We should expect to see 100 degree days for the better part of the week ahead as an intense high pressure ridge builds into the region. Record high temperatures will likely fall Wednesday when we top out at about 105 degrees at the airport. All that heat could produce some thunderstorms in the afternoons, but most likely they will be south of highway 50 on Tuesday. As we head further into the week, the chances of thunderstorms in the Reno and Tahoe areas increase. By the weekend, highs will hall back into the mid-90s.

April asked me to help settle a bet: “Will an evaporative cooler lower a room’s temperature according to a thermometer? I say it only generates a wind chill factor, felt only by our skin, not by instruments. It’s not like an AC with Freon and stuff.”

I’m afraid you are going to have to pay up, April. Yes, an evaporative cooler will lower the temperature of the room. When water evaporates, it draws heat out of the air in order to change from a liquid to a vapor, lowering the temperature of the air. So on a 100 degree day, depending on how dry the air is, you can cool a room well down into the 70s. Again, the humidity of the air makes a big difference in how cool a swamp cooler will make a room… the drier the air, the cooler the results will be.