Today's Forecast -- HOT

Big Frank extends apologies for the lapse in postings. Many may have wondered, "What up, Big Frank; why no postings for so long?" Well, dawgs... I ain't got no good reply to that." Let's just say that certain habits have yet to be firmly in place. Summer is upon us. The heat is sizzling all of Europe and the weather map of the U.S., I kid you not, has no clouds on it - for the entire lower 48 - not one cloud!! The weather man also put one giant sun over the entire country - we gonna bake!

However, not to worry; Big Frank got AC! However, those without AC - some 10% to 15% of American homes -- they have to figure out a way to keep cool during this heat wave. According to Gregory Wellenius, a professor of environmental health, some 5,600 people die per year in the U.S. from excessive heat. The human body functions best at 98.6 degrees. When the temperature outside exceeds that, cooling the body becomes very difficult. “In an average year in the U.S., heat kills more people than any other type of extreme weather,” says Kristina Dahl, a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. An article in The Scientific American from last year enumerated how deadly such heat can be by citing fatalities from last year's Northwest heatwave:  "Hundreds of people died in the recent Pacific Northwest heat wave, according to estimates: there were at least 486 deaths in British Columbia, 116 in Oregon and 78 in Washington (by comparison, hurricanes have killed an average total of 46 people a year in the U.S. over the past 30 years)."

Not to make light of the threat of heat, but rather out of an urge to keep cool as cool as the Hippy Dippy Weatherman, George Carlin, there is this.