Heatwave

[David Wagener]

Its sad when 90s are starting to sound cold. Oh well..its July. One thing I've noticed that some may be able to help me out with...

Like today...NWS Norman has their high temp map out, it has Norman at 104 on it. Now when you look at the reporting information for Westheimer Airport, the high today was 108. Is there a reason always seem to be off?

Not that it really matters...it all feels the same after 95, but if we are gonna burn to death - might as well get credit for it.

 

[Karen Politte]

Like today...NWS Norman has their high temp map out, it has Norman at 104 on it. Now when you look at the reporting information for Westheimer Airport, the high today was 108. Is there a reason always seem to be off?
[/b]

I asked the same question not that long ago on here - but got very little response. It irritated me to see the forecast high get blown away by as much as 6 or 7 degrees by the actual high - but you just get used to not being able to reply on the forecast high after a while. It's apparently a "normal" thing......

KL

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

I asked the same question not that long ago on here - but got very little response. It irritated me to see the forecast high get blown away by as much as 6 or 7 degrees by the actual high - but you just get used to not being able to reply on the forecast high after a while. It's apparently a "normal" thing......

KL
[/b]

From a few posts back:

FYI:

QUOTE
The max in Norman today was 109, while it was "just" 106 up in OKC.


Norman's ASOS is out of whack when it comes to temperature. For a much better reading, check the OK mesonet. From experience, it seems Norman's ASOS runs about 5-7 degrees F warm. Mesonet had a high of 102-103 today. The one time you do need to take care in using mesonet temperature obs is when there is no wind. Mesonet temperature sensors are not aspirated like teh ASOS.

Aaron[/b]

 

[Ronnie Bradley]

Finally, a strong cold front is progged to move Sward and put a temporary end to this scalding heat. Looking ahead, the CPC has their preliminary forecast out for August. More bad news for my area: above normal temps and slightly below normal rainfall forecasted. Gah!

 

[Scott A. Kampas]

Some friends and I have talked about the copious storm damage around STL creating issues with the heat and no power (Chicago and St. Louis both had high fatalitiesi in 1995 and some more in 1999).

National Guard in St. Louis to bring people into the cold

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- The governor sent in the National Guard to evacuate people from their sweltering homes Thursday after storms knocked out power to nearly half a million St. Louis-area households and businesses in the middle of a searing heat wave.
[...]
With forecasters expecting another day of 100-degree heat, utility crews raced to restore electricity, and Gov. Matt Blunt declared a state of emergency, granting the mayor's request to send in 250 troops to take people to air-conditioned public buildings and to clear debris.[/b]

The high temperature at Lambert was a little shy of the predicted 102 or so, but moisture has increased significantly (where it had before been a less humid than normal summer) with recent rains with an event before the heat wave plus yesterday's storms, with a dew point temperature of 79 today. The City of St. Louis has been in the 115-120 range for heat index for the last several days (much higher than surrounding areas, the urban heat island effect is exacerbated in STL by the extensiveness of brick construction).

The death toll from the heat wave that has gripped much of the country for the past week rose to at least 20 people in nine states. Four more people died in the Chicago, Illinois, area, bringing the total number there to seven, officials said. Two have died in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area, two in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, two in Arkansas, two in Indiana and one each in South Dakota and Tennessee.

In St. Louis, officials reported the death of a 93-year-old woman who had air conditioning but no power.[/b]

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

I remember my climo instructor telling us about how after a heatwave, mortality rates actually decrease. Typically, the heat kills those that are on the verge of kicking the bucket to start with...

Aaron

 

[Marko Korosec]

Someone was talking about heat in Europe awhile ago, we're experiencing strong heatwave as well! Especially in France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia. We're reaching 95°-105°F for the whole week now. Today was the hottest day in my country, few stations in western parts broke all the time records! The main reason for this is extreme drought, I got just 14mm (5%) of rainfall in the last 2 months, usually we get around 200mm during June and July. The eastern parts cant get 95° since they got above average rainfall in the last months. And we have the same conditions (T850, wind..), the ground is pushing them back.

So we're now getting a lot of fires every day here and it seems its getting even worse! Humidity drops below 15% every day, looks like it will be the same for the next 14 days. Here are pics of fires around my place in the last two days, I have never seen so many fires here:

All the rest pics are in my gallery, take a look here: www.weather-photos.net

Regards,
Marko

 

[Susan Strom]

Here's current conditions, Sky Harbor Airport, Phoenix, Arizona right now. Owie. Welcome to the Sonoran Desert. At least there's some big boomers right now warned on as severe, coming into the Valley. That is great.

We're used to this stuff out there. The sun is so strong as well, it feels 10 feet overhead. This is dangerous weather, the Sonoran is nothing to mess with, that's for sure. I minimize travel or go by night, keep car in good repair, always carry surplus of water and food. I become much more active in the eve; just like the critters here people do the same thing June-Sept.

Wind Calm
Visibility 10 mile(s)
Sky conditions partly cloudy
Weather Cumulonimbus clouds, towering cumulus clouds observed
Temperature 115.0 F (46.1 C)
Dew Point 45.0 F (7.2 C)
Relative Humidity 10%

 

[joel ewing]

I own a big open-air Mexican Pottery and import business here in Tucson. Picture a swap-meet type business setting...with pallet after pallet after pallet of Baja pottery stacked high inside a large fenced property. I work outside in the elements 5 days per week. Normally in Tucson...this is great...but summers are a bee-atch. But....it beats sitting in a little cubicle or in some climate-controlled building.
One of my customers drove his new Buick up to our loading dock so we could pack his vehicle with pottery. His vehicle was equipped with one of those outside-temp thermometers...and at 4pm yesterday, it registered 111. Today was several degrees hotter and tomorrow will be worse.
Folks, this chaser has lived in the sunbelt almost all of his life, and worked and played outside the entire time. I used to say ....."bring it on!!". But the older I get...the less I like it. I'm typically drinking 2-2 1/2 gallons of water daily now. And yes, I take a potassium pill every other day or so.
Back in the '90's........Tucson hit a record of 117 degrees at midday. I had a day off....and was laying around on my bed getting ready to take a nap when I heard that. What did I do?? This fool chaser decided to get into his gym clothes.....drive down to his old high school...and run a mile in that heat....just so I could say I did it!! And to this day....I get the grins when I think about that. But you know what.....even that wasn't as difficult as agonizing in the alley for a month during chase '06. Now THAT SUCKED!!
Guys........take it from an old master at this heat.....you just gotta pin your ears back and do whatcha' gotta do..in spite of the temps. The instant that you start getting freaked out and spooked about the heat is when you're in for trouble. Trust me......this too will pass.
And please DO NOT forget about your animals in this heat. Joel

 

[Susan Strom]

118 degrees F today in PHX and now there's a sand wall coming. Yummy. LOL

A pottery place? That's awesome. Mercados, selling beautiful pottery such as Talavera, are part of the flavor of the Southwest. Hot or not, I still love them.

 

[Joe Zemek]

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PHOENIX AZ
600 PM MST FRI JUL 21 2006

...NUMEROUS RECORD DAILY HIGH TEMPERATURES SET TODAY...

RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES OCCURRED TODAY OVER SOUTHWEST AND
SOUTH-CENTRAL ARIZONA...AS WELL AS FAR SOUTHEAST CALIFORNIA.

STATION NEW RECORD HIGH (OLD RECORD HIGH/YEAR)

PHOENIX 118 (112 IN 1927)

YUMA 118 (115 IN 1951)

BLYTHE 118 (117 IN 1980)

IMPERIAL 118 (112 IN 1951)

PARKER 119 (117 IN 1905)

WICKENBURG 115 (114 IN 1978)

GILA BEND 120 (117 IN 1947)

COOLIDGE 117 (115 IN 2000)

CASA GRANDE 117 (115 IN 1906)


THE 118 DEGREE HIGH AT PHOENIX MARKED ONLY THE 11TH TIME SINCE 1895
THAT A DAILY HIGH TEMPERATURE REACHED OR EXCEEDED 118 DEGREES...AND
WAS THE HOTTEST DAY SINCE 28 JULY 1995. DAYTIME HIGHS FOR PHOENIX
HAVE EXCEEDED 118 DEGREES ON ONLY 3 OCCASIONS...THE ALL-TIME HIGH OF
122 DEGREES ON 26 JUNE 1990...121 DEGREES ON 28 JULY 1995...AND 120
DEGREES ON 25 JUNE 1990.


118 recorded after 4pm. By 5pm dusty storm outflow had cooled us down to 105. If not for that we might have reached 119 as prior to storm passage to the N we had a clear sky.

 

[Rocky Rascovich]

I would think that this far into the Monsoon season that temps much over 112F or so would get pretty unusual. I noticed that the Monsoon season is off to a slow start... Unfortunately, this huge ridge parked over the western US now, will spread east and put the plains states back in the frying pan once again.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Yep, it is coming back again. Extended GFS seems to once again like to torture SD with the extreme highs. Maybe there will be another fun bust chase in there with the 100/80 stuff going on again.

 

[Scott Olson]

Our state is now going on it's third week of daily extreme tempatures. Pierre, Mobridge, Rapid City, Millesville, Mission & Mount Rushmore, all broke daily record high's today. Extreme drought continues in North Central South Dakota and crops & livestock in the whole region have pretty much become a loss.

60% of Nation in Drought

An area stretching from south central North Dakota to central South Dakota is the most drought-stricken region in the nation, Svoboda said.

"It's the epicenter," he said. "It's just like a wasteland in north central South Dakota." [/b]

Thankfully, a cold front will be coming through most of the state on Monday and will bring in a cooler Canadian airmass that should finally bring temps into more seasonably 80's for a while. Might be some rain in the Mon-Wed timeframe, but not enough to have any substanial impact, . While this hasn't been the most extreme event in South Dakota's history, it's no doubt been a significant one.

 

[Angie Norris]

Looks like we're in for more of the same here. Mesonet is currently showing 87/69 for Norman, but a couple of stations to our east are already showing temps >90. Central OK is under a heat advisory through mid week, while an excessive heat warning is in place for east OK with highs progged in the low to mid 100s through at least Wednesday for the entire state. Looks like a "cold" front may bring a slight chance of rain and a brief "cooldown" into the mid 90s for the late week.
The heat and dryness have also brought back the high and extreme fire danger categories for the entire state.
It's just nasty weather....