Karl's Junk Pile Nothing valuable here

I guess the Holiday Season is over:

• Most people have taken down their Christmas lights.
• I've seen a lot of Christmas trees out at the curb for pickup. Ours will either go out back in the woods as part of a brushpile to provide cover for birds and other animals, or be turned into a bird feeder. I like to strip the branches off, stand the tree against something, and then smear a peanut butter/cornmeal mixture onto the trunk.
• Thankfully, I can walk into a store and not hear brain-damaging Christmas music now (bah! humbug!).
• And perhaps the saddest part of the season being done is that the local grocery stores aren't carrying Claxton fruitcakes anymore. I'm partial to the dark variety (which I haven't seen in stores in years), but like the regular, too. When I saw that my local store wasn't restocking them, I grabbed 4. I'm almost done with those. Maybe I'll order some from their website to get me through the year.

August 2007 was officially the hottest month ever in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area (dating back to at least 1887 when record-keeping began). The average temperature was 84.1 F (6.9 F above normal). The previous hottest month was July 1993 (82.5 F), and the previous hottest August was in 1995 (80.6 F). The high temperature set a record on 13 days and tied the record on 7. The record high of 105 F at RDU airport was tied (August 21), and the all time record warmest low of 78 F was tied (August 9).

30 days in August (all but one day) were 90+ F, the most days that hot in any month (there were 25 such days in July 2005). 20 of those days were consecutive (August 12-31).

To add to the misery, August 2007 was the second driest August on record: only 0.91" (2.87" below average). The driest August at RDU since 1944 (when record keeping began there) was in 1950 (0.81").

It was 99 F yesterday (tied the record high for the date) and 101 F this afternoon (broke the record). It's supposed to be 99 F tomorrow. I guess the hot weather isn't over, yet.

It's much cooler today than it has been: only 85 F. The previous three days had record-setting highs: 102 on Wednesday, 104 on Thursday, and 104 again yesterday (although it only got to 101 at the house). Today was supposed to get to 94 F, but I guess we lucked out. Now, if it would only rain a little.

As usual in the South, it's the humidity that gets you. While 102 might be tolerable in Tucson (no humidity), our 102 was the equivalent of about 112 (the heat index). And I know that even in Tucson, 112 F is considered hot.

Hopefully that's the last of the 100 degree temperatures we'll see this year.