Just last night I spotted, out of nowhere: the first cucumber beetles of the year - but none at the beetle lure. The first squash bug eggs - can't spot the progentitors themselves. Powdery mildew on melons and squash, despite regular applications of fungicide.

And of course Japanese beetles swarming everywhere for the last 2 weeks.

It's 100 degrees already and only going up. Must be July.

As for the JBs, we're in D1 drought and I've never seen so many of them. What does seem to discourage them is temps over 100. They go to ground until it cools off to 90 or so.

I mean I realize that we are at the height of the solar maximum, when solar output and sunspots are at their peak, but this is getting unbearable.

I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't garden like they do in Texas, spring crop, fall crop, and just heat lovers through July and August. Course I'd have to make a couple high tunnels to extend my seasons a couple months like they have down in Texas.

It was like this last year, and I'm thinking that next year will be like this too, if we look at the historical context. In 1930's, 1953-55, and in the late 80's we have had hot dry spells like this before, exceptional droughts. This year's heat and lack of rain mirrors '54 (from what I'm told).

The earth's weather system is SO complex though. You take solar output, el nino, la nina, The arctic oscillation, the north atlantic oscillation, and then put them all together, and only when each one of them line up in just the right way, we get murderous conditions here.

On average, the hottest part of the season here is the 10 days between 7/8 and 7/18.