TimB

Actually now that I think about it, I could really get behind younger and more educated people flocking to those cities and making the population of their respective states more urban/suburban and less rural.

I would describe myself as a low temperature nerd. That said, I still think if these things can occur in Europe or Siberia or Antarctica or Beijing or Phoenix or the Midwest in March, they can happen in the Midwest in July and some of the reason it hasn’t happened yet may be due to farming practices, but I would guess that some of it is also due to chance.

At the end of the day, the max temps haven’t grabbed the US headlines so they’re outside the consciousness of the American general public. Like the 100 degrees in the Siberian Arctic last summer, the all time record temps in the Antarctic during their previous summer, the European heat wave of 2019, or even Beijing breaking their all time winter record temperature by ten degrees, all of which were cases of record max temperatures being broken or completely shattered. The closest analog I can think of here in the states is March 2012, when several sites in the upper Midwest were breaking daily record highs at midnight and at least one site (Rochester, MN?) had a daily low exceed that day’s record high. But that wasn’t in the middle of summer when such anomalous heat would be deadly and grab a lot of attention. Edit: I know I suffered through 104 degree heat in summer 2012 in south central WI, but even that wasn’t unprecedented. We’ve dodged bullets in all of the really hot summers lately with respect to all time record maxes in the Midwest and Ohio Valley but our luck will run out someday. This year seems like a good candidate for that happening. Edit 2: Phoenix’s data for last summer/“fall” (monthly record highs in August, September, October, and November) are absolutely horrifying. But it’s not shocking to non-weather weenies because it’s Phoenix.

That too. Winters in the Midwest and Ohio Valley (and yes, I consider myself in Pittsburgh to be in the Ohio Valley because it technically is, lol) probably won’t be completely ruined in our lifetimes, because we’ll get more snow to go with the slightly higher average temperatures. At some level of warming, that scale will tip to drastically reduce the level of snowfall, especially closer to I-70, but we’re not there yet. Obviously it’ll take longer closer to the I-80/90/94 corridors.

I hesitate to use the word “catastrophic” for fear of sensationalizing, but this seems like it might be an appropriate time.

Fair enough.

No, hence the reason I said someone else’s response “would indicate” that it’s expensive. Also, February’s tragic events prove without a doubt that Texas isn’t the utopia that Texans think it is.

It’s my understanding that warm mins are one of the greatest contributors to heat wave deaths, so yeah, the average July min increasing by 3 degrees in just 10 years at any location should be a huge story for both weather enthusiasts and the general public.

Quick, what’s one of the biggest differences between Austin and most other parts of Texas? Actually, let’s make that rhetorical. We’re way off topic and this is getting partisan and has little to do with covid.

All that model noise and it looks like we’re back to our usual pattern of alternating between unseasonable warmth and “cooler” periods that are still at or slightly above normal.

@WaryWarren’s response would indicate to me that you do have to spend a couple grand per month in rent in TX.

Climate and taxes maybe, but I’d be surprised if the “talent pool” is any better in a place like Texas or Florida than, say, New York or California. It might not be significantly worse either, but those two states aren’t exactly known for superior education. (Of course, it’s also industry dependent.)

It’s quite possibly not a fair generalization, it’s anecdotal based on the small number of people I personally know in that category. I think it’s questionable whether or not one hobby being a person’s entire identity is “healthy,” but I think psychoanalysis is far beyond the scope of this discussion, so my apologies for crossing the line of things that are or aren’t relevant here.

You’re probably right. There are a lot of people whose entire identity is “I go to the gym a lot” and I would guess that a lot of them have similar political views.

Would it? It would stand to reason that most people who go to the gym are health conscious and would be more likely than average to get vaccinated, so I don’t think they would lose a huge percentage of their customers.

Sorry, I missed it. Seems like the source is one that could have an agenda (though not necessarily), but it almost reads similarly to, say, if BP published findings that climate change isn’t occurring. That said, yes, going to the gym vs. working out at home can be very beneficial to some people. But I would put gyms on the list of places where a vaccine passport would be acceptable to me. Then no one is saying people who want to go to the gym can’t go, they just need to get the vaccine first. It’s not hard.

Source?

You’re plenty good at discrediting anything you have to say without even having to use terms like “CCP virus,” no need to add that. Ron Watkins would be proud of you.

Even if we pretend the masks are “personal bacteria farms,” please do explain how bacteria are at all related to covid. I’ll wait.

True. I would also argue there’s no use talking about a guy who didn’t deal with covid and left office 12 weeks ago. I’ll see myself out.

Even GW Bush is palatable compared to what we have today. I’m not going to name a list of names, it would quickly turn into a list of people who dared to disagree with a certain person. (But you get the point, that list includes every Republican nominee for President this century except for that person.) Edit: also not saying I support any of them or would vote for them, but I could at least find common ground with most people who did before the divisions in this country became what they are today. Edit 2: but really mostly only Abraham Lincoln. Eisenhower was pretty good too.

Yes.

“Unvaccinated” is not a characteristic. It’s a choice. And I’ll double down on what I said last night after a few drinks, except now I’m completely sober: if Ron DeSantis helps guide your thinking on any topic, we are on two completely different wavelengths and it is impossible to find common ground.

That’s the beauty of our society. You can shop online, order curbside pickup, or go to one of a business’s many competitors.

Comparing this to segregation is extremist. Period.