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Friday, October 16, 2009

Factual Friday: 34th

Fact: According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), this past summer (June-August 2009) saw below average temperatures for the U.S., making it the 34th coolest summer on record (records date back to 1895). Read the summary here.

If you were like me and thought summer was a little cooler than normal, NOAA says you’re right. Apparently, the average United States temperature for the (meteorological) summer months was 0.4°F below the average for the 20th century. Some states still had warm summers (Florida had its 4th warmest), but based on the mean temperatures for the contiguous 48 states, we came in below “normal”.

What makes this even more amazing is the placement of an overwhelming majority of the Association’s weather gauges. If you want to see some of them, watch this video. (Special thanks to Stuart Shepard and CitizenLink at Focus on the Family!) :)

If the majority of the sensors are placed so they’re picking up radiated heat from their environment and they still registered temperatures that put us below average for the summer...we definitely had a cool summer!

So, yes, this is me at my geekiest. :) Told you I loved weather. But I think there’s more to this than just my love of weather and attempt to come up with another interesting fact for this Friday.

Twice in the book of Proverbs, God addresses honesty in measurements:

Proverbs 11:1 “The LORD abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight.”

Proverbs 20:23 “The LORD detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please him.”
Obviously, I don’t believe this just applies to weighing items or even to temperature measurements for that matter. God values honesty in all of our dealings, whether business or personal.

But how often are we tempted to stretch the truth just a bit? “It’s only a ‘white’ lie,” we tell ourselves. But who have we cheated by using this argument, this “dishonest scale”? Ourselves, surely. God, most definitely. But it affects other people as well. It can affect your co-workers, your family, your friends, even casual acquaintances.

Everyone loses when honesty drops out of the picture.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan

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