Blog: Dermot Cole
Dry heat and smoke mark July
Published Friday, July 31, 2009
Cooler weather is expected today, as the driest summer month and one of the warmest months in Fairbanks history ends. The high today is expected to be 70 to 75.
"A weather front will usher a cooler airmass into the area today," the National Weather Service said, "with temperatures much closer to seasonable levels as we start the first weekend of August."
Total precipitation for the month was about .04 of an inch and the average temperature was 66.5, making it the second warmest July in history. The only summer month with a higher average temperature was June 1913, when the average was 68.3, the weather service said.
Every day in July the high temperature was above 70, which hasn't happened since 1927. On 15 of those days, the temperature was above 80. The highest reading was 91 on July 8.
After cooler weather this weekend, things may warm up again early next week, the forecasters said. http://pafg.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?wmo=NOAK49PAFG&type=public
Elsewhere in America, July has been one of the coolest ever in New York City.
The New York Times had this to say: "The daily average this month has been at or below normal every day but two. The temperature broke 80 on 16 days in Central Park — one more day than in Fairbanks, Alaska. Depending on Friday’s high, this will be the second or third coolest June and July recorded in New York. If August follows the same pattern — and the latest forecast through midmonth predicts that it will — this could be the coolest summer on record."
On the West Coast, it was 103 at Sea-Tac Wednesday, the highest temperature ever.
Closer to home, Seward received 2.35 inches of rain from Tuesday night to Wednesday night. That is about an inch-and-a-half less than the total precipitation in Fairbanks so far in 2009.
•There has been a lot of interest in the Cash for Clunkers program in Fairbanks, says Margaret Russell, general manager at Seekins Ford. MSI and Interior Salvage, two local companies, have been qualified as acceptable disposal yards. Russell credits the work of the Alaska congressional delegation in getting this problem straightened out. Before today, local dealers were either shipping clunkers to Anchorage or preparing to do so.
In a letter today, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said that unspent money in the stimulus package should be used to support the program.
Her office released a statement that said:
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Murkowski noted that last week’s rollout of the program was delayed in Alaska, thanks to a computer glitch on a federal website that temporarily prohibited the ability of auto dealers – and therefore consumers – to participate.
The Transportation Department corrected the problem affecting Alaska after Murkowski’s office brought it to the department’s attention.
“There is clearly interest on the part of the American public in seeing the CARS (Car Allowance Rebate System) program continue, which would provide an important boost to the badly battered auto industry,” Murkowski wrote.
The Obama administration said Thursday that the $1 billion Cash for Clunkers program ran out of money yesterday after only one week following an unexpected flood of business exhausted the funds.
Under the Cash for Clunkers program, eligible owners of gas guzzling automobiles will receive a credit, up to $4,500, if they turn them in and buy or lease a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle. Congress created the program in an effort to spur new car sales in the battered auto industry.
Murkowski said a recent federal report showed that of the $502 billion appropriated through the economic stimulus bill, substantial sums remain unspent.
“Clearly there are a multitude of programs and funding available through the stimulus act that could potentially be used to continue the CARS program, and the CARS program seems like a very legitimate candidate to access this funding,” Murkowski wrote.
The U.S. House of Representatives today approved a $2 billion extension of the Cash for Clunkers program. The House legislation would authorize the program through September 30, 2010, and the money would come from an Energy Department loan guarantee program that is part of the economic stimulus package enacted in February.
•The Parnell administration is siding with GVEA critics and raising objections to a voluntary experimental pre-pay program for electric service.
Health and Social Services Commissioner William Hogan said that people on public assistance may sign up for the program and run out of money before their checks arrive.
"I am concerned that these customers' prepaid cards may expire before their benefit checks arrive resulting in loss of service during the cold winter months when their health and well-being will be impacted," Hogan wrote to GVEA Wednesday.
He also said that the program would be offered to those who have had their electricity shut off because they can't afford to pay the deposits to get their power hooked up.
"Many families with low or fixed-incomes may fall into this specific situation and feel that participating in this pilot project is their only option to obtain/maintain service," Hogan said.
"My hope would be that GVEA consider stipulations to protect their customers from having to make the choice between utility service, medications and food," said Hogan.
GVEA has said that the program is entirely voluntary and that it could be a way of helping people budget their resources.
What Hogan does not address is the plight of someone who has had the power shut off and has no options under the current system.
It is a misrepresentation and oversimplification on Hogan's part to portray this as setting up a "choice between utility service, medications and food."
Get your carbon credits here "while they're hot"
With all that heat in Seattle, I bet Pike's was a stinky place with all those fish.
No, Hogan is right, food, medicine and power/heat. With GVEA sticking it to us, and the higher use season ahead, GVEA will come up with some lame excuse to raise prices even higher, and keep them there. This program will do nothing but make those looking for help with their bills feel even more trapped.
Keep sticking it to us GVEA, a little competition would take you out in a heart beat.
Electricity like health care is not a right. Neither is food.
Go join the guys at the transfer station if you can't afford your bills.
Will someone at GVEA PLEASE look into the level pay system? It works very well for Chugach Electric in Anchorage.
Gee, Dermot, amazing how you know all others' possible choices. Can I be the first (maybe the only) to say that implied in your comment is your contempt for poor people and stereotypical suspicions of them? Please, let me be the first. You know, not everybody in Fairbanks is affluent. Lots of affluent snobs here, these days, tho.
Electricity like health care is not a right. Neither is food.
Go join the guys at the transfer station if you can't afford your bills.
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Thanks for those kind comments, Jesus.
To be fair Jesus didn't have electricity either...but he lived in a warm climate
And it's plenty hotter where some of you people are going. And no one shuts off that heat either. And you'll be paying that bill for all eternity.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!
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