Hot hot hot

It's going to get hotter. The news has this report: "Think it's hot now? Just wait until 2041 rolls around. Palm Springs is set to warm more dramatically than most of the rest of Southern California in the next 40 years or so, UCLA researchers found. The average annual temperature could rise 5.15 degrees by midcentury, defined by the study as 2041-2060. “It's certainly, I think, the kind of change that is noticeable,” said Alex Hall, the UCLA professor who led the study. If the warm-up isn't accompanied by any more rainfall — which Hall's team also plans to study — desert species would certainly feel the heat, desert ecologist Jim Cornett said. “That would stress a lot of our native desert plants, and I would hazard a guess that it would probably result in the loss of some of our larger cactus species,” he said. As plants go, so too would some animals. “They can go underground (and) escape, certainly, even a 5-degree temperature difference,” Cornett said. “But if you go underground and you come back on the ground and your favorite food plant or nesting site is gone, it doesn't make any difference.” Miss Penny Lane says: She's preparing by by a few more ice cube trays from the dollar store.