A storm can ease the heat, but don’t get carried away

Today’s question: My father, who had lived in the Valley since 1946, used to say after a rain storm this time of year, “That’s the storm that breaks the heat.” I’ve repeated this to my family and they mock me every time there is a storm, asking if that is the storm that breaks the heat.

Is there any truth to the statement that a storm breaks the heat this time of year? I need to get my family to stop mocking me.

A good thunderstorm might cool things off a bit and break the sort of oppressive heat that builds up to it.

But at least around here there is no particular reason one single storm might mark the end of the monsoon or the summer heat.

By the National Weather Service’s calendar the monsoon ended Sept. 30. In the real world, it ended when the prevailing winds switched around to the west.

I think you might as well give up on the storm-breaking-the-heat thing and hope that your family doesn’t find something else to mock you about.

In the NFL broadcasts why are so many of the sidelines analysts females? Did all the males get fired? It looks pretty sexist, doesn’t it? This is one explanation I found at freakonomics.com:

“Sideline reporters aren’t meant to elicit strategy and in-depth information in interviews as much as the players’ and coaches’ emotions, personality, etc., and women are better (or the networks think women are better) at eliciting same.”

That sort of makes sense, but then I am a middle child and we tend to avoid arguments. What do you think?