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Slab City reaches its boiling point

bluedotliving.com

71–80 of 112 posts

Re: Slab City reaches its boiling point

#71
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? You push the dust 10000 ft up over the San Jacinto range against the prevailing winds… somehow? You don’t even get a downslope enhancement because the Salton Sea is lower than the Pacific. Or somehow the wind curves through the San Gorgonio Pass and back around to Los Angeles? You and what pressure gradient? I’m a meteorologist, so if you know the dynamics here, please explain.

There isn’t an explanation. It’s a pretty standard doomer trope to claim climate change can cause all sorts of ridiculous weather changes. In “the day after tomorrow”, the air gets so cold that jet fuel freezes the moment the helicopter flies into the cold air.

The first three minutes of that movie are accurate, because a meltwater did in fact halt the thermohaline circulation and end an interglacial period in the past. Of course the thermo part dominates over the haline part now, and the rest is garbage. Tropical storm dynamics over the Rocky Mountains, gimme a break. But my whole atm dynamics class went to see it in a theater and it was fun times.

Re: Slab City reaches its boiling point

#73
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way weather is changing, you just might get to see that happen in about 10 years. If it does happen, expect it to occur during the winter time.

How? You push the dust 10000 ft up over the San Jacinto range against the prevailing winds… somehow? You don’t even get a downslope enhancement because the Salton Sea is lower than the Pacific. Or somehow the wind curves through the San Gorgonio Pass and back around to Los Angeles? You and what pressure gradient? I’m a meteorologist, so if you know the dynamics here, please explain.

Would a strong low be enough to help? Sea level isn't really what you care about right, isn't it pressure? And the pass there is https://snoqualmiewx.blogspot.com/2019/03/will-it-happen-aga...

I assumed the dust from the Salton sea drying was more of a risk to Palm Springs and Mexicali, the general basin I suppose. And maybe places to the east like Phoenix? Looking at a map that seems like a stretch though.

Re: Slab City reaches its boiling point

#74
post #44
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read hyperbole like this all the time and it shocks me. Have you never been outside in 120F+ temps? I have spent many years of my life in those temps (Australia, all around Africa). Shade and plenty of drinking water and it's completely fine. Millions of people live their lives in those temps with no AC, no fridge, etc. I hear the same thing about the cold like "Frostbite in a matter of seconds past -30F". I used t…

Where in Australia did you live? No where I can find “regularly” hits above 48.9 degrees Celsius. The reference, the hottest recorded temperature in Australia is 123.2F (50.7c). Yes it gets into the 40s pretty regularly in a lot of places in Australia. But even 45c in a heatwave is very different to “regularly” living with temperatures close to 50c.

Yeah, he's BS'ing about Australian temps - I grew up in the northern hottest parts of Australia and worked the Western Deserts in the Pilbarra near Marble Bar .. "120F all the time" is bollocks.

As noted, the occasional 45 C heatwave for a few days is pretty much peak heat so far with anything approaching 48 C | 120 F being a rare event.

Re: Slab City reaches its boiling point

#75
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many treaties with the Native Americans has the government has broken? Nevermind the number. It is "All of them". This is not bombastic or exaggeration, it is simple truth.

That’s patently false. The reservations are still observed by the government. If all of them were broken the reservations would just be gone.

They aren't allowed to control their mineral rights. Just one of many injustices these sovereign nations are subjected to.

Re: Slab City reaches its boiling point

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drove through once; my feeling is that it takes a fair amount of guts to live in the desert-that desert, in the summertime. 120F+ is lethal to the unprepared who are out in in it for more than a brief period.

Nonsense, I grew up in the Middle East and it was regularly above 120F during the summer. Just wear a hat and make sure you have water. You’re making it sound like you immediately die.

I don't know where in the middle east you lived or if you miscalculated how hot 120F is (it's almost 50c). I'm sure it gets that hot in the middle of the desert but most people in the middle east don't live in the middle of the desert.

I grew up in Israel and 40c (104F) was an unusually hot summer day (you'd get a few days like that per summer, maybe more now due to climate change). More common summer highs were around 30-35c.

EDIT: I underestimated how much hotter the Arabian Peninsula is compared to the Levant - a quick look via google maps puts Doha at 39c right now (at 9am!), while Jerusalem, Damascus & Cairo are at 22c, 24c and 27c respectively!

Re: Slab City reaches its boiling point

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Creepy/sad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYe8EW7g5QM

A comment from that Youtube video: > It's really important to say that East Jesus Art Commune and Leonard's Mountain are not and never have been considered part of Slab City .... so it would help for you creators to actually find out about that before calling it part of The Slabs...it misleads people into believing the Slabs must be a very artistic place , which it is most certainly not... Because of a Bad Mechanic s…

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Re: Slab City reaches its boiling point

#78
post #13

Anybody here ever been to Slab City? I'd love to get the HN perspective on it.

I’ve been there, talked to people there, got invited to some people’s homes and explored some abandoned buildings around the area

It was just like a bunch of people trying to live or were fascinated with the idea of such a place

Honestly it’s just like another place with certain character. If you’re into art made from what’s available, stuff like graffiti and underground communities, and the kind of people who aren’t trying to fit in, it’s a really cool place. But otherwise it’s what it is

Re: Slab City reaches its boiling point

#79
post #43
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure the drying of a man-made lake quite qualifies as an environmental disaster, though the smell certainly isn’t pleasant. But it’s definitely not the largest environmental in California. That would be the destruction of millions of acres of wetlands in the Central Valley from the dry and vanished Tulare Lake northward. Next is the desertifying low Sierra as forests are replaced by chaparral and grasslands s…

Eh, just wait until the giant pesticide laden sand storms start kicking up and blowing into LA.

LA? Palm Springs and the surrounding low-desert communities is more like it, and they're already well aware of this future.

Re: Slab City reaches its boiling point

#80
post #13

Anybody here ever been to Slab City? I'd love to get the HN perspective on it.

I drove through once; my feeling is that it takes a fair amount of guts to live in the desert-that desert, in the summertime. 120F+ is lethal to the unprepared who are out in in it for more than a brief period.

120F is not lethal when the humidity is low, you're in the shade, and you have water. I lived in Tempe for six years, and it was regularly 115F+ in the summer, hit 118F a handful of times when I was there, and that's not counting the extra heat if you're standing in a parking lot. I used to bicycle four miles to work when it was 115F, and walked a couple times.

If you look at the Wikipedia climate tables for Slab City and Tempe, they're basically identical.

You're correct that it's lethal if you're unprepared, but so are plenty of other places and temperatures at both ends of the spectrum. I wouldn't want to sleep without AC in that kind of heat. But humans have survived temperatures like that for all of history.

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