West Seattle, Washington
06 Thursday
What kind of a summer IS this? For the second time in a month, the Sidewalk Cinema outdoor movie next to Hotwire is rained out tonight. We’re dejected, as we were completely looking forward to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and the live opening band. We’ll let you know if and when we find out about a rescheduling date; in the meantime, “Edward Scissorhands” is scheduled for next Saturday night — cross your fingers for cloudlessness.
If you would rather peruse some stats than simply rage at the sogginess, our friends at Capitol Hill Seattle are looking back at the past decade. (We have no memory of the soaked summer of ’97. Maybe that’s a good thing.)
Even in Seattle, who in the world could imagine that if you wait till late July to schedule an outdoor-movie series, the first one would be rained out? Well, it happened in The Junction tonight; sign on the gate @ Hotwire says “Chicken Run” is rescheduled to Friday, August 10th.
Now, the real challenge: Sleeping in a house that hasn’t let go of the afternoon heat yet. In case you face a similar challenge, here are three final photos for the day. First, the incredible neon sunset, photographed from the top of Gatewood Hill:
Next, a view of Duwamish Head before the sun went down, photographed by Bill Barna:
And from 35th and Roxbury, a tropical — and appropriate — window decoration.
OK, off now to stuff ice cubes in the pillowcase …
Are we SURE we really want to whine about the heat (97 at the official gauge at Sea-Tac as of 4 pm, a new record for this date)? Consider what had hit us half a year ago (photo from Upper Fauntleroy, Jan. 11, 2007):
… big high temperature coming … It’s 7 degrees hotter than it was this time yesterday (Boeing Field 84 now, 77 24 hours ago). Our refuge suggestion this hour: Indoor swimming @ Southwest Pool & Community Center. (Public swim coming up at 1:30 pm!)
People in WSB-land who haven’t passed out from heat exhaustion yet (78 at midnight! 12 degrees above San Diego!) were nice enough to send photos that might cool you off a degree or two.
First, from Luckie, a “party island” spotted off Alki on pirate day:
Second, from Jerry at JetCityOrange, a decorated tree in the window at Sleep Country in Westwood Village (we’re sorry we didn’t snap the inflatable snowman we saw the other day at Renton Honda, would have been a nice accompaniment):
Send us your pics, thoughts, tips, rumors, whatever, anytime.
5 pm temperature check: 89 at Boeing Field and Sea-Tac. Regarding ways to stay cool, the windsurfer we spotted in WS waters this afternoon (photo below) sure had the right idea. On the water is always the coolest place to be — check out this personal weather station on Beach Drive. If you don’t have your own board (or boat), maybe a ferry ride – here’s the Fauntleroy-Southworth schedule.
If you’re still in the market for a fan or air conditioner you’re not completely out of luck, but you’re running out of choices.
Here’s the mini-AC shelf at the Delridge Home Depot as seen just before noon.
And as of lunchtime this is what the fan aisle at Target looks like.
According to the National Weather Service hourly temperature updates (KSEA is Sea-Tac, KBFI is Boeing Field, K91S is Alki Point but only shows windspeed, no temps; we’ll link to some personal weather stations later) — it’s about 80. Going for low 90s in the city but tomorrow’s in-city forecast alarmingly suggests possible upper 90s. Stay safe. For those of you pondering a movie to keep cool in those brutal early-evening hours, “Blades of Glory” at the Admiral at 6:45 pm might be just the ticket.
8:20 am, 70-plus degrees. Workers at Westwood Village Target are joking about someone interviewed on tv last night about how fast fans and air conditioning units are selling. They seem more impressed by how fast the interview went – five minutes distilled into five seconds.
At the front counter, a clerk is ringing up the first fan sale of the day. Out in the parking lot, closer to WaMu, a work crew is kicking up a dirt devil. And over Barton Street, looking east, the sun looks like 8 am Vegas more than 8 am Seattle:
Surely you’ve heard by now that the next couple of days will be ridiculously hot. That means discomfort will skyrocket with the temperatures, since most of us don’t have air conditioning and just aren’t acclimated to 90-plus degrees. 
But we don’t all have to pack ourselves onto the sands of Alki to stay cool. We thought it would be worth discussing alternatives in advance; for starters, we managed to cope with the last megahot spell by taking a late-afternoon walk through Schmitz Park (photo @ right). The trees of Lincoln Park, Camp Long, and other green zones in WS can do the same trick. (You can follow up a walk through LP with a dip in Colman Pool, which is open through the peak of the heat, till 7 pm.) Got a heat-beating tip to share with the rest of WSB-land?
Appropriate for this to show up on a day when a whole lot of rainbow-displaying was going on just a few miles away. Thanks to Christy from On Focus Photo for the pic, shot between Seacrest and Salty’s.
We all know that spring and early summer in Seattle can bring days interspersing sun and rain, but we can’t remember having seen it change quite as often and as dramatically as today … or perhaps the fact we were out on a very long walk from south WS to north WS heightened our experience … Here’s a photo from Alki during the 4 pm deluge (including a few hailstones too fleeting to catch with the camera):
… an hour or so after that evening cloudburst, this oddly creased cloud formation turned up in the eastern sky (view from Westwood). Can’t find any clue as to its meteorological backstory.
What a surprise to wake up to sunshine. Honestly, when we filed the post below, late last night, this page insisted we’d wake up to clouds and showers. Now it says “mostly sunny” all day. Glad they were wrong!
Now the National Weather Service thinks Monday will be sunny. Might just dare to haul the barbecue out of basement storage after all.
If you want to be ready for NEXT year’s windstorm, we saw a big pile of small generators @ the nearest Costco, less than $200 each.
When you hear “last December’s storm,” you probably think wind (and powerlessness). But some think first of the fast, furious rainstorm that preceded the wind, created the Upper Fauntleroy sinkhole (bridged but still not filled), and swept floodwater through some WS homes. The homeowners with flood damage are still trying to get things set right; one homeowner has e-mailed us to say they’re organizing a West Seattle flood victims’ group, plus warning us all to watch for what is alleged to be the real culprit in the spot flooding — filters left in storm drains by contractors and construction crews. Regarding the damage already done, they’re thinking about suing, and inviting anybody and everybody who had flood trouble to e-mail them at floodvictims@comcast.net.
The city says the grass ballfields are open again. Guess our spectacular sunny morning did the trick.
| 1 COMMENT