I tend to nerd out more on the weather the older I get. Especially when it’s hot. I don’t understand the nerding, it’s just happening to me and you’re here to witness it.
I think it’s because the heat is part of Fresno’s personality. Just talking about hotness is boring on the surface, but when you dig deeper it’s kinda interesting. Like Fresno.
In this past few years of nerding-out about the Fresno heat, I have kept my eye on the various temps around the city.
Fresno doesn’t have just one temperature.
It is different throughout. It is rare when there is a same temperature in Fig Garden as there is in West Fresno. Or NE Fresno compared to Sunnyside.
I don’t know why. Either it is geographically setup to be hotter or the equipment at the airport taking the readings is calibrated badly, but the airport is consistently hotter.
The hottest area of Fresno, nearly EVERY day.
Sadly, this is where the definitive reading for Fresno is taken and then given out to the world. Fresno’s temperature of record is always its worst.
It’s bad marketing. This must be changed.
As an example, I have three different devices at my house (nerd alert!) that have outside temp readings. As I write this, two say it is 103, one says 104. The Fresno Airport reading is 108.
If you are in Chicago right now looking at temps around the country, Fresno would read 108 and not 104.
(I know, some of you don’t think there is a difference but there is and that’s not the point right now.)
It’s Baked Into Us As Fresnans
I get why Fresno would want to present itself to the world in the worst possible way. I hate myself too sometimes.
It’s secretly one of the things I love about this city; everyone sees us at our worst (heat & crime) and we’re like “Yeah? Fucking deal with it. If you can’t handle us at our worst than eat shit – or something like that.”
But maybe we can change this ONE thing? There could be days our high could read 98 instead of 102. Or 87 instead of 90. Sounds and feels better, yeah?
We don’t need to cheat either. Just take our official reading from a place in Fresno NOT the airport.
Scout an area that is the middle ground.
You can pick a City Of Fresno property. Like, a water-well site in an area of Fresno that consistently reads a lower-to-average example of Fresno’s temperature.
Kopi, I assume, giving it to you straight up
I mean is there some state law that says to pick the hottest area of town or something? Can’t Kopi step in here and tell Fresno to have a Great Day somewhere else?
Are you listening Weather Service in Hanford? Do you give a damn, City of Fresno?
With all the power invested in me as the City Blogger, I propose we use a different location for our temperature reading. The current one causes us too much heat.
Costco wants to move its West Shaw location to a currently vacant field at Herndon & Riverside. And they want to manipulate Herndon to do it. It seems the West Shaw location is too small for them.
Oh and in case you are still a little foggy on where Riverside Drive and Herndon is at:
It will have great views of the Olive Garden
If it’s THAT big of a problem for them on West Shaw. If it needs so much space. If we need to move and change things. Then, well, maybe it shouldn’t exist at all?
Or at least take the vacant old Super Walmart space just to the East of the current Costco Shaw location, if you ACTUALLY simply need more space.
I respect that Costco (has the reputation amongst the industry at least) of treating their employees better than most of the grocery and retail industry does. Many consider Costco a more ethical company than the Wal-Marts & Targets.
If that’s true, cool. But this is where my like of Costco ends.
Things That Suck About Costco [Old Man Rant Alert!]
It’s too damn big. All of it. The store and items.
They sell a whole buncha of junk. Junk that I shouldn’t nobody should buy.
The fucking parking. Both the NE Fresno location and West Shaw suuuuuck to get in & out of – they should be on this list. And yes, part of the reason they want to leave West Shaw is the bad parking but you know damn well the new place will end up being a shitty lot too.
They charge you annually for the privilege of shopping there (sucker).
Too many different things happening; poultry, books, TVs, optometrist, a giant bag of iceberg lettuce, all under one roof. It’s unsettling.
Lines. Long lines to wait in to give them your money.
And another thing, shouldn’t we be focusing on vacant locations in Fresno becoming residential or a park anyway? There are very few largish open spaces left in the city and the immediate thought is “Hey, let’s get a Costco in there!”
Oh and hey, like, aren’t big box stores on their way out? Amazon killing all the retail and stuff? And if not, won’t Costco come along one day and find that the new Herndon spot is also too small for them?
Let’s not forget what that area, including the small community of Herndon, has had to endure
The traffic is already a mess. I know, I go through there at least twice a day on my commute. Add a Costco with its gas station and then probably a little strip mall with a check cashing place next to a liquor store and a Subway, and it will be a disaster.
That doesn’t even include the many-times-a-day a Union Pacific freight train comes through. And when it does it backs up traffic for three light cycles and that’s with NOTHING currently in the lot that Costco wants to use.
Plus, it would be a waste for a city run golf course, Riverside, to have their third hole looking at the back of a Costco warehouse (with dumpsters and idling 18-wheelers), instead of housing or a green space.
I imagine the city will push it through because taxes or whatever. Not sure how to stop it. Just let the record show I said the new Costco on Herndon will be trash.
People can shit on this and I get it, you shouldn’t brag about things not technically in your city, but hey man: it’s pretty fucking cool we can get to everything rad in California by lunch time.
Tahoe
Yosemite
San Diego
Your Mom’s
Monterey
Las Vegas (ok it’s Nevada, but still)
San Francisco
Disneyland
Shasta (a late lunch)
Russian River Brewery
ALL BY LUNCH!!
Zachary’s Deep Dish Pic by @restaurantgroupie on Instagram
I can go have a pizza at Zachary’s in Berkeley right now, FUCKING WATCH ME.
Then go have some beers at Faction and look at this view:
Then have some sucker drive my buzzed-ass back home for tacos in downtown Fresno, LIKE. A. KING!
Can Austin say that? Fucking Kansas City? Chicago? Atlanta? Boston? Pittsburgh? Either of the Portlands?
NO! They cant say these things! Cities don’t talk.
But if they could? Well, they would say “I wish I was where Fresno is.”
