the huge crashes by themselves.

I've been taking advantage of the hot, humid, stormy weather by not
mowing the lawn I'm going to have to mow some time really soon - the
front yard is start to look like a jungle - but for now I'm glad to be
able to go inside as soon as I get home and not have to leave the house
again until the next morning. My electric bill will probably be a little
steep, but oh well - I'd rather have the cats and me be comfortable.

When I get home tonight I've got to finish building my computer desk and
get my home servers set up. I've been in the house for around 3 weeks now
and haven't had servers running this whole time! Once I've got a machine
up I'll see if I can't figure a webcam placement that will catch the cats
at their midday hijinks once in a while.

bad news not unusal at all... neither is the endless days and nights of over
90 and no water from bast for weeks, that's next... the joke about chicago
is "don't like the weather? fine, wait five minutes and it will have
changed"
"Dan M" wrote in message
...
At least I assume it's unusual for here.

We've been having really warm and humid weather (90's, occasionally low
100's, near 100% humidity) for the last couple weeks. That, I think, is
normal. But we've had torrential rains at least 3 nights a week with some
really impressive thunderstorms. It's probably a good thing that the
storms have been at night, so I've been at home with the cats. I'm not
sure they'd be really happy dealing with the huge crashes by themselves.

I've been taking advantage of the hot, humid, stormy weather by not
mowing the lawn I'm going to have to mow some time really soon - the
front yard is start to look like a jungle - but for now I'm glad to be
able to go inside as soon as I get home and not have to leave the house
again until the next morning. My electric bill will probably be a little
steep, but oh well - I'd rather have the cats and me be comfortable.

When I get home tonight I've got to finish building my computer desk and
get my home servers set up. I've been in the house for around 3 weeks now
and haven't had servers running this whole time! Once I've got a machine
up I'll see if I can't figure a webcam placement that will catch the cats
at their midday hijinks once in a while.

On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:19:31 -0500, Stormmee wrote:

bad news not unusal at all... neither is the endless days and nights of
over 90 and no water from bast for weeks, that's next... the joke about
chicago is "don't like the weather? fine, wait five minutes and it will
have changed"

Oh, I forgot to post the most intersting part. A chemical plant in one of
the nearby suburbs took a lightning hit which ruptured a pipe and
released large amounts of ammonia. The escaping ammonia got so cold that
it froze. One of the local freeways was closed this morning due to the
ammonia leak.

Dan M wrote:

On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:19:31 -0500, Stormmee wrote:

bad news not unusal at all... neither is the endless days and nights of
over 90 and no water from bast for weeks, that's next... the joke about
chicago is "don't like the weather? fine, wait five minutes and it will
have changed"

Oh, I forgot to post the most intersting part. A chemical plant in one of
the nearby suburbs took a lightning hit which ruptured a pipe and
released large amounts of ammonia. The escaping ammonia got so cold that
it froze. One of the local freeways was closed this morning due to the
ammonia leak.

How did it get cold, when it's 90-100 degrees F??

Joyce

--
The sun rose slowly, like a fiery furball coughed up uneasily onto a
sky-blue carpet by a giant unseen cat. -- Michael McGarel

How did it get cold, when it's 90-100 degrees F??

Joyce

The ammonia was at high pressure, so when it escaped from the pipe the
ammonia got really cold - sort of like an ammonia-cycle refrigerator run
amok.

The Ideal Gas Law (pV=nRT) says that if you drop the pressure of a gas
dramatically while keeping the volume constant, the absolute temperature
will also drop precipitously. I suspect there is a better equation to
describe the pipe leak, since the volume isn't actually holding constant,
but I am too far removed from college physics to remember what it would
be

that scarey... btw DH told me to tell you that it is not a joke what i
quoted about the weather, its a saying, lolol, Lee
"Dan M" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:19:31 -0500, Stormmee wrote:

bad news not unusal at all... neither is the endless days and nights of
over 90 and no water from bast for weeks, that's next... the joke about
chicago is "don't like the weather? fine, wait five minutes and it will
have changed"

Oh, I forgot to post the most intersting part. A chemical plant in one of
the nearby suburbs took a lightning hit which ruptured a pipe and
released large amounts of ammonia. The escaping ammonia got so cold that
it froze. One of the local freeways was closed this morning due to the
ammonia leak.

On Jun 22, 4:19*pm, "Stormmee" wrote:
not unusal at all... neither is the endless days and nights of
over 90 and no water from bast for weeks, that's next...

We've already got the drought here. And the heat. Been near 100 F. for
over a week now. Thank Bast it cools down to around 70 at night (due
to 1200' elevation).

Billy has been spending his days splayed out over the grate where the
floor furnace used to be, now open to allow cool cellar air to come
up. Unfortunately his body blocks most of it! And what space is left
on the 2'x3' grate is generally covered by more cats.

Dan M wrote:

How did it get cold, when it's 90-100 degrees F??

The ammonia was at high pressure, so when it escaped from the pipe the
ammonia got really cold - sort of like an ammonia-cycle refrigerator run
amok.

The Ideal Gas Law (pV=nRT) says that if you drop the pressure of a gas
dramatically while keeping the volume constant, the absolute temperature
will also drop precipitously.

That's weird - not intuitive at all. It makes sense because increase of
pressure increases temperature. Somehow, though, it's harder to imagine
a drop in pressure making something freeze.

I suspect there is a better equation to
describe the pipe leak, since the volume isn't actually holding constant,
but I am too far removed from college physics to remember what it would
be

Yeah, the gas probably spread out pretty much as soon as it escaped.

But it's a good thing it froze - you wouldn't want a bunch of ammonia
gas around. That's pretty toxic.

Joyce

--
There is no alternative to being yourself.