Why squirrels are 'splooting' in the heat

What I want to know is how it can be "a painfully hot August in Central Texas" when its still July in Saskatchewan. I know we're backward but....

As for "these high temps felt across the globe", we're having a pretty nice summer here. We've only gone over 30C a few times and hardly ever over 35C. The nights are cool - I've had to close the windows a couple of times.
 
I live in Texas. This not new squirrel behavior. Having said that, it is freakin' hot down here.
 
sideshowbob said:
What I want to know is how it can be "a painfully hot August in Central Texas" when its still July in Saskatchewan. I know we're backward but....
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Oops, that was the wrong link - this is the updated one. Not much has changed, though.

It's Currently So Hot in Texas, Squirrels Are Splooting | 106.9 FM The Ranch (1069theranch.com)

As for "these high temps felt across the globe", we're having a pretty nice summer here. We've only gone over 30C a few times and hardly ever over 35C. The nights are cool - I've had to close the windows a couple of times.
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I noticed this news story...

Extreme heat wave triggers need to take the right precautions in the Saskatchewan sun -

Saskatoon | Globalnews.ca


Off topic:

Why do most Canadians prefer using Celsius over Fahrenheit? I have a few Canadian friends who use F for the interior, and C for outdoor temps. The general answer is that it's what they were taught to use during childhood, etc...and they prefer it.
 
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wegs said:
Oops, that was the wrong link - this is the updated one. Not much has changed, though.

It's Currently So Hot in Texas, Squirrels Are Splooting | 106.9 FM The Ranch (1069theranch.com)


I noticed this news story...

Extreme heat wave triggers need to take the right precautions in the Saskatchewan sun -

Saskatoon | Globalnews.ca


Off topic:

Why do most Canadians prefer using Celsius over Fahrenheit? I have a few Canadian friends who use F for the interior, and C for outdoor temps. The general answer is that it's what they were taught to use during childhood, etc...and they prefer it.
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What else could it be regarding the off topic subject? Why do we use imperial measurements when most of the rest of the world uses metrics. It's what we were taught.
 
wegs said:
Why squirrels are ‘splooting’ in the heat and what we can do to help them | KXAN Austin

I've noticed squirrels also laying under cars to find some shade from the heat. Leaving some water out for them is helpful. Heat waves are often cyclical, but do you believe that these high temps felt across the globe, are largely due to climate change/global warming?
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It's not what I "believe" but it seems to be the case that the rate of climate change has accelerated due to human behaviors.

I've read where we would be much cooler than we would prefer due to a natural swing back toward the "ice ages" and that due to human activity it's warmer which is a good thing for us but now that human activity has caused the rate of change to go beyond what we would prefer so now it's not a good thing.

Either way, Earth will survive for quite a while longer and humans are limited in that regard.

It's about climate change however and not just global warming. In Seattle warming would be a plus (until it isn't) but Texas would be on fire. It's also just greater swings in the rate of change.

Last summer in June we had a week of 100 F weather (unheard of) and this summer warm weather is just getting started in late July and it's still below average seasonal temps.
 
Regarding splooting, I'll have to try that in August if it gets too hot or I can just go down to the basement.
 
wegs said:
Why do most Canadians prefer using Celsius over Fahrenheit? I have a few Canadian friends who use F for the interior, and C for outdoor temps. The general answer is that it's what they were taught to use during childhood, etc...and they prefer it.
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Because:
1. It's what we were taught.
2. It's metric, and metric is better.
3. Americans are bloody-headed, and Canadians are not Americans.
 
Seattle seems keen on testing it out next month, if it gets hot enough. We'll see if it catches on.

Then, watch...it'll become a tik tok ''challenge''. lol
 
wegs said:
Off topic:

Why do most Canadians prefer using Celsius over Fahrenheit? I have a few Canadian friends who use F for the interior, and C for outdoor temps. The general answer is that it's what they were taught to use during childhood, etc...and they prefer it.
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The next question is why they were taught Celsius in school, which is probably because Canada is not too proud to join the rest of the entire world in using sensible and convenient units. :D

I belong to the generation of Brits that went through the transition at school, so I learnt both metric and the old Imperial system. There is no doubt that the metric system is far easier for anything remotely technical (science, engineering, etc). Mucking about with horsepower, foot-pounds and feet/sec was a nightmare. And having a temperature scale that has zero when water freezes and 100 when it boils is easier to relate to daily life.
 
exchemist said:
The next question is why they were taught Celsius in school, which is probably because Canada is not too proud to join the rest of the entire world in using sensible and convenient units. :D

I belong to the generation of Brits that went through the transition at school, so I learnt both metric and the old Imperial system. There is no doubt that the metric system is far easier for anything remotely technical (science, engineering, etc). Mucking about with horsepower, foot-pounds and feet/sec was a nightmare. And having a temperature scale that has zero when water freezes and 100 when it boils is easier to relate to daily life.
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Lol! Well, looks like we Americans are in the minority, on this issue. Decided to look up if the US is truly lagging behind and to my surprise, there are literally only a handful of countries who refuse to use Celsius over Fahrenheit. lol
 
Michael 345 said:
NASA lost its $125-million Mars Climate Orbiter because spacecraft engineers failed to convert from English to metric measurements when exchanging vital data before the craft was launched, space agency officials said Thursday.

Anyone know if this version correct?
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Don't know about 'version' but it did happen.
 
DaveC426913 said:
Don't know about 'version' but it did happen.
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The way I heard

English team sent over some details in metric

This version sounds like it was an American team sent over details in English metrics

Am I reading that correctly or has my dyslexia got it muddled?

:)
 
About the "splooting squirrels"... if they are grey squirrels... meh. If they are red, do what you can to make their lives easier! Reds are good! Greys bad! The UK red squirrel population has been declining for quite a while, and greys are taking over!

As for the F / C temperature thingy... in the UK we tended to use F when it's hot, and C when it's cold.
"Today reached 80-degrees in the shade!" (Farenheit)
"Last night it dropped to -2!" (Celcius)

It's only recently that we've really tried to embrace Celcius for both. Basically we were/are guided by what the tv news stations use for their weather reports, and now it is noticeably Celcius all round.
 
Michael 345 said:
The way I heard

English team sent over some details in metric

This version sounds like it was an American team sent over details in English metrics

Am I reading that correctly or has my dyslexia got it muddled?

:)
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According to Wiki it was a discrepancy between Lockheed Martin and NASA, both of which are American.

And it was Lockheed that made the error.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter

As usual, real life is not nearly as ironic as the internet would have us believe.
 
wegs said:
Why do most Canadians prefer using Celsius over Fahrenheit?
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We don't, actually. I only use C because that's how it's reported. We drive in kph because the government posts the speed limits. We buy gas in liters because that's how the government taxes it. We buy milk in liters because it's supply-managed.

But we buy coffee in a two-pound tin that's labelled 907 grams.

I asked a 22-year-old how tall he was and he answered, "Six feet." His grandparents learned the metric system in school but two generations later he doesn't know his height or weight in metric.
 
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