It's hard to not be concerned with global warming when its effects are right in front of your eyes. Sure, it's one thing when the ocean begins to reclaim islands (http://www.tecca.com/news/2012/03/09/kiribati-global-warming-sinking/), but when you can see the effects in your home town, well, that's another story altogether. Case in point: KFOR TV (http://kfor.com/) in Stillwater, Oklahoma is reporting that temperatures are so high that the street lamps have begun melting.
To be sure, Stillwater is suffering from one heck of a heatwave (http://www.tecca.com/tips-and-tricks/7-cool-tech-tips-for-beating-summer-heat/). It's expected to reach 115 there today, 108 on Friday, and 109 on Saturday. And warmer temperatures are nothing new: July represented the 23rd month out of the last 28 that came in warmer than average.
115 degrees is insane. The hottest it has gotten in Michigan so far this year was 103, and even that was too hot for me. I can't imagine what those poor people in Oklahoma must be going through. Wouldn't temperatures that hot be potentially lethal?
The really sad thing about all this is that for whatever reason there are still people out there who think Global Warming is a hoax... what more proof do you need?
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Oblivion on August 03, 2012, 02:20:49 PM
I'm all for Global Warming, but the planet goes through a cycle of cooling and warming. This is a natural occurrence, but we are speeding it up.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: ThePerm on August 03, 2012, 02:45:16 PM
heh, I live in Arizona. The city that i'm from...Yuma's record high is 124°F
Arizona's record high is 128°F, im moviung back to tucson these coming few weeks. Its going to be 108°F and raining, so its going to be humid too.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: TJ Spyke on August 03, 2012, 06:27:23 PM
The record high in the US was in Death Valley, California (go figure) at 134, New York's high is 108 and I think we've come close to that once or twice this year.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on August 03, 2012, 07:06:41 PM
Man! I can't imagine what that's like. Being an Irishman, heat waves are not really something I have to deal with on a regular basis. I hope everyone over there is taking care of each other.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: TJ Spyke on August 03, 2012, 07:09:27 PM
Apparently the record high for Ireland is only 91, and that was way back in 1887. We got up to about 89 today where I live, and tomorrow up to 97.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Kytim89 on August 03, 2012, 07:24:39 PM
I have neglected to cut my yard so some time due to the extreme heat. Here in Kentucky we are used to bipolar weather, but it has been hovering close to 100 degrees for the last couple of days, and since I have pretty big yard that takes time to cut, plus a big hill and small trees makes for a situation where working for too long in the hot sun a bit unnerving.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Pixelated Pixies on August 03, 2012, 07:31:39 PM
Apparently the record high for Ireland is only 91, and that was way back in 1887. We got up to about 89 today where I live, and tomorrow up to 97.
Yeah, we don't really get the whole heat thing over here. I used to travel quite abit though. I was in Barcelona and Prague during some pretty intense heat. It wasn't pleasant, especially for an Irishman who was used to thinking of cold beer as being that of room temperature.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: BranDonk Kong on August 03, 2012, 09:40:10 PM
Man! I can't imagine what that's like. Being an Irishman, heat waves are not really something I have to deal with on a regular basis. I hope everyone over there is taking care of each other.
We're not exactly the kind of country that takes care of or looks at each other.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: bustin98 on August 04, 2012, 01:27:52 AM
Man! I can't imagine what that's like. Being an Irishman, heat waves are not really something I have to deal with on a regular basis. I hope everyone over there is taking care of each other.
From what I understand, Europe is at a much higher latitude than the continental lower 48 states, so you are actually about at the same latitude as Alaska and Canada, and your continent is kept warmer than it should be by the Altantic conveyor system. But due to Global warming and the melting of the ice in Greenland and the poles the Atlantic is being flooded by increasing amounts of fresh water which is supposedly going to shut the Atlantic conveyor thing down.
So paradoxically, even though the planet as a whole is warming up, Europe may be sent into another ice age. So you better get ready to start hunting them Wooly Mammoths.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: ShyGuy on August 04, 2012, 08:54:33 AM
By genius, I mean idiot.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: BranDonk Kong on August 04, 2012, 09:14:50 AM
And by idiot, he means gentleman and scholar.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: BranDonk Kong on August 04, 2012, 09:15:40 AM
But by gentleman and scholar, he means jerk and moron.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Chozo Ghost on August 04, 2012, 09:21:46 AM
ShyGuy, you are a hater of POOP tacos... and by that I mean you Love them.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: oohhboy on August 04, 2012, 09:26:23 AM
I actually read the article and it is grade A yellow journalism. I can't believe you posted this.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: ShyGuy on August 04, 2012, 09:39:00 AM
NO ITS IRREFUTABLE PROOF THE ARGUMENT IS OVER IM SUPER SERIAL MAN BEAR PIG
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Chozo Ghost on August 04, 2012, 10:46:06 AM
Regardless of the article itself, it really did get to 115 in Oklahoma a few days ago and that did break the all time record. That is irrefutable.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Morari on August 04, 2012, 11:20:45 AM
Last month, right before the Derecho, we had an entire week of 105° - 110° weather. I absolutely hate the heat and humidity of the summer. Anything above 75° is already too hot for my tastes. I need to move farther north. :P
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: NWR_insanolord on August 04, 2012, 11:43:00 AM
You have to go pretty far north then, because here in northwest PA it's routinely been in the high 80s and 90s. Canada's sounding pretty nice right now, with more hockey coverage, Community on Netflix and cooler weather.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: BranDonk Kong on August 04, 2012, 12:49:09 PM
If only they could get rid of all the Canadians it would be a nice place. Though Ren and Stimpy has made me always aspire to one day be a Royal Kilted Canadian Yaksman.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Lithium on August 04, 2012, 12:54:57 PM
you could always settle in the uninhabited parts of Canada if you hate us Canadians. Only problem is that it's uninhabited because it's too cold even for us XD Either that or you could clear out a bunch of forest in the warm areas and piss off a bunch of environmentalist yuppies
but if you can stand to tolerate us you'll find that in summer the temperature is usually around the low 80s and high 70s in the summer at least where i live (I even did the conversion for you!) although you'll probably go crazy due to the clean streets and low crime.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: NWR_insanolord on August 04, 2012, 01:24:45 PM
Canadians seem nice, as long as you stay out of Vancouver when the Canucks lose the cup.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Chozo Ghost on August 04, 2012, 01:56:13 PM
If only they could get rid of all the Canadians it would be a nice place.
A much more humane alternative would be to force the Canadians onto reservations. Its not like they need all that land anyway, right? Their country is geographically almost as large as ours, but they have only like 1/10th the population.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: MegaByte on August 04, 2012, 02:04:22 PM
It's in the 50s right now around SF. And that is pretty typical.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: ShyGuy on August 04, 2012, 04:23:09 PM
Oklahoma has gotten cooler in the last 18 years.
The Official hottest temperature ever recorded was in Tipton Oklahoma on 27 June 1994 at 120 degrees F.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Shaymin on August 04, 2012, 05:27:41 PM
A much more humane alternative would be to force the Canadians onto reservations. Its not like they need all that land anyway, right? Their country is geographically almost as large as ours, but they have only like 1/10th the population.
you could always settle in the uninhabited parts of Canada if you hate us Canadians. Only problem is that it's uninhabited because it's too cold even for us XD Either that or you could clear out a bunch of forest in the warm areas and piss off a bunch of environmentalist yuppies
but if you can stand to tolerate us you'll find that in summer the temperature is usually around the low 80s and high 70s in the summer at least where i live (I even did the conversion for you!) although you'll probably go crazy due to the clean streets and low crime.
Typical rude Canadian response. This is exactly what I'm talking about.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Caliban on August 04, 2012, 08:49:13 PM
I don't know where Lithium lives, but here in Toronto the summer started earlier than usual and the temperature has reached the 100s (with or without humidity).
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: BranDonk Kong on August 04, 2012, 08:51:37 PM
Great, now you're on my list too, Caliban.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Caliban on August 04, 2012, 08:53:22 PM
I was nice LOL.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: BranDonk Kong on August 04, 2012, 10:29:54 PM
Lithium was very nice too, in fact he was nice enough to convert the crazy Celsius/Centigrade temperature to Fahrenheit for me (since as an American, I'm too stupid to do the ~[(9/5)+32] conversion). You see, I actually don't hold anything against Canada or Canadians at all (other than their floppy heads and beady eyes), and this is all just for fun.
Having said that, if your Mii wasn't on my Wii, you'd be dead to me too.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Caliban on August 05, 2012, 10:21:31 PM
Hahahahahahaha
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Ceric on August 06, 2012, 05:46:28 AM
If only they could get rid of all the Canadians it would be a nice place.
A much more humane alternative would be to force the Canadians onto reservations. Its not like they need all that land anyway, right? Their country is geographically almost as large as ours, but they have only like 1/10th the population.
Wouldn't that just be declare everywhere a Canadian lives as a reservation, annex the rest, and call it a day?
Seriously enough its been hot here in Tennessee and its always humid. Which Ironically I don't mind. Dry air is hard for me to breath in.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: oohhboy on August 07, 2012, 12:26:54 AM
We got mountains melting (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19159502).
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Caliban on August 07, 2012, 12:32:52 AM
You win... for now.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: AnGer on August 07, 2012, 05:48:13 AM
18°C/64°F here. Quite okay, though it could be a little warmer.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Ian Sane on August 07, 2012, 02:33:30 PM
If you guys took the Canadians out of a Canada all you would get would be more America.
This weekend was the hottest of the year thus far but nothing that would melt streetlights and mountains. I've noticed that around here "climate change" has become the buzzword over "global warming". That's because over the last five years or so it's been COLDER around here. More snow in the winter, more rain in the summer. Last year it wasn't until August before things started to look like summer. I think we got like two weeks of shorts weather. This year has been nicer but it still took a few weeks into July to get things going.
I think all the controversy of global warming would have been avoided if it didn't involve rich celebrities telling us "common folk" that we need to start taking public transit while they fly around in private jets. Don't make hypocrites your mouthpiece if you want to win public support. If Hollywood types latch onto something I have an immediate kneejerk reaction to go with the opposite.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: NWR_insanolord on August 07, 2012, 02:43:03 PM
They switched to calling it "climate change" because it more accurately describes the local effects. "Global warming" is accurate in the sense that the average temperature of the planet is increasing, but the climate is a very complex thing and the shifting air and water currents that come from the warming cause different effects in different places, sometimes actually resulting in colder temperatures.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: TJ Spyke on August 07, 2012, 03:56:08 PM
Whats funny is that climate change deniers would point to snow in winter as "evidence" that climate change was fake.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: NWR_insanolord on August 07, 2012, 04:31:54 PM
And that's dumb, but so's the original post in this thread arguing that this heat wave is proof that it is happening. Climate change is about the big picture; what the weather's like for a couple months doesn't prove anything.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Chozo Ghost on August 07, 2012, 05:34:49 PM
This isn't just any heat wave. This summer has seen thousands of all time heat records being broken, and these records stretch back to at least the 1890s. So this summer has been the hottest for at least 120 years, and perhaps even far longer than that.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: broodwars on August 07, 2012, 05:54:50 PM
This isn't just any heat wave. This summer has seen thousands of all time heat records being broken, and these records stretch back to at least the 1890s. So this summer has been the hottest for at least 120 years, and perhaps even far longer than that.
And for the past few years, we'vet seen record cold temperatures in Winter. So what? The Earth has been going through cycles of extreme heat and cold since the planet was formed. It just seems presumptuous to me to blame everything on MAN (yes, MAN!) when we've only been a presence on this planet for a comparably infinitessimal amount of time, and poluting the environment in significant amounts for even less than that. Sure, I have no doubt we've made SOME impact, but I think this is more likely just the current cycle asserting itself.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Chozo Ghost on August 07, 2012, 06:49:26 PM
Brood, if you compare the rate at which the global temperature has been increasing with the rate that CO2 in the atmosphere has been increasing the two charts will match up identically. How could that be a coincidence?
And the CO2 that is going into the atmosphere is almost entirely due to human activity. Some of it can be caused by Volcanic activity, but the overwhelming majority is from the burning of fossil fuels. If you look at coal or oil this is Carbon that has been taken out of the natural cycle and buried deep inside the Earth for literally millions of years, but in the space of just a few hundred years mankind has taken this millions upon millions of years worth of fossilized Carbon, ripped out of the Earth, and then burned it and sent it all into the atmosphere. So we are seeing carbon levels in the atmosphere now that the Earth has not seen since the time of the dinosaurs. You know that gas that you pumped in your car today? 100 million years ago that could have been a T-Rex, and it got buried under the ground and was out of the carbon cycle for all that time, but then when you burn it its put back into the carbon cycle.
If it weren't for man these sequestered carbon in the form of fossil fuels would stay in the ground for millions if not billions of more years. How would it ever get back out of the ground? If it weren't for mankind it would stay buried. We're the reason this genie is being let back out of the bottle. There is no denying that.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: TJ Spyke on August 07, 2012, 07:16:31 PM
This isn't just any heat wave. This summer has seen thousands of all time heat records being broken, and these records stretch back to at least the 1890s. So this summer has been the hottest for at least 120 years, and perhaps even far longer than that.
And for the past few years, we'vet seen record cold temperatures in Winter. So what? The Earth has been going through cycles of extreme heat and cold since the planet was formed. It just seems presumptuous to me to blame everything on MAN (yes, MAN!) when we've only been a presence on this planet for a comparably infinitessimal amount of time, and poluting the environment in significant amounts for even less than that. Sure, I have no doubt we've made SOME impact, but I think this is more likely just the current cycle asserting itself.
I should point out that here in western New York, last winter was the warmest winter on record (our average snowfall is 99.3 inches, this past winter we got only 59.9 inches). Scientists have already proven that the Earth is heating up much faster than usual and is getting worse, and that humans are responsible for it. So it's not "some" impact, it's the majority impact. It doesn't take a genius to look and see that the levels of CO2 and warming of the Earth has skyrocketed since the industrial era.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: ShyGuy on August 07, 2012, 09:45:41 PM
Hey AnGer! I've got a question. Does it bother you that everybody calls your country Germany, when you guys call it Deutschland? I've always wondered...
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: ShyGuy on August 07, 2012, 09:46:21 PM
The climate is changing every time it rains. Try again hippies!
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: ShyGuy on August 07, 2012, 09:49:22 PM
You want climate change? Try Krakatoa.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: TJ Spyke on August 07, 2012, 10:25:28 PM
Not sure where my reply went, but I will type it again. Deutschland is the countries official name in German, but its official English name is Germany (full name being Federal Republic of Germany). It's like how Japan's name in Japanese is Nippon.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Chozo Ghost on August 07, 2012, 11:07:54 PM
Iran used to be called Persia
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: ShyGuy on August 07, 2012, 11:15:03 PM
People in Japan call their home Nippon? I need a verification. Time to visit the Japan NWR thread...
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: BranDonk Kong on August 08, 2012, 09:25:25 AM
Even Old New York was once New Amsterdam Why they changed it, I can't say People just liked it better that way
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Ceric on August 08, 2012, 09:29:56 AM
Not sure where my reply went, but I will type it again. Deutschland is the countries official name in German, but its official English name is Germany (full name being Federal Republic of Germany). It's like how Japan's name in Japanese is Nippon.
There is an interesting Wikipedia about all the name variations through the world for Deutschland. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_Germany)
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: AnGer on August 08, 2012, 09:57:06 AM
Hey AnGer! I've got a question. Does it bother you that everybody calls your country Germany, when you guys call it Deutschland? I've always wondered...
Nope. I think the only ones who are bothered are those who don't know. Besides, the word "Germany" is quite spread throughout the country.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Chozo Ghost on August 08, 2012, 10:16:38 AM
Wasn't Germany what the Romans called it? They also called France "Gaul" but apparently that name didn't stick.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: TJ Spyke on August 08, 2012, 10:30:37 AM
Pretty much, the Romans (starting with Julius Caesar) called the region Germania and the people there Germanic; though the people there did not call it that.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: ThePerm on August 08, 2012, 03:10:15 PM
France and Spain were both collectively called "Gaul", Germany was Germania. The port of Gaul is Portugal. Spain was also referred to Hispaniola.
According to Irish myth and now genetic confirmation the founders of Ireland were Gaels from Spain. It says in the wikipedia article that is not known where the Gaelic langauge comes from, but yeah...looks obvious to me. There are some stuff that dispute this, but i dont think language really follows root etymology as much as it follow etymology clouds.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: ShyGuy on August 08, 2012, 03:25:49 PM
What I think is interesting is they have found ancient Irish Celtic crosses in Transylvania. What were they doing over there? I think it was Irish vampire hunters...
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Chozo Ghost on August 08, 2012, 03:47:36 PM
That sounds like a nice theory, but its actually from Portus Cale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portus_Cale
And Hispaniola is an island in the Carribean, but it is named after Hispania which is the term the Romans used for the Iberian peninsula, and from which the word Spain originated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispania
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: AnGer on August 08, 2012, 04:27:35 PM
Pretty much, the Romans (starting with Julius Caesar) called the region Germania and the people there Germanic; though the people there did not call it that.
Yes, which was mostly due to the reason that the Celts, Goths and Germanic were isolated from the empire's influence. However, the word "Germania" where Germany is derived from also found its way into the language during the christianization of the country, whose preachers were using Latin as their language (the Bible hasn't been translated into German until the 16th century) and the name "Germania" was also given to the personification of the country. Other names for Germany, like the french "Allemagne" or the finnish "Saksa" (and respective alterations of these) were derived from the names of german tribes.
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Chozo Ghost on August 08, 2012, 04:53:34 PM
Other names for Germany, like the french "Allemagne" or the finnish "Saksa" (and respective alterations of these) were derived from the names of german tribes.
I would guess the Saksa refers to the Saxons, and the Allemagne may be the Anglos?
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: ThePerm on August 08, 2012, 04:56:04 PM
Chozo, you're right about the Hispania thing, simple mistake on my part
but im not entirely wrong on the port of gaul thing.
This is my problem with modern etymology. The current consensus is that words follow "roots" and one word is simply derived from another. However, if you take the idea of a malapropism and apply it to the field of etymology, then you can pretty much say that all similar words could be the root. The other thing about the similar words is they may actually have a pre-existing root. It would be hard to know because the evidence would die out.
So you have these similar sounding places and words all referring to a place in the area and also relating to a group or groups of people "gal, gaul, gallica, gallaecia, cale, kallis, celt, kallakoi, caladonia, caladunum, kallis, gaelic, gallacians, gaiia, calaesi, cala. goedel, gael, Gàidheal, Guoidel, weidh-(e)l-o, wadelm gwazel, Welsh, wales, wallachia, Wald, Woods, Callisto(a nymph). As I was saying it takes one person to use a malapropism and the rest is history. This is why I propose the idea of an etymology cloud rather then a straight root system. If words were to mate...
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: AnGer on August 08, 2012, 06:04:10 PM
No, the Alemanni, which were mostly located in western and southwestern Germany, the dialects there are often referred to as the "alemanian dialects" (the German spoken in Switzerland is one of these dialects).
Title: Re: Oklahoma is so hot that street lamps are melting
Post by: Morari on August 08, 2012, 09:25:46 PM