An 86 deg. F dew point!!

[Jason McKittrick]

Originally posted by Craig Maire II
I've never heard of a 90F dewpoint temp in the US before, looks like it may be a LOOOOOOOOOOONG, summer... :shock: :cry: :lol:

During the July heat wave in 1995 Appleton, WI reported a 90 degree DP. If memory serves I believe their observation was 103/90 HX 140 something.

 

[Joel Wright]

Dewpoints are over 80 all over the midwest again today. Highest one I can find now is 84 at Shenendoah IA. Even here, sitting in an officially extreme drought, we have dewpoints in the mid 70's.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Here's that obs Justin mentioned.

KENL 212005Z AUTO 21005KT 10SM CLR 36/32 A3003 RMK AO2=

97 deg F temperature, 90 deg F dewpoint. Sounds too insane to be true.

Hey, at least there was a 5 knot breeze!

Tim

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Map at the time of that obs... you can see the 90F dewpoint a tiny bit south of the image center.

 

[GPhillips]

From the map, it looks like the 90 is out to lunch, surrounded by mid 70s to low 80s. Also, the 88 up in east central IL is highly questionable given the surrounding observations.

 

[Brandon Clement]

Looks like a typical day in New Orleans in July and August. It always feels like your walking around in a big oven wearing a wet quilt. I will take the temps in the 100's before the td's in the 80's anyday. I remember when I was working in Brownsville a few years ago and I got on the plane at valley airport and it was 106 and when I got off in New Orleans it was 96 but the humidity just takes the air out of your lungs, it is miserable.

 

[Jeff Lawson]

I would say I'm happy to be in Tokyo right now rather than baking back home in Nebraska, but it's oppressive here as well. The heat isn't too bad, but the humidity is ridiculous at times - especially close to the Bay, which is where I live/work.

Once Typhoon Banyan passes through tomorrow, however, the weather should improve temporarily. I'm looking forward to seeing blue sky.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Highest heat index in the US today was Centralia, Illinois...coming in at 127F. Now thats toasty.

 

[Warren Eckels]

From the map, it looks like the 90 is out to lunch, surrounded by mid 70s to low 80s. Also, the 88 up in east central IL is highly questionable given the surrounding observations.

That 88F dewpoint is in Rantoul, Illinois, an observation site that usually reports dewpoints 4-9 degrees higher than other sites in east-central IL. It's sited at Rantoul National Aviation Center on the SE side of town, but I don't know how that would affect its readings. (And one would expect it to have been recalibrated over the last 10 years, no?)

An old topo map, from the days when the site was Chanute Air Force Base indicates a golf course to the east of the site and small hills (10-30 m) around the town to the N, W and NE, with the highest hills to the northeast. Later on that page, you'll see that it's believed the sensor needs recalibration. I could not find a similar page for Mt. Vernon, but at 0500Z July 25 the sensor reported its region's lowest dewpoint.

 

[Tim Vasquez]

Having lived there, I seem to recall there may be corn fields about a mile to the west and southwest. Not sure if it's enough to affect the readings though.

Tim

 

[B Ozanne]

I just got back from a trip to Southeast Asia...Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam. It was miserable there and I don't think it was as hot as what the midwest is seeing right now.

I think its cool that the highest dewpoints in the country don't occur in seaside states, but in the plains with all the crops.

If the weather station is accurate, within government standards, I don't care if a nearby cornfield is making it read higher than it should. The station is accurately measuring the dewpoint at that location.

 

[Matt Haworth]

I have been living along the gulf coast here in Houston for 18 years, which is all my life, the last 7 of which I have been taking climate data from my house. I can only remember a few times when the dew point was above 80 and it never stayed that way for long.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I travel through that part of Illinois every time I head to the Plains, and there is a lot of swampy land on either side of I-64 in that area. One year it was flooded and I-64 was essentially an elevated causeway across a miniature 'bay'.

The habitat makes this area terrible for bugs at twilight. Every time I drive through there just after sunset, the large bugs hitting the car sound like I'm driving through hail. It starts just west of the Indiana border and continues past Mount Vernon.

Now I always try to go through there during the day!

 

[Joe Zemek]

North Sea of Cortez is showing 90+T, 90Td, SBCAPE ~9000. Steamy! Needless to say this area is usually capped, but when storms roll into it like they're about to...