Even with the rain, we’ve been lucky this summer

We get four real seasons in Minnesota. An extra serving of winter many years. But things sort of even out. The dark, numbing gloom of a February day is more than made up for by the euphoria of a warm July day on a lake that looks straight out of a postcard. We’ve been lucky.

Washington, D.C., hit 104 degrees Tuesday with a heat index of 110-115. According to the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang it was the most intense three days of heat in D.C. since the Dust Bowl days of 1930. Broiling heat has stayed just south of Minnesota this summer — at least so far.

A potential tragedy was averted Monday evening when a tornado touched down 2 miles east of O’Hare Airport in Chicago, where thousands of passengers were waiting for flights. You’re a sitting duck in an airport gate with walls of glass. Pay attention to shelter locations.

Expect comfortable sunshine Thursday and Friday, but late-day thunderstorms are possible Sunday through Tuesday of next week. No face-melting heat. I see highs mostly in the 80s the next seven to 10 days. Whew.