OKAY, I STEPPED OUTSIDE A LITTLE WHILE AGO, and it was actually a bit chilly. In Knoxville, in mid-July. My dad says it hasn’t broken 90 all summer, which may be right. I’m saving real money on A/C bills this year. Could be worse — could be Michigan.

Meanwhile, Nate Silver says it’s all in your mind. Two thoughts: (1) I hope so — better that than living in a John Ringo novel. (2) Just remember Nate’s stuff when the press is yammering on about a hot day, or a hurricane, being “caused by global warming.”

UPDATE: Reader Bobby Clarke writes: “Here in Austin, we’re having one of the worst summers ever. We’re on the tail end of a 2 year drought, and we’ve had record highs for most of July (well over 100). I don’t want to think about the utility bills. Those 70 degree days sound pretty good to us right now. So it’s cold in most of the country, and hot in the other parts. Its almost like weather is some amazingly complex and hard to understand system!” Nah — hot or cold, it’s always because of global warming. I think that’s in the AP stylebook or something.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Steve Schroeder of Mantorville, Minnesota writes:

In regards to the post about Minnesota Temps Nate Silver is just picking out high temps for a weird period of time – 6/21/09 to 7/17/09. What really matters in Southern Minnesota is Growing Degree Days – how is the Corn growing? Here is a link showing that we are behind by 131 growing degree days for the entire 2009 growing season. I have lived in Southern Minnesota for over 45 years and can say that the field corn is behind in its’ development and we are also behind by about a week or two eating the great sweet corn that grows here in Minnesota. In the real world these are the statistics that matter because it is a major economic driver for our local economy.

My tomatoes aren’t doing well, either. I don’t know that that says much about the global temperature, but you can bet if it were unseasonably hot we’d be hearing that it’s a vindication of Al Gore.