This weekend the "heat dome" finally crumbled over the lower central US and we had a dramatic thunderstorm wash through the area, tearing up trees along the way. Not a lot of rain here, but enough to give the soil a little spring when you walk on it (across the dead grass because I wasn't going to waste money watering it). It rained again this morning and the high will be in the 80s (we were in the 110 and above range for several weeks).

It's the kind of weather that when you see a neighbor out in their yard you can go say hello and not suffer from the heat and really short conversations.

It is my understanding that in addition to the generalized effect of climate change added to a year when there is an El Niño, there was an explosive undersea eruption of Hunga Tonga that blew so much water into the atmosphere that it will take a couple of years for that to dissipate, increasing temperatures fractionally. Every little bit makes it hotter.