Across time and space

A couple of weeks ago an aunt and uncle visited. They are retired and were spending several weeks roaming the country in their pickup and Airstream RV. They had made a big loop through Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska, and were on their way back home to eastern Oregon.

Aunt and Uncle and parked their rig at Point of Rocks RV Park, just east of Potter on Highway 30. For those old enough to remember the distant past, the RV park used to be called Buffalo Bend and featured a motel and restaurant said to provide the only really fine dining between Cheyenne and North Platte. It’s a lovely place, nestled into the Lodgepole Creek bottom and hard by a picturesque siltstone ridge which the creek, Highway 30 and the Union Pacific railroad tracks bend around to accommodate.

Mom and I visited their “home on the road” on one of the last warm evenings of the summer. We had a delightful meal of hamburgers, potato salad and baked beans and sat and visited for several hours.

During the conversation Aunt asked me a number of questions regarding my service in the navy and wondered how she could find more information about her father’s naval service during World War Two. She mentioned that she had a transcript of her dad’s war journal which he’d penned during his time as a Gunner’s Mate in USS Minneapolis (CA-36).

s

Until this conversation I’d had no idea that my aunt’s father had been a sailor and served in the war. I’d met the fellow once, at Aunt and Uncle’s wedding way back in 1977, but the topic of World War Two certainly never came up. I don’t really remember anything about the man, though I’ve got quite a few snapshots of the wedding party safely digitized. Those images stir a few hazy memories, particularly of my aunt’s little sisters, who were quite fetching in their wedding-party frocks. But I was a teenaged lad in those days, with teenaged thoughts and dreams, and so little of substance about the wedding remains in my memory banks.

The journal that Bill Kruger wrote is sparse. Having served at sea I can read between the lines of his short entries and have a good idea of what he experienced. An underway sailor’s day is filled with work and routine. It was so in the days of sail and will likely be so when sailors sail the seas of space in some distant, future navy.

But then there’s combat, and that’s a different kettle of fish entirely. It’s anything but routine.

Bill Kruger was a Gunner’s Mate 2/C in 1942. He’d joined the navy before the war, in the late 1930’s. In USS Minneapolis he was a member of the ship’s Third Division and served as a Gun Captain in Number One Turret, the forward 8-inch mount of the cruiser.

USS Minneapolis was a Heavy Cruiser. The term heavy referred to her main armament, which consisted of nine eight-inch/55 caliber guns in three turrets, two forward and one aft. Light cruisers carried six-inch main guns, but were otherwise quite similar to their heavy sisters.

Minneapolis was ordered in 1929 and was a so-called treaty cruiser of the New Orleans class. Treaty cruisers were limited in size by the 1925 Washington Naval Treaty, an attempt to control the post-World War One naval arms race. She was 588 feet long and about 62 feet wide and had a draft of up to 23.5 feet with a displacement of around 10,000 tons. In addition to her main armament of eight-inch guns, she had a secondary armament of eight five-inch guns and an ever-changing assortment of 20 and 40 millimeter and .50 caliber antiaircraft guns. Her armor ranged from 1.5 to 5 inches. She could make about 37 knots, driven by four shafts drawing 107,000 horsepower from eight boilers. Her crew consisted of just over 100 officers and about 820 enlisted sailors.

Pre-World War Two US naval doctrine relied heavily on cruisers to accomplish multiple tasks. They were used as escorts for the main battle fleet and for aircraft carriers, as scouts, as commerce destroyers, as gunfire support ships for Navy and Marine Corps amphibious operations, as fast couriers, and even at times as VIP transportation for American officials including the President.

The attack on Pearl Harbor changed much of that doctrine. With most US battleships sunk or out of action, cruisers were forced into the “heavy” role of the battlewagons, in addition to everything else, particularly escort duties for the now-precious aircraft carriers, as well as scouting and raiding.

On December 7, 1941, Minneapolis was at sea near Hawaii conducting gunnery practice. She was not attacked; later in the day she began scouting for elements of the Japanese fleet. She spent a lot of time at sea over the next few months. In early May she screened the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) during the Battle of Coral Sea (45 years later I served on a carrier named for that battle, the USS Coral Sea). During the battle on May 8 Lexington was lost and Minneapolis took on board more than 800 survivors.

In his journal Bill Kruger wrote: “At sea. This is one day I shall never forget. The Lexington’s and Yorktown’s bombers attacked the Japs. Sank 1 carrier and left another burning. At 11:15 Jap planes attacked us. They sure were after the carriers. We had two torpedoes go under us and one near bomb miss. Our A.A. [anti-aircraft] battery shot down four Jap planes. The Yorktown is leaking oil bad from near bomb misses, but she seems to be O.K. otherwise. The Lexington was hit with four one-thousand pound bombs and five torpedoes. She kept making 23 knots for six hours. Then the fire got out of hand, and the crew had to abandon her. It sure made a lump come in my throat. We picked up about eight hundred men off her. The other ships are loaded down too. Guess there weren’t very many lost. After we pulled away, one of our destroyers sank her with four torpedoes. The Lex was a great ship to the very last. Boy it sure is crowded on here. That’s all.”

A month later Minneapolis participated in the Battle of Midway. She was likely screening Enterprise (CV-6) or Hornet (CV-8). There were no entries regarding this pivotal battle in Bill Kruger’s journal, though he did record that the ship went north to Alaska in the days following the end of the battle.

On August 7, 1942, US forces invaded Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomons Islands. This was the first step in driving the Japanese out of their conquered territories. We know how it ended today, but 75 years ago we had no idea how horrific the campaigns to defeat Japan would be. In some ways the Solomons campaign has become a footnote to the history of the war in the Pacific. In late summer and autumn 1942 the brutal reality of war hammered the sailors of three nations, and the idyllic waters of the southwest Pacific became the graveyard of ships, men, and pre-war naval doctrine.

Between August 8 and November 30, six major engagements were fought between Japanese and Allied naval forces. In that short 110 day period losses were astonishingly heavy on both sides.

In those six battles, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) lost two battleships, two heavy and one light cruiser, seven destroyers, 11 transports, and a light carrier, and suffered severe damage to a fleet carrier, light carrier, heavy cruiser and destroyer. They lost 238 aircraft. As for naval personnel, the IJN lost more than 3,517 killed.

Allied naval forces, consisting of US and Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ships and crews, were savaged. They lost six heavy cruisers (one of them RAN), a pair of light cruisers, nine destroyers, and a fleet carrier. They took damage to five heavy cruisers, four destroyers, and two fleet carriers. They lost 238 aircraft. Personnel losses included 3,753 US and Australian sailors killed.

Bill Kruger reported the initial landings at Guadalcanal and Tulagi, and the night Battle of Savo Island this way:

August 7

We attacked Tulagi this morning. Wasp (CV-7) fighters shot down 9 zero and 1 float type fighters and 4 patrol bombers. Sank one transport. Guadalcanal and Tulagi have both been occupied by our marines and everything is under control.

August 8

One of our destroyers reported hit by bomb at Tulagi during Jap raid, air defense sounded at 12:05. Our fighters shot down ten or twelve Jap bombers. 13:25 Secured from air defense.

August 9

We were at air defense stations most all day. The Japs are sending bombers from Rabaul. Many have been shot down. U.S.S. Quincy (CA-39) reported sunk last night by torpedos. Also heard the Chicago was hit. Hope Frank Renner is O.K.

August 12

Nothing new today. We heard that only 152 officers and men saved from the Quincy.

The Battle of the Eastern Solomons took place on August 24-25. US forces sank four IJN ships, including a light carrier and light cruiser. USS Enterprise (CV-6) was heavily damaged and the US lost 20 aircraft and 90 men killed. The Minneapolis was not damaged in the fight. Bill Kruger recorded his experiences:

August 24

Today was the day we have been waiting for. At 1:20 I saw our fighters shoot down a 4 motored Jap flying boat. At about 2 o’clock we had torpedo defense. Our fighters shot down two more flying boats out of a flight of 12. They turned and ran. We launched three attack groups, two from the “Saratoga” and one from the “Enterprise.” The “Enterprise’s” planes went into Tulagi after the attack so we haven’t heard the results. The “Saratoga’s” planes hit two Jap carriers, left one stopped and burning. Also hit two Jap cruisers and one battleship. At 4:50 we had torpedo defense and were attacked by 80 Jap planes. The only ship hit was the “Enterprise.” She has the fire out and the flight deck repaired. She has several of her after compartments flooded. But from the looks of things she is O.K. We have not received any word on how many Jap planes were shot down. But the people in ship forward said they were falling so fast, they couldn’t count them.

August 25

Received word that the fighter group on Tulagi intercepted a Jap force headed out to attack us. The results were five Jap twin motored bombers shot down and eleven zero fighters. Our losses were three fighter planes.

Received word that our force at Tulagi found a Jap convoy 90 miles north of Tulagi, bombed them, and left a heavy cruiser and a large transport burning.

We headed south all last night and today. We met our tankers about 2 o’clock. We should be through fueling by midnight. Then we will head north again.

In September, October, and most of November, Bill Kruger’s journal is filled with much routine and a few bits of action. Then came the night of November 29-30 and the Battle of Tassafaronga.

November 29

Got underway at midnight. We are making 27 knots headed for Guadalcanal. The force is made up of three heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, four destroyers, and ourselves.

November 30

At 11:28 P.M. we attacked a Jap force of destroyers, cruisers, and transports. This ship sank two destroyers, one cruiser, and one large transport. As I was loading the tenth salvo in my gun, I felt a terrific impact. I could not tell where we were hit, but I know it was bad. When we were hit it blanked me out for a few seconds. After my head cleared I finished my load, we fired that one (it sank a destroyer), and loaded again. As we finished the eleventh load we lost all power and shifted to hand. I received word to take as many men as I needed and rig for auxiliary power. As I went out of the turret, I could see ships burning all around us. There was still much firing going on, and many shells going over us. We were dead in the water. The ship was down at the bow, and listed to port. When I reached the shell deck I saw a very large cruiser blow up amidships about six thousand yards off our port beam. It had to be a Jap, because I never saw one like it before. It lit us up like day and I expected all hell to break loose. But no one fired on us. About this time one of the men from the turret came out and told me they had power again. I went back in, and we trained around looking for a target. But we did not fire again. We were ordered out of the turret and to stand by the life rafts. After all hands were out of the turret I went down through to see if all hands got out. When I reached the shell deck I met Smith J.W. and he was going down for the same reason. We went together but found that everyone was clear. We went out and helped put life rafts in the water. At about four in the morning it looked as if we could save the ship. And I was ordered to man my 20mm gun on top of the turret, as we expected an air attack. As daylight came P.T. boats and two tugs came out to help us. A tug took us in tow, and we headed for “Tulagi” harbor. We reached there about nine in the morning. We were hit with five torpedoes, two which blew 88 feet of our bow off. And three in number two fireroom. They also flooded number one and three firerooms. We had thirty-seven dead, and many injured. By the grace of God I am well.

That was the last entry in Bill Kruger’s war journal. If you think about it, you might understand why. Bill survived the war, of course, married, had kids, had a career, and lived a long, full life of more than 80 years. He passed away in 2004.

In an interesting coincidence, a sailor from Kimball served with Bill Kruger in USS Minneapolis. Charles M. Lanning was a Chief Boilermaker. He also joined the navy before the war and may have been a year or two older. Charles Lanning did not survive the war. He was killed that November night at Tassafaronga. As a boilermaker, his battle station would have been in one of the engineering firerooms, and it’s quite likely he was killed when the Japanese torpedoes struck amidships after the bow was blown off.

Corpsman Chronicles X: Reflections

I've had my head pulled in for a while now and have generally disengaged from the land of instant communication. There are reasons and perhaps I'll describe them at some point. I've been doing a lot of what good ol' Socrates suggested. I've discovered that, for me, too much instant information can be corrosive to growth, and my personal belief is that lack of growth is a death sentence for the soul. When I snap the tape I want to own the entire race and not be surprised when I look back and see stumbles. I want to own the good, the bad, and the ugly. I do not want to go gently into that good night singing the professional victim's anthem and blaming phantom oppressors.

Random images from 1985.

Night moves.

Look at dis firetruckin' guy!

Real sailors.

Up by the forward 03 BDS iirc.

Still alive

Haven't had a lot of spare time lately to connect with the web of world weirdness. It's just stuff, but busy stuff.

Here are a few videos from a farmer friend in Herefordshire. First (and sadly, perhaps the last) a classic English Ploughing Competition.







Next, stacking straw bales. These are used as bedding whilst cattle and sheep are housed indoors during the wet English winter.



And finally, the scene near the White Hart Inn and Bunkhouse near Brecon, Wales. Lovely countryside.

1814

In eighteen fourteen we took a little trip,
Along with Kernel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans,
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.

Nah, this post isn't about the War of 1812, or the Battle of New Orleans, or the song, or Johnny Horton.

I just happened to glance at the clock as I was trying to come up with a post title and the time was 1814.

It is a catchy tune.



I thought this was interesting as well. Check out 14:50 to see a serious "oh shit" moment.

Tanker tours the mother-in-law

I've been struggling a bit of late. There really don't seem to be many folks who share my principles, and that's quite bothersome.

Only a couple of possibilities of course. Either my principles are correct, or they are not.

Taking a page from the Socratic playbook, I've been examining my life under the brightest lights I can bring to bear. It's a process.

##########

Hail storm last night. Some years we have snow on September 15. Some years we have a different kind of snow.



##########

Seen in the local kwik stop. My recruiter was a bb stacker too. If I were a younger man...

##########

The fellow who made these videos is an Army tanker who was born and raised in Ireland and served for a time in the Irish armed forces. He seems to have an interesting story. You might enjoy visiting his youtube channel, particularly if you like tanks. And who doesn't like tanks?

Back in the olden days...

Air Force Special Report circa 1975

Days of whine and poses

Had a few bothersome days there.

My blood pressure kept crashing. Well, not crashing, exactly, but falling down into the 60/30 range. Which isn't so bad, I guess, except that I feel exhausted and mentally foggy when it does that. I don't like feeling that way.

I'm in the middle of a 30-day heart monitor trial to see if my heart is having a rhythm problem which might be causing the low blood pressure.

Of course we can't see the readings until the 30-day period is over. "Ve haff procedures vitch must be followt, nicht wahr?"

The regular ekg is fine, and although my heart rate is only about 50 when the b/p drops, 50 beats per minute is not profoundly slow and the rhythm is dead normal. For certain values of dead, of course.

The medical cookbook used around these parts does not allow for any real investigation of real symptoms. Patients have to be lumped into a particular category. Period. Once placed in a category, the cookbook requires that treatment follow the recipe precisely. Period.

The category I'm supposed to fit into is the old fat guy with a failing heart category. The cookbook says I'm supposed to take powerful heart drugs designed to make a post-heart attack heart beat more strongerly. Despite the fact that I have had no heart attack and have no signs of any kind of cardiomyopathy. Also I am supposed to go home, hit the recliner, and watch the 24/7 news cycle.

Well, firetruck that.

Fortunately for me, I'm aprofoundly and fundamentally uncategorizable individual with a rudimentary understanding of human anatomy, physiology, and medicine. I have the ability to reason, and when I bend my mind to the task I can pretty easily tell when a recipe is likely to do more harm than good.

I am, therefore, according to the cookbook, a non-compliant patient.

I suppose they'll come for me in the night. That's fine, my Sig has lovely night sights.

Up until a few years ago medical science held a lot of promise. But America began to kill it off when people decided that the ponzi scheme of "insurance" would be a good idea. After all, it said so right there on paper! You get something for free! More importantly, you get to punish your enemies by making them pay for your care! What's not to love? And the best health care in the world, state of the art medicine, all rainbows and unicorns and shit. Says so right there on the paper!

Which is all wonderful and tingly.

Reality in the real world is different than the reality described by Royal Tailors Who Produce Cloth Which Can Be Seen Only By The Wise.

I'll take the ratty old denim, thank you very much, and I'll take a pass on the nostrums which will only hasten my descent into decrepitude.

##########

It's been very hot so far this month. Hot and dry. So hot and dry, in fact, that all the experts is sayin' how the weather conditions is all unprecedented, and that we're on track to shatter ever' single record and stuff. Boosche caused grobal warmering by stealin' the 'lection from the saintly, world's-champeen climatologist algore, and now we all gonna die.

Funny thing though.

You have only to look back five years, to September, 2012, to find near identical conditions.

Through the first 11 days of this September at Kimball, the daily high has averaged 85.54 degrees, the overnight low 52.09 degrees, and the daily mean 68.81 degrees. Those numbers through the first 11 days of 2012 were 85.90, 51.36, and 68.63, respectively.

Nicht nach den Experten!

Well, you know. Reality.
##########

I did some prairie dog hunting this morning. I stalked in from a mile, paying careful attention to the wind and to the noise and vibration of my approach. The last 100 yards I did on my belly, slowly and quietly worming my way through dry, scratchy, stabby vegetation.

It was a good stalk, and I was rewarded by the presence of a happy, above-ground group of prairie dogs. The scope brought the first one into sharp focus, and I laid the cross-hairs just to the left of the third button down on the Tattersall vest he was wearing. I put my thumb on the safety and prepared to fire.

The prairie dogs disappeared.

Overhead soared a large Ferruginous Hawk.

Breathtaking.

##########

Reality has hard edges and stickers. Sweat and blood and gore and bitter disappointment. In the end, mortality.

I would far rather hurt and bleed and suffer and die than spend my precious and limited time in the psychotic realm of an externally dictated alternative reality.

##########

And now that the temperature has touched 89 degrees I shall go charge some hills.

##########

I have charged those hills. It is now two hours later, two degrees hotter, and I am not dead. My workout covered 4.5 miles in an hour and a quarter and those hills were lovely. In February I could not have walked up heart attack hill. Today I did it five times in succession and had to sprint (for certain age-adjusted values of sprint) the steep pitches to feel like I was doing something exercise related.

When I finished my heart rate was 57 and my pressure 107/75.

I'm beginning to suspect that my bouts of hypotension will even out as I continue to improve my level of fitness and cardio-pulmonary health.

Time will tell.

I'm not gonna take those firetrucking drugs and sit around waiting to die.

Curlycup Chimney Rock

I'm reasonably certain that everyone in the world is familiar with the world-famous Chimney Rock near Bayard, Nebraska.

If you search for Chimney Rock on the Webbe of Universal Connectedness you will find that the first results are not in fact for the Nebraska version of Chimney Rock, but for some other lame-@$$ rock in North Kackalakki.

However, a more refined search will lead you to a site managed by the nebraska state hysterical society where you can learn all about the famous landmark and stopping-off place for pioneers heading west bitd.

It really is an interesting place and worth visiting if you're passing by or are very interested in pioneers.

However, I do not favor our state hysterical society nor their administration of the landmark. They take a huge bite of property taxes to showcase nebraska history, but then the greedy corksatchers charge admission, too. This I don't approve of. But that's just me.

Anyway, Mom and I visited the site yesterday -- as well as a nearby rv park -- to get the lay of the land and prepare a scouting report for left coast family who will be passing through next month.

We had a very nice time despite the hysterical society. Sometimes it's fun to drive around the local area and look at stuff. We finished the trip with a late lunch at a Mexican restaurant in Scottsbluff.

Before we left I took a few pictures of autumn sunflower and curlycup gumweed, two colorful fall-blooming forbs.

Today, I'm afraid, has been rather busy. Tomorrow will be as well. Sigh. That time of year.

Goose Summer

Don't worry, it's not here yet.

But it won't be long!

Goose Summer is a nearly forgotten concept. That's a bit ironic when you consider that it gave us English-speaking folks the word gossamer.

Gossamer, of course, means a fine, filmy cobweb, or an extremely delicate gauzy fabric, or things that are extremely light and delicate.

In looking at the etymology of the word, it appears to have come to us from the middle-English of the fourteenth century as a conjunction of the words gos (goose) + sommer (summer).

Goose Summer referred to the warm period in autumn -- usually late October or early November -- when the first icy blasts have faded and the world seems to reawaken in a brief but lovely golden splendor. Today this period is most often called Indian Summer, and sometimes St. Martin's Summer in England and on the Continent.

Late October and/or early November was, in 1300's England, the traditional time for harvesting geese. It also coincided with the ballooning of millions of recently hatched spiders which relocate to winter quarters by being borne aloft on threads of silk in sun-warmed air currents. These silky threads gradually became known as gossamer, and that name stuck while the reference to autumnal Goose Summer faded.

In Sweden the season has been called sommertrad (summer thread) and in Germany Gänsemonat, or goose month.

But, you might say, it's not even September yet, what's all this about Goose Summer then?

Well, to make a short story long...

Yesterday I posted an image of a funnel web spider crouching in its web, prepared to sally out and ambush prey.

This type of funnel web spider is a member of the family Agelenidae, which belong to the suborder Araneomorphae. The ubiquitous grass spider (Agelenopsis) is also a member of this suborder, so the two are related. And grass spiderlings are common autumnal balloonists all across the planet. The Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia. Everywhere.

So with summer fading, coming across the funnel web spider reminded me of ballooning grass spiders, which reminded me of gossamer, and Goose Summer, and, well, you get the picture. It's a bit untidy, but that's how my mind sometimes works.

Now then.


I really like spiders. Always have. I freaked Miss Meyer out in second grade when I announced that Charlotte was obviously an example of Araneus cavaticus, or barn spider.

She was really pleased the next day when I showed up with a barn spider in a baby food jar. But I digress.

As I was out and about working on fence yesterday, I noticed a plethora of jumping spiders. These guys (family Salticidae) are really cool. They are ambush hunters with amazing vision. Rather than build webs to trap prey, they leap out and capture the bugs that they eat. Like all spiders, they do have the capacity to spin silk, but they use this almost exclusively to anchor and tether themselves when leaping.

Many of the jumping spiders I saw yesterday were red-backed jumping spiders, most likely Phidippus cardinalis, or Cardinal Jumper.

These are interesting because in the color and texture of their red hair they demonstrate mimicry of the multillid wasps, also known as velvet ants or "cow-killer" ants. The female multillid wasp has one of the most painful, yet least toxic, stings known to man. In mimicking the multillid, Cardinal Jumpers are likely able to prevent some predators from attacking them. Which could be useful.

Pretty cool, huh?

But wait, there's more!

As summer fades into September, college football is beginning. Our local side, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, will play Arkansas State at home in Lincoln Saturday night in fact. And the Cardinal Jumpers wear very much the same color as our beloved Cornhuskers, which were known as the "Bugeaters" back in the day (1892-1900). So do the math. Gotta be a good omen, right?

Finally, here's a non-cardinal jumping spider.

I'm particularly proud of this image, even though the camera did all of the work. Sometimes you get lucky.

I suppose that's enough for today.

Fading heat

There's been an upper air pressure ridge embedded overhead for the last week or so, and as of this morning the weather guessers believe it will stay in place for perhaps another week.

Nona the Wonder Dog. Not a big fan of fixing fence.

Although she does enjoy a dip in the stock tank.

In a lot of ways the predicted future movement or non-movement of the pressure ridge is pure speculation. Forecasters go by history and trend models. They have a huge amount of very precise historical data to work with, data that stretch back from this very moment to 100 years or more ago. History shows that the general outline of seasonal weather seldom strays far from the statistically established norm.

What neglected cross fencing looks like.

But the details are very hard to suitcase. The Earth is a dynamic and complex place, and factors affecting weather are manifold. We generally understand how it all works, but puzzles remain to be solved, and the interactions of uncountable trillions of air and water molecules are impossible to quantify and predict. We can come close, sometimes, but that's about it.

The incredible melting fence post.

Nature is a great woodworker.

Anyway, back to the pressure ridge. While it's in place the big continental weather systems are moving around us, and our weather is seemingly unchanging. The sun beats down from clear skies. Air temperatures climb. Little wind is present to move the warm air around. In the afternoon water vapor flows upward from transpiring ground cover and condenses out into heat-holding cloud cover, so that the air remains warm long after the sun has retired from the field for the day. The clouds break up and depart late in the evening, heat radiates upward, and by morning the mercury has tumbled into the mid-50's.

Is that smoke?

And the cycle begins again.

?

This is the last hurrah of summer's heat.

Hmmm...

August 2017 was rather an interesting month so far as weather is concerned. Across the Nebraska Panhandle and much of the tri-state region the first half of the month was more cool and wet than average, while the second half of the month was just the opposite -- warmer and drier.

Not smoke.

From August 1-15 rainfall south of Kimball totaled 1.84 inches, which is 0.04 inches more than the long term average for the entire month. Peak daytime air temperatures averaged 79.4 degrees, about six degrees below average. Daily low air temperatures came in at 54 degrees, again six degrees cooler than average. Unsurprisingly, the daily mean air temperature of 64.73 degrees was about six degrees lower than average.

Funnel web spider.

From August 15 - 29 (as this is written August 30-31 are forecast to be much the same) precipitation south of Kimball totaled only 0.07 inches, or about 0.85 inches less than the long term average. Daily high temperatures climbed to 85.76 degrees, overnight lows climbed to 54.3 degrees, and the daily mean rose to 70.45 degrees. With the exception of rainfall totals, weather conditions over the second half of August were very close to the long-term norm.

The non-Australian, non-deadly funnel web spider.

Overall for the month, the cool and wet first half will make August, 2017 slightly wetter and slightly cooler than average.

Very little of the actual weather conditions of the month were predicted by the weather guessers. As always, there's a significant difference between real reality and the artificial reality we manufacture.