New York City, August 10, 2017

★★★ Smooth, small clouds floated on the morning west. The middle of the day got darker, with a local clot of heavy gray over the West 60s, its edge somewhere around Columbus Circle. Down on Union Square, the situation was reversed, with bright sun above and a sulfurously tinted, lumpy darkness lurking a few blocks uptown. The color improved and the differences began to equalize into something bright enough and comfortable enough, a fading but real enough version of high summer. A supercar crept down the block, its hardtop retracted, moving more slowly than the foot traffic. Lush bands of color filled the open end of 72nd Street.