Reptile & Amphibian Forums

as to not seeing anything on some people. I think hypothetical at best because : oh the worst in 7 years, the worst in 10 years, the worst in 15 to 20 years, I've heard it all through the years and i just don't know if I can believe it. Obviously even with the statement above and being down there in all of those years and experiencing drastic rain fall at any moment of all areas ( small amount of time ? Momentary rain fall ? Rain in one section of River Road and just several miles away nothing/nada of rain and dry as a bone, being isolated in Black Gap by rain and or wash out while RR was completely dry as a bone and saw no rain at all ) the animals are adaptable and as one friend stated, reptiles ( snakes ) may just estivate a lot longer due to this and may be the reason lower numbers seen at any given time. I don't know as I have NEVER ever been skunked as far as the supposedly major drought scenario but have been because of rain fall and cool weather. But HEY,I'm only one guy with these observations..........
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

Temperatures hit upper 90s coast to coast

By CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer 44
minutes ago
CHICAGO - Temperatures soared into the upper 90s and
higher Sunday from coast to coast, and choking heat is
expected to continue for the next few days,
meteorologists said, as hot air is moving toward the
East Coast.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Sunday the state
would make more than 130 office buildings available as
cooling centers beginning Monday. Minnesota Gov. Tim
Pawlenty had ordered the National Guard out to help
firefighters as temperatures even in the normally cool
northern part of the state pushed 100 degrees amid
very dry conditions.

The National Weather Service issued excessive heat
warnings for Las Vegas, Chicago, St. Louis,
Philadelphia, Tulsa, Okla., and parts of New Jersey,
where thermometers made it into the 90s Sunday and
were expected to reach 100 degrees Monday.

"I could use a pool out here," Doreen Venick, 36, said
Sunday as she took shelter in the shade of a small
tree with her two children and her sister at a
children's festival in Brick, N.J.

Officials in Chicago, where a 1995 heat wave killed
700 people, opened 24-hour cooling centers and pleaded
with people to check on elderly neighbors. No
heat-related deaths were reported in the city by
Sunday afternoon as temperatures approached 100 in
parts of the state Sunday.

Organizers of Gay Games VII, a sporting event that has
drawn about 12,000 gay and lesbian athletes to
Chicago, said outdoor events were going ahead as
planned with hydration stations, tents and medical
teams. Two triathletes were treated for heat-related
illnesses.

Chicago hit 94 by 3 p.m., but it didn't bother Frank
Lee of Manoa, Hawaii, who was competing in the event's
tennis matches and planned to drink plenty of water
and eat bananas.

"Oh, I love it balmy," Lee said. "But maybe it's a
little too hot."

In South Bend, Indiana, a 3-year-old boy died after he
apparently locked himself inside a car in 90-degree
heat on Saturday, relatives and neighbors said.

Abraham Barlue was found in the car by his
grandmother, Vester Zeon, and a neighbor tried to
resuscitate the boy before he was taken to a hospital.

"Somehow he got into the car, shut the doors, and
child safety locks, he couldn't get out," said
neighbor Tammy Wallace. "I tried to revive the baby, I
evidently got a heartbeat back, and on the way to the
hospital he passed away."

A large high pressure area centered over much of the
mountain states and extending into the Midwest was
pumping hot air from Mexico across the desert
Southwest and into the Midwest, said Rob Handel, a
weather service meteorologist in Chicago.

Even the Colorado mountain town of Frazier, which sits
at 8,550 feet and likes to claim that it is the
nation's ice box, was in the upper 80s during the
weekend.

"It's not supposed to be hot like this. Lately there
have been evenings when you could sit outside at 10
p.m. without a coat. All my life I couldn't do that,"
said Connie Clayton, 58, a lifelong resident of
Frazier.

The mile-high city of Denver had two straight days of
record highs, hitting 103 on Sunday and 101 Saturday.

South Dakota posted some of the nation's highest
temperatures with a reading Saturday of 115 at Pierre,
the state capital, and an unofficial report of 120
outside the town of Usta in the state's northwest
corner.

"There's a lot of records that are falling across the
state," said Todd Heitkamp, a weather service
meteorologist in Sioux Falls.

The mercury again topped 100 degrees Sunday across
much of South Dakota, and in North Dakota, the
temperature hit 106 degrees in Bismarck and 100 in
Dickinson.

In Arizona, Sunday's high was 109, not enough to rate
an extreme heat advisory in the desert metropolis.

In Oklahoma, where temperatures also have been rising
above 100, officials were investigating a possible
heat-related death and reported more than 40
heat-related calls to emergency medical services in
Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

Southwest Oklahoma caught the worst of the heat
Sunday: Lawton had a high temperature of 106 and
Hobart and Frederick topped out at 104 degrees. The
state's weeklong forecast calls for highs ranging from
the mid 90s up to 106 degrees.

Several people were treated for heat-related illnesses
Saturday at the St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo,
said Dr. Greg Hymel, an emergency room physician. The
National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for
the area Sunday, with temperatures reaching 91.

Officials with Middletown City Schools, halfway
between Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, canceled the last
week of elementary classes for the summer because of
the heat. The two buildings where those classes are
held lack air conditioning, district spokeswoman
Debbie Alberico said.

California joined in the heat wave, with temperatures
forecast to rise above 100 degrees Monday from the
Mexican border to as far north as Redding and near the
coast. State highs are expected to be 115 degrees near
Barstow and 112 near Parkfield, said meteorologist
Will Pi.

Power grid managers asked California residents to
conserve electricity, predicting demand will spike for
air conditioners.

Hot, sticky air also covered parts of the Southeast.
In Georgia, temperatures have soared to near-record
highs, with six cities posting temperatures of 100
degrees or higher on Saturday.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."