Warming up

We're finally warming up here.  Yesterday's high was 89 and it could eek above 90 today.  July 4th weekend will see temps drop back into the 70's for near perfect early summer weather.  It generally gets hot in late June and the warm temps can easily late until late September.  Believe it or not, the Idaho Falls climate data shows a record high of 102 on June 25, 1988.  The earliest day above 90 was May 16, 1964, and the latest day above 90 was September 30, 1957. Also, believe it or not, that early 102 reading stands as the city's highest record high temp ever logged.  There are numerous 100 and 101 degree days on the record books but nothing higher than 102.  The latest 100 degree day on record is August 7, 1983.  Based solely on odds, temps here can be expected to be in the upper 80's and mid-90's most of July and August.  That's why the potato growers love this place.  Hot days, cool nights and very little rainfall--it's perfect for growing fat spuds.

Hey, we might as well use this phrase often in this post!  Believe it or not, Idaho is experiencing Monsoonal Moisture today.  Yes-sirree, it sez so right in this morning's 2:32 am AFD- "MONSOONAL MOISTURE FROM THE SOUTH IS EXPECTED TO ARRIVE TODAY."

Supposedly, we're going to have typical monsoon thunderstorms.  Novel idea, eh?

Moving right along, we also checked into various other weather and water websites this morning.  The Snake through the city is running over 11,000 cfs and crystal clear over The Falls.  Great "pretty water" as the local folks call it.  The Henry's Fork below Island Park Dam is running only 500 cfs so there's no point in taking the Lynx up there.  That's too low of a flow.  The Salmon is running about 3000 at Yankee Fork; over 6000 at Salmon City and over 9000 near Shoup.  That's higher than we'd prefer to mess with right now.  Hopefully, it will continue a steady seasonal decline.

The Middle Fork is about 4 feet at the Lodge.  That translates to a flow around 3,000 cfs.  It appears that the August 7th flow might be adequate to think about a possible river trip then.  I haven't put any thought lately into whether I'm going to use that permit.  I'm leaning against it right now but one never knows.

It was great feeling the heat yesterday.  I even hung around on some black asphalt during the hottest part of the day to soak up some of the radiant rays.  When we were up at Bowery, we thought it got mighty hot and told one of the ranchers our feelings.  He said he loved the hot weather because the winters are so long and cold.  He said the hot phase was too short and that the local folks savored every one of those hot days.  We now understand where that guy was coming from with his comment.  It's not like the Arizona heat where it gets hot early, stays hot forever and finally cools off in late fall.  The nights are always cool here and the summer heat is very short-lived.

OK, why was I standing around on asphalt late in the afternoon?  Good question.  It's a long story--way too long for this blog post.  However, we will try to keep it short.  We bought that old clunker mountain bike June 19 for $5.  The seat post was stuck.  I got stubborn and hacksawed off the post and spent hours attempting to free the remnant stub inside the seat tube.  It's beyond hope now.  I took it to Bill's Bicycle Shop and their ACE Mechanic said there was nothing he could do--he told me to wave "bye-bye" to the frame.  It's toast.  Well, lo and behold, Bill's had just opened up their annual parking lot warehouse sale when I arrived!  I made several trips back and forth to that hot parking lot all day, buying various items and improving Susun's bicycle.  She now has a really nice new seat and a spiffy back rack above the rear tire.  Well, that's about all for now, we want to get onto the Greenbelt before it gets too hot today.

Thanks Marti B. for emailing from Croatia--it's great to hear from a European LBR!  Have a great day & Cheers, jp