Take your pick - we're roasting either way. Today, the PUC (Public Utility Commission) advised electric users (you and me and everyone else) to monitor usage so as not to tax the power grid. Otherwise, there might be rolling outages. And it's not even summer yet!

What can you do? For starters, set your thermostat to 78° or higher. They say that each degree below 78 results in energy bills that are 5 to 7% higher. If you have a ceiling fan, cut it on and you'll be surprised how less often you hear the hum of your A/C cutting on.

Summer doesn't officially start for another two weeks, but we're on a quite a heat roll lately. Since May 1st, we've had 17 days with highs 90° or higher. In fact, 15 of the last 16 days have been that hot. Compare that to last year when we only had 5 days with highs over 90° in May. Remember that this kind of heat saps you when you're outside, so take plenty of breaks if you are out and keep yourself hydrated with water.

As bad as the heat has been, the humidity hasn't been unbearable and there's been quite a breeze. That's because our winds have come out of the south. By Thursday, they'll shift to the southeast and this subtle difference will increase the amount of moisture in the air. So we'll go from oven heat to sauna heat. Either way, it's kind of early for this stuff. We really need some rain - several days of it in a row, but that's not likely until the weekend.

1 Comments

Frank Applegate said:

I recently sent email to KHOU about the silly NORMAN NUMBER.

I received no answer.

I have been watching Channel 11 for the five o'clock news for many years.

As of yesterday I switched to channel 3 at 5pm.

Let me know when you decide to drop the subjective NN. If you can't define it, why bother wasting TV time to discuss it???

Thank you.

June 18, 2008 10:33 AM

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