Euro looked quite moderate with the warm temps the upcoming ridging period to follow this current troughing. At face value Seattle area would struggle to hit 80 and Portland area would top out mostly in the mid 80s.

Stuck under a wrap around shower downpour. Maybe more rain than yesterday

The current forecast for Chicago has 7 consecutive days of 90s. Obviously this is not set in stone and it's possible that a day or two could fall short, but it would be a pretty rare occurrence this early in the season if it were to occur. Going back to 1872, there have only been 4 streaks of 7+ days of 90s before July. They are May 1977, June 1923, June 1954 and June 2005.

Fair enough, and I kinda hope it does not pass. That is a very serious commitment that is being made (even if there is no choice), and I think young men should have to go through that act of saying "yes, I am registering for selective service" I can easily see it turning into a scenario where we do go to war, have to activate the draft, and there being a bunch of people saying "what??? I didn't sign up for this!!!" Flip side, maybe they have too many people not doing it now, which is of course technically against the law, but do you want to spend resources chasing them down, and maybe even (if the situation warrants) prosecuting them. My son is very anti-military and anti-war, but I made him send his card in. I told him he could go the conscientious objector route if it ever came down to it. Ironically, he is now responsible for building some of the country's latest military hardware (just started testing last year) so I would imagine they would leave him alone if SHTF now. We've never really talked about the irony of his philosophies vs. the work he does, but I'm just leaving it alone. He is doing a great job, making great money and moving up the ladder rather quickly (worked there 2 years, will be getting promoted to manager this summer and they have talked to him about a director position a few years down the road.) I definitely remember filling mine out, and I remember the fact that the Persian Gulf tinderbox lit off in the form of the first Gulf War 2 months after I sent mine in on my 18th birthday. Obviously, they did not get the draft going, but still made me think...

Smoky satellite image this morning.