Today is expected to be the last day of temperatures over 100, but tomorrow is predicted to be 99 and so might nudge a bit higher. After that a few days in the high 90s and then a few in the low 90s, but the best news is that the nights will start getting cooler beginning Friday. Even tonight should be cooler than last night, so I might be able to turn the air conditioner off and open the windows for a while, if I stay awake long enough. What I'm really looking forward to are the nights in the low 60s that are predicted for next week.
Tonight is the full moon (a blue moon, at that) and I'm hoping some of the clouds will stay around to catch its light. The crickets have been very active the last few nights, but I've been staying in the house so haven't heard them very much. I'm hoping it will cool down fairly early tonight and it will be a pleasant night for sky-watching and cricket-listening.
Tuesday evening I got the back yard watered, and tonight I'm hoping to do the same for the front yard. It hasn't gotten much attention yet this summer, and some of the bushes are getting some yellow leaves on them. I'll bet the earthworms aren't too happy about the dryness, either. But everything out there that flowers has finished doing so, and any watering henceforth is simply to keep things barely alive until autumn (or at least winter) brings some rain.
The El Nino condition is persisting in the Pacific, and is apt to do so through May, and that sometimes brings early rains and a fairly wet winter to the region. It's usually pretty warm rain, though, so even if the coming winter is wet there probably still won't be much snow. We can't really consider the drought over until the mountains get a thick layer of snow that lasts into late spring or early summer. Today it feels as though it might never snow again, but it probably will, eventually. Just not as much or as often as it used to. A really snowy winter would be nice, but I'll be satisfied as long as there's enough water for Sierra Nevada to keep making beer.
Mmmmm, beer. I think I'll have some now.