Smoke from the Detweiler Fire in Mariposa County, CA will keep our skies anywhere from hazy to downright smoky over the next couple of days. Otherwise we are under a very stable ridge of high pressure, resulting in sunny skies. Winds will be light in the mornings, with westerlies kicking up in the afternoons. High temperatures will remain in the mid-90s through the rest of the week and through the weekend.

Yesterday I mentioned that a thermometer doesn’t measure the temperature of the air, but rather measures the temperature of the thermometer. The key is getting the thermometer the same temperature as the air. While that may seem a simple thing, it really isn’t. Let’s take the car thermometer. While the instrument itself can be quite accurate, where it’s mounted can be in a very different environment than that in which we live. Even if the sensor is well ventilated, there will be some heat from the engine as well as heat from the sun shining on the hood that can contaminate the reading. In addition to that, the air temperature is supposed to be taken five to six feet off the ground, which makes sense since that’s where most of our heads are. More tomorrow.