A hot week will continue through the next seven days, with mostly sunny skies Tuesday and Wednesday finally giving way to some afternoon clouds and a slight chance of thunderstorms toward the end of the work week through the weekend. High temperatures will flirt with the 100 degree mark in Reno throughout the week, and as the chance of thunderstorms develop, a Fire Weather Watch is in effect for Wednesday and Thursday due to the possibility of dry lightning and strong outflow winds that could develop from any storms that come to fruition.

Summer has officially been with us for over two weeks, but something about it bothered Tom (who wrote in about a week ago): “Could you please explain why it is that we’ve lost 6 minutes of daylight in the AM yet NONE in the PM since the days began to get shorter last week? Why isn’t it more balanced on each end?”

It’s a little tough to explain without holding a model of the earth and the sun, but I’ll try. Basically the reason is because the earth’s orbit is elliptical. What does that have to do with the price of Tea in China? Nothing. But it has lots to do with his question. And I’ll tackle that tomorrow.