June 21, 2008
Too hot for the tropics

San Luis Obispo has experienced record high temperatures over the last few days. It’s been so bad, that our house is literally falling apart. For example, we had a ceiling tile lose its adhesive hold:
brokenceiling
A similar thing happened to the ceiling in the back of the house, as well.

It’s actually been so hot that our cockatiels (birds who are native to tropical climes) were starting to get too warm. Even though it’s hard to tell from the photos, some of the birds are sticking out their wings, which is the universal sign for “overheating cockatiel.”
cockatiels01

littleone

gordo

We put out a water dish for the birds to bathe in, but it wasn’t enough to cool them down. We then decided to take them into the bedroom, where we have an air conditioner. Since we couldn’t fit the bird cage into the bedroom, we let the birds sit on the bed.
coolbirds

We stayed in the room with them until they cooled off. Then we gave them baths in the sink and put them back in the bird cage. We also left a fan blowing on the cage to help keep them cool. They’re doing fine. But, I don’t know what we would’ve done if we didn’t have the air conditioner.

And in regards to the heat, here’s some stats from a local meteorologist’s e-mail list:

Temperatures in degrees F as of 1500 this afternoon.
Cal Poly……………………………………… 108°
PG&E met tower at LOVR and foothill…… 114°
SLO Weather…………………………………113°
Los Osos………………………………………110°
PG&E Community Center……………………113°
Diablo Canyon front gate at Avila Beach….115°
Diablo Canyon Power Plant met tower……101°
San Luis Obispo Airport…………………….111°
Arroyo Grande (ARGC1)……………………110°
Paso Robles Airport…………………………105°

I’m typing this just passed midnight on Saturday morning, and it’s currently 81 degrees F. It’s normally in the mid-60’s around this time, and I’m usually looking for a sweater to fight back the chilly night air. But tonight I’m dressed in shorts and a sweat-drenched T-shirt.

We took a trip to the grocery store on Friday afternoon. We got home around 4PM, and since then, we’ve polished off one gallon of water, at least four cans of soda, one vanilla ice cream sundae (me) and one Soy Dream ice cream bar (Jen). The heat is supposed to break over the weekend. I hope it does. I don’t know how much more of this we can take.

Posted by Shawno at 12:26 am | 6 comments

6 Comments »

  • Jen said:  
    (On June 21st, 2008 at 12:39 am)

    Awwww…. poor little hot birdies.

  • Paul Roberts said:  
    (On June 21st, 2008 at 3:53 am)

    ooh, What a scorcher!!!

    /as they say

  • Hope said:  
    (On June 21st, 2008 at 2:52 pm)

    Kind of like Illinois in July! (and occasionally in April)

  • Shawno said:  
    (On June 21st, 2008 at 3:00 pm)

    This is definitely similar to a late summer heat in Illinois, Hope. But I think this is worse. Either it’s because of the fact that I lived through most of those IL summers with central air, or I’m just getting old.

  • Andy Melton said:  
    (On June 22nd, 2008 at 9:55 am)

    OMG. I thought it was hot here! Dang!

  • Erk @ the Erk Pod said:  
    (On June 25th, 2008 at 7:53 pm)

    I did the conversion based on the SLO temp on that list and that is 45 degrees C. That’s ultra FAIL and ultra hot!

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