By ERIK CHALHOUB, Managing Editor
As the calendar turned to September, our seemingly extended spring weather finally gave into summer. And it was a record-breaker.
Record-high temperatures were recorded across the region, crushing the previous records for this time of the year.
According to the National Weather Service, which monitors the weather at the Watsonville Municipal Airport, the high in Watsonville on Saturday was estimated at 110 degrees, nearly 20 degrees warmer than the previous record set in 2009.
Aptos experienced a similar high, and Santa Cruz netted a record 105 degrees.
A heat advisory was in effect until Sunday night, and thankfully, the National Weather Service predicts that our regularly scheduled weather of low-70s will return this week, after that odd rain cloud passed over Watsonville Monday morning.
Although many of us (myself absolutely included) are complaining about the hot weather, it could be much worse. I’m sure the residents of Houston, Texas would much rather have our weather “problems.”
While the floodwaters of Hurricane Harvey are lowering, this is just the beginning of the nightmare for the nation’s fourth-most populous city, with damage estimates ranging from $80 billion to nearly $200 billion.
I received a call from Houston resident Jane Chapman-Brough last week, who just happened to live in Santa Cruz County for 28 years before moving to Texas in March. She plans on writing about her experiences in the aftermath of Harvey for the Pajaronian over the next few weeks.
Her first installment ran in Saturday’s paper, and after reading it, I have to admit she seems to be one of the most unlucky people I’ve heard of. She moved to Santa Cruz County on Oct. 12, 1989, which just so happened to be five days before the devastation wrought by the 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta Earthquake.
Now, Chapman-Brough and her husband just moved to Houston from Watsonville in March, and perhaps one of the largest natural disasters in U.S. history strikes five months later.
One-hundred-and-ten-degree weather sounds pretty good right now.
•••
Erik Chalhoub can be reached at 761-7353 or ec*******@pa********.com.
