Midcoast Maine schools (and others) close early due to heat, air quality (unprecedented)

[jpak]

http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/Midcoast/Midcoast-schools-close-early-due-to-heat-air-quality,152719

BELFAST, Maine — Several schools around the state sent children home early Wednesday as temperatures reached or exceeded 90 degrees for a fourth straight day. By midafternoon Wednesday, the National Weather Service said temperatures had reached 95 degrees in Bangor, 91 degrees in Portland and 91 degrees in Caribou.

Students in Camden, Rockland, Hope, Belfast and the surrounding towns were dismissed starting at 11:30 a.m., according to district secretaries. Students at schools in Fort Kent and Madawaska were sent home at about 1 p.m., according to officials in northern Aroostook County.

Other schools contacted by the Bangor Daily News, including in Bangor, continued classes as scheduled, but canceled or curtailed school activities and sporting events due to the heat.

Dee Tidd, the central office secretary for Union 69 in Hope, said that the heat closure is “very rare” but that it has been miserably hot in the Union’s non-air-conditioned schools.

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Heat prompts some school closings

http://www.sunjournal.com/city/story/903839

On Day 4 of the heat wave Thursday, some Maine schools closed because of the temperatures, something school superintendents said they've never done before.

Schools in Rockland, Augusta, Chelsea and Gardiner closed or sent students home early Thursday.

“The kids were suffering. There was no learning going on,” said Judith Lucarelli, superintendent in RSU 13, which covers 10 schools in the Rockland-Thomaston area.

Lucarelli, a former Gray-New Gloucester superintendent, sent students home early Wednesday and called off school Thursday. “It was just so hot,” she said. “We have over 200 classrooms. Four are air-conditioned. . . . In my 41 years as an educator, I've never experienced this,” Lucarelli said

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Maine has experienced a 4 day record setting heat wave - but thanks to Hurricane Earl, it broke last night...

Hurricanes and heat waves - the new normal in Maine

:thmbsdown:

[gaiangreentree]

1. sizzle snap crackle burn

With all the humidity there, any heat makes it like a pressure cooker.

WHO many will still be calling snow "global warming" come winter time.

Most of Maine was once desert, the indigenous home of every camel's ancestor.

Wonder if this is another sign of the end of the Holocene, or simply a statistical outlier.


hmmmm....

[jpak]

2. Huh?

:wow:

[gaiangreentree]

3. oops

meant to write "How many"... not WHO...

sorry for the confusion

[jpak]

4. Ummm - the geology of Maine is dominated by Paleozoic and Precambrian igneous and marine sedimentary...

rocks - and by glacial deposits - mostly marine.

http://www.maine.gov/doc/nrimc/mgs/explore/fossils/bedrock/fossil-bdrk.htm

There is no evidence that it once was "desert" and no camelid fossils have been found here.

Furthermore, heavy snow events are related to elevated temperatures - the greatest snowfall months for Maine ski areas are March and April - not December-February - as warm air holds more water vapor than cold air.

Global warming is enhancing warmth and poleward transport of water vapor - so yeah, one can relate heavy snow years to warmer temperatures.

try again

[gaiangreentree]

5. Fail

Wrong answer

The correct answer would have been "Yes, and the blueberries there are marvelous"
.
Other acceptable alternate responses could have been:

"Bert and I think that LLBean is sooo touristy"
"Yeah, I've been to Freeport too"
"That sign is so wrong, and yet wicked cool beans"

But thanks for playing.

You brought up skiing, which I have never done. Is Sugarloaf Mountain ads still dominating the airwaves?

[Nihil]

7. Fail

Another disjointed disruption attempt alerted upon.

"But thanks for playing"

[gaiangreentree]

6. oops

meant to say "are dominating" not "is"

sorry