Yes, Virginia, We Really Did Set an All-Time Heat Record on Friday–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: July 8, 2024

Indy Digest: July 8, 2024

Last Friday, KESQ News Channel 3 meteorologist Patrick Evans wrote a post on Facebook about the day’s historic weather.

“124° today, which is officially the ALL-TIME high recorded in Palm Springs since records have been kept. Ouch!” he wrote.

In the posts’ comments, everybody was polite and deferential; after all, this fact was verified by the National Weather Service and posted by one of the Coachella Valley’s most reliable, respected journalists.

Ha ha! I’m kidding about that last part—something you already knew if you’ve ever spent more than two minutes on Facebook.

Within several minutes, someone commented: “Was 126 degrees in PS in summer of 1996. ElNino.”

Patrick responded: “Nope.”

The commenter retorted: “I Was in it in a ambulance downtown working don’t tell me nope.”

Of course, someone ELSE then chimed in and said the first commenter was CORRECT, because that alleged 1996 day “made the front page of the PS newspaper.”

Patrick then responded with facts: He noted that the newspaper had indeed published something like this—but that the temperature cited was taken by reporters on the newspaper building’s rooftop, and did not reflect the official record at the airport (where equipment is calibrated, etc.). He then linked to a PDF—from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—with 1996’s official highs and lows in Palm Springs for EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR.

At this point, Mr. “I Was in it in a ambulance downtown working don’t tell me nope” apologized and deleted his comment, realizing how silly he had been for questioning Patrick’s statement, especially now that he had been confronted with real, unquestionable proof that he was wrong.

Ha ha ha ha ha kidding again. Of COURSE he didn’t do that. His comment is still up as of this writing.

Several others also disputed Mr. Evans’ statement. One person noted that Cathedral City had broken the record in the 1990s; someone else agreed, but “clarified” it had actually occurred in 1989. Yet others chimed in with their various memories of days they were SURE were hotter.

Folks … at times, it’s good to question authority. Authority figures get things wrong—or even outright lie. Skepticism is good.

But when the authorities you’re challenging are 1) a trusted journalist 2) with documentation and 3) the NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, you’re just being ridiculous. Even if you’re memory of whatever is crystal clear … human memories are notoriously unreliable.

If you ever find yourself about to comment in a situation such as this, step away from your keyboard or put down your phone; enjoy the air conditioning; and take a deep breath. Please.

—Jimmy Boegle

Scheduling Note

I am heading to the AAN Publishers‘ annual conference this week. I am currently the president of AAN’s board of directors, which means I have to actually 1) show up to things and 2) pay attention during the meetings and sessions, which take place Wednesday through Friday. As a result, the Indy Digest normally scheduled for Thursday may be delayed until Friday or Saturday. Or maybe it won’t! In any case, it’ll arrive eventually. Thanks for your understanding!

More News

• Our partners at Calmatters examined the costs—human and financial—of extreme heat in California. The lede: “A blistering California heat wave over the past week and through the Fourth of July holiday could be topped off by the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth. That kind of extreme heat has led to more deaths than wildfires and cost billions of dollars over a decade, according to the state insurance department. Following through on a mandate from 2022,  a new report from the department looked at seven extreme heat events in the state from 2013 to 2022 and found they took the lives of several hundred Californians. The events also had a total economic impact of $7.7 billion in the form of lost wages and productivity, agricultural and manufacturing disruptions, power outages, infrastructure damage and more.”

• Last week in this space, we discussed Project 2025—the game plan being pushed by the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups, to consolidate power with the president AND squash dissent, should Donald Trump win the election. Late last week, Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025 … and failed. The Guardian reports: “The Project 2025 plan includes calls for replacing civil servants with Trump loyalists, eliminating the education department, putting the justice department under the president’s thumb and banning the abortion pill. Democrats have made concerted efforts to say the 900-plus page document from the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank would be representative of a second Trump presidency. But although it was written by former members of Trump’s first administration, and he regularly echoes its policies in his speeches, last week Trump tried to disown the initiative. Posting on his Truth Social website, the presumptive Republican nominee claimed to ‘know nothing about Project 2025’ and have ‘no idea who is behind it.’ … Olivia Troye, a former White House adviser to Mike Pence who sat in on policy sessions during Trump’s first presidency, said Trump’s attempt to distance himself from Project 2025 was driven by a recognition that its deeply controversial policy prescriptions could sink his election bid. ‘This is preposterous if you look at the collaborators and the authors of this plan,’ she told CNN when asked whether Trump’s denial was credible. ‘A lot of these people…served in Trump’s cabinet during his administration. There are people that I worked with. I sat in those policy meetings with them.’”

• A Florida reporter trying to answer a simple question—if I call 911 from just outside of the city limits, which communication center will receive the call?—is now being threatened with criminal prosecution if she does so, even though she let all the appropriate government officials know what she was doing, and got permission from at least three of them. The Ocala Gazette reports, in a story that is completely insane: “I forwarded the written permission I received from the county to Ocala Mayor Ben Marciano, in case my call somehow got routed to the city’s 911 center. Marciano never responded to the email, but the next morning before I could make the test call, I received an email from Marissa Duquette, general counsel to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office: It has come to the attention of the Sheriff that you are attempting to make a ‘test 911 call’ by gaining authorization from the City of Ocala and County government officials and their Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). The purpose of this correspondence is to put you on notice that placing such a call is a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. To start, you do not need to call 911 to find out which center will receive your call. The two PSAPs can provide you with this information based upon your address. Accordingly, your ‘test 911 call’ is unnecessary.” This was just the start of the insanity, Now THIS is a time to question authority!

• Today’s recall news involves … chicken kebabs! Newsweek says: “Two imported chicken products have been recalled by the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) as they may cause illness. The frozen ready-to-eat chicken kebab products have been voluntarily recalled by Canada based Al-Safa US LLC following the discovery of potential Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium that can cause food poisoning and sometimes deadly infections. The affected products were produced in Canada on June 5, 2024, and imported to the U.S. on June 13 and 21. … Approximately 2,010 pounds of the affected products were sent to retail locations across the U.S.”

• And … Ford Mustangs! Fox Business reports: “More than 30,700 Ford Mustangs are being recalled in response to a problem that could cause unintentional turning of their steering wheels. The automaker said in a June 28 recall report filed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the Mustangs at risk of experiencing the unintentional steering wheel turning belonged to the 2022-2023 model years. The recalled vehicles were built between September 15, 2022, and April 5, 2023. ‘A steering wheel that turns unintentionally can cause a loss of vehicle control and increase the risk of a crash,’ the recall said.”

• And finally … our planet’s core spins … or well, it used to. It’s actually slowed down and is now going backward. What does this mean? Nobody knows, really! CNN explains, sort of: “Changes in core spin—though they can be tracked and measured—are all but imperceptible to people on Earth’s surface, (USC Professor John) Vidale said. When the core spins more slowly, the mantle speeds up. This shift makes Earth rotate faster, and the length of a day shortens. But such rotational shifts translate to mere thousandths of a second in day length, he said. … Scientists study the inner core to learn how Earth’s deep interior formed and how activity connects across all the planet’s subsurface layers. The mysterious region where the liquid outer core envelops the solid inner core is especially interesting, Vidale added. As a place where liquid and solid meet, this boundary is ‘filled with potential for activity,’ as are the core-mantle boundary and the boundary between mantle and crust. … Because the spinning of the inner core affects movement in the outer core, inner core rotation is thought to help power Earth’s magnetic field, though more research is required to unravel its precise role.” Got all that? No? Me, neither.

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