Dog Days End, 61st of the Dog Days, 526 M.E. (Deneb): The Dog Days of the New Revised Universal Solar Calendar coincide almost exactly with the Gregorian months of July and August. They began on July 2 and end today, August 31. Autumn starts tomorrow.

It was a bit more comfortable today, at least drier if not cooler. I got a long walk in today, nine miles, although my miserly phone only gave me credit for an 8.3-mile Van Buren. To be sure, it's still summer and I sweated and needed a shower as soon as I got back home, but walking outdoors didn't feel like walking through soup at least. We'll see if summer actually ends by the first day of USC autumn tomorrow (it's forecast to be a degree warmer than today).

Speaking of weather (which I'm aware that I speak far too often of), the remnant of Dolly are still forecast to arrive at Mar-A-Lago this week, although all eyes are of Tropical Storm Five, soon to be Eduardo,  which is scheduled to make landfall on the Texas coast tomorrow afternoon. Where it goes after that is anybody's guess, but if you live in Texas Hill Country, be advised - there might be flash floods this week.

There were flash floods on the Colorado River this weekend, killing two, and twelve are still unaccounted for. The death toll from the flash flood last week in Nepal and Tibet has risen to 939 people, with more than 4,400 missing on the two sides of the border.

The current El Nino is now stronger than at any point in the last 1,000 years. Not going to be stronger, not forecast to be stronger, it already is stronger and will only gain strength. We know it's stronger based on fossilized Galapagos Island corals which were studied to reconstruct the strength of previous El Nino/La Nina cycles. Studies of the fossils have confirmed that recent Super El Ninos in modern times are significantly stronger than anything recorded in the pre-industrial age. Temperature variability is now 36.5% higher than during the pre-industrial period up to 1850, with a clear skew in the positive direction showing that it is primarily the El Nino rather than the La Nina phase which is getting stronger.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed your Dog Days. Here's to an auspicious Autumn!