EXTREME HEAT WARNING!
The heat wave and dry weather conditions continued, and forecasters predicted it will persist into the future.  Another near miss on Tuesday brought out the garden hoses to run temporary drip lines to the grass growing under large oak trees that were drought-stressed.  The cicadas are out in full force in the heat of a lazy orange sunset.  In the wooded area behind my home, I saw some wild muscadines that were ripe. They were small due to the lack of rain. Several Gulf Fritillary butterflies have been busy laying eggs on the maypop vines.  The vines are putting on new growth only because of the irrigation they have been receiving the past few weeks.  Hyacinth bean plants are starting to flower in the heat of summer, and the bees are already buzzing.  I saw a black swallowtail butterfly landing on bare soil and lapping water from the irrigation that was just done. The 98°F and 38% rh on Thursday put a cap on the hottest, driest mid-August day that I can remember.  But a promising forecast for some rain Friday evening didn’t pan out and gave us a dust settler.