Ridge of Heat Death

[Joe Zemek]

No, don't panic about the latest GFS. I'm just complaining about Summer, which we're having all of a sudden.

Friggin' 108-113F Sunday & Monday in the Phoenix area. Ow! Thank God I live in the 108F part of town...

 

[Carrie Halliday]

I hit 96 yesterday afternoon on the trusty Vantage Pro. Couple that with the 70 dewpoint....excuse me Ma Nature? Did you forget about spring? I don't like this at all!

Forecasted high of 96 for me today (read near 100 really) and dewpoint at 72 right now (87 is the current temp at 10:25). Me poor a/c is working overtime this early in the season.
Someone please send me a cold front? :lol:

 

[Robert Dewey]

Oh man... We need some of that heat here! I love the heat, especially when it's >90F and humid. There's just something about working in the yard during that heat, and then going into a nice 70F house with 30% humidity...

 

[Khristian Snyder]

It looks like it is going to be hot this weekend. Up to 90 possible here at the coast. Time to go to the beach!

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Sure, its toasty, but come on up to Illinois in July when we've got highs around 95-100 with dew points in the lower 80s. That'll send you inside! We typically do have several days where the td will reach 85.

 

[Derek Lee]

You guys don't know anything about heat and humidity...

Enter Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada...

Yesterday, it was an amazing... 76! And today, an incredible 60. :roll:

I feel for those of you living in the 100 degree area, that has to suck.

 

[Warren Eckels]

It's a dry heat...

Near Chicago, we often hear that the heat in Phoenix is more bearable than ours because it's a "dry heat". For some reason, though, I'd think that a normal July day in Phoenix (say, 105/52 T/Td) would be more miserable than a standard Chicago heat wave (92/71), if for no other reason than the sun's angle and abundance in Phoenix.

Of course, it looks like Chicago may get ten days of brutal near-70 F heat with dew points in the forties and fifties.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Re: It's a dry heat...

Near Chicago, we often hear that the heat in Phoenix is more bearable than ours because it's a "dry heat". For some reason, though, I'd think that a normal July day in Phoenix (say, 105/52 T/Td) would be more miserable than a standard Chicago heat wave (92/71), if for no other reason than the sun's angle and abundance in Phoenix.

Of course, it looks like Chicago may get ten days of brutal near-70 F heat with dew points in the forties and fifties.

I spent a week just across the Texas border in Mexico during early August, with temps in the low 100s the entire time. However, with the lack of moisture, the days were more bearable than the 95F/85 days occuring in central IL during the summer.

 

[Joe Zemek]

Yeah, dewpoint makes all the diff. Right now, the crappy aspect is less the actual temp--at 6:42 local, 106T, 32Td--than the fact of late June/July temps in May. The awful thing about Phoenix in particular is the sprawl-created heat island, which really kicks into gear once the monsoon moisture rolls in. The overnight temps often stay in the *upper 90s*. Yes, you read that right. There is no escape.... 'cept gettin' in the car and escapin'.

 

[David Wolfson]

Seeing the pre-monsoon cooker underway around Phoenix helps compensate for the somewhat less than ideal chasing this last week.

For those who harbor any illusions, the Arizona summer monsoon isn't a dry heat with Td 55+ and often well into the 60s. Arizonans can't remember the pain from year to year or Phoenix would be another ghost town.

 

[Paul Stofer]

Dallas broke a record today and reached 99F. It is 1:45AM and it is still 80F. Summer is going to suck, once again.. hehe.. Looks like we'll be breaking more records in the next few days as record heat is expected.

 

[Warren Eckels]

Evapotranspiration?

The awful thing about Phoenix in particular is the sprawl-created heat island, which really kicks into gear once the monsoon moisture rolls in. The overnight temps often stay in the *upper 90s*. Yes, you read that right. There is no escape.... 'cept gettin' in the car and escapin'.

I suspect that the abundance of golf courses in Phoenix and the cultivation of thirsty crops like cotton and alfalfa do not help matters much. http://globe.geog.niu.edu/Changnon_Research03.htm]David Chagnon at Northern Illinois University has studied changes in dewpoint in the Midwest and suggests that greater cultivation of corn and soybeans in the Midwest bears some responsibility for our increasingly sticky summers. I get the impression that covering generous swaths of metro Phoenix with grass that requires 50 inches of water a year http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/water/az1314.pdf is not helpful; for comparison's sake Midwestern crops in Midwestern conditions are happy with 35 inches/year at the right times.

[/url]

 

[David Wolfson]

The Phoenix population uses a rather outrageous amount of water, but TTI it's a drop in the bucket compared to the tropical moisture advecting from the south and southeast. The heat island effect sure seems to be happening, though.

 

[Carrie Halliday]

Dallas broke a record today and reached 99F. It is 1:45AM and it is still 80F. Summer is going to suck, once again.. hehe.. Looks like we'll be breaking more records in the next few days as record heat is expected.

Agreed. It hit 90 at 10:40 this morning, with a 72dp down here. It looks to be a hot, humid and just plain miserable summer in the Lone Star State.

Whoever talked of dewpoints near 80, we get that too. Don't bring that up so early in the season! 72-74 is horrid enough with temps flirting with the century mark. Had a heat index of 108 yesterday, today looks to be worse.

 

[Paul Stofer]

Agreed. It hit 90 at 10:40 this morning, with a 72dp down here. It looks to be a hot, humid and just plain miserable summer in the Lone Star State.

Whoever talked of dewpoints near 80, we get that too.

I have family in Katy, just outside of Houston.. I think the heat and humidity is the number one reason why i would never move down there.. hehe. I'm not a fan of anyplace south of I20..