With the exit of the cold low pressure center, a slow but steady warming trend comes into western Nevada. Sunshine will dominate the skies into the weekend, with upper 70s on Thursday turning into mid-80s by Saturday, and we could hit 90 Sunday with a few heat-driven clouds popping up by that afternoon. Overnight lows will also warm up a bit, with only the coldest microclimates having any danger of getting frosts Thursday morning. Almost perfect weather for the Reno Air Races.

What follows has absolutely nothing to do with weather (with the exception that it deals with things hot), but it was such an interesting question that I thought I’d share it with you. Patrick writes in with the following: “I was on a trip to Ireland this past summer. At every castle they would say burning oil was used to defend the castle. My question is: what kind of oil was used? They did not even have coal oil then.”

Since this falls a bit out of my usual field of expertise, I had to do a little research. Of course, you’ve all seen the movies: The invading  armies, most wearing full suits of armor, make a valiant (or dastardly, depending on whose side you’re on) charge to scale the castle walls, only to turn into Spam in a Can as the castle inhabitants pour a swimming pool’s worth of burning oil down upon them. But Hollywood stereotypes aside, I found apparently it is unlikely they used any oil at all to pour on the marauding hoards. More on this tomorrow.