July Heat Wave Obs/Discussion

[Macintosh]

I have sought out this thread in order to complain about the heat. This sucks.

[kab2791]

July Heatwave Stats for DTW:

Sun (7/17): 92F

Mon (7/18): 96F

Tue (7/19): 94F

Wed (7/20): 96F

Thu (7/21): 100F* (Max HI: 112F)

Fri (7/22): 95F

Sat (7/23): 90F

*Record

[Hoosier]

To sum things up to MDW/ORD/RFD...

MDW was 104 on 7/24/05.

[Chicago Storm]

MDW was 104 on 7/24/05.

You're right...When I was originally going through data I thought that was ORD for some odd reason.

ORD actually topped out at 102 on that day.

[Hoosier]

Thursday looks nasty here. Possibly upper 90's if everything works out.

[Trent]

The worst thing about this heat wave is the lack of sub 70 degree lows. Detroit hasn't been below 70 in 9 days! What is this, Miami?

Upper 80s and 90s aren't so bad if it still drops into the lower 60s at night, but these 74 degree nights have been brutal, especially for those of us who don't have central air near the lake and only get by with a window unit or two.

[Chicago WX]

Indianapolis's 90º streak is alive and kicking, now at 9 days. Below is the list of 14 or greater consecutive days for Indy...found here: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=ind&storyid=71025&source=0

Rank  # Days   End Date
1     19    8/26/1936
2     18    7/30/1901
3     15    7/17/1936
4     14    8/13/2007
5     14    7/24/1983
6     14    7/20/1980
7     14    7/ 6/1966

[jcwxguy]

Touched 100 yesterday. And so far today at least 105

[jcwxguy]

already 106 outside and its only NOON

[baroclinic_instability]

I am hoping this is the last death ridge of doom of the summer.

[Trent]

Day 32 at DTW at or above 80. It'll be interesting to see how long this streak continues. It's got to be getting close to record territory.

[beavis1729]

already 106 outside and its only NOON

Wichita 110/59 (HI 111) at 3:00 PM, after a morning low of 84. Yikes.

[jcwxguy]

114 right now according to wunderground, was 115 earlier, weather.com says 112

(my car temp says 115 )

[cyclone77]

108 today with the heat index. Actual temp hit 93. Dew sitting at 78 currently.

[brettjrob]

Record highs today up and down the I-35/135 corridor:

SLN 113 F

ICT 111 F

OKC 107 F

Farther south, SPS and DFW each missed by a degree or two.

[michsnowfreak]

Day 32 at DTW at or above 80. It'll be interesting to see how long this streak continues. It's got to be getting close to record territory.

I trust if it does indeed hit record territory, the guys at DTX will catch this and post about it. I dont personally have access to all the summer data so I dont know, I skimmed some of our warmer summers since the late 1930s to see what I could find, and the longest stretch I can find of 80F or above was 42 days from June 27 thru Aug 7, 1955. In that stretch, day 1 (June 27) and day 28 (July 24) had max temperatures of 80F. In this current stretch, June 26, 2011 thru present, on day 2 (June 27), day 3 (June 28), and day 19 (July 14) the max temp was exactly 80F.

I googled it, and I didnt find Detroit but I did find Chicago per Skilling. Whats interesting is he makes it sound like "above 80" rather than "at or above 80" would be the more impressive feat. "This July the city (Chicago) set a record for consecutive days above 80 degrees, logging 28 from July 2 to July 29, but lowering the criterion to include highs of 80 degrees increases the string to a record 42 days established from June 27 to Aug. 7, 1955"

We had another stretch (forgot the year) where we would have gone 49 consecutive days of 80F+ if not for one day smack in the middle with a high of 79F (and no other day in that stretch had a high below 81F). Thats why I hate temps right at the even mark of 80 (or if were talking 90F days, the easier summer stat to look up, right at 90). Its like, if it hits only 79 it feels like "oh come on thats more or less an 80-degree day"....yet if it does hit exactly 80, it feels like "an intra-hour max managed to sneak 80, what a cheap way to hit the 80s".

[michsnowfreak]

That is the way it always has been done. 1988 featured it share of "intra-hour" 90 degree days in Lima.

oh i know, and im as big a stats person as anyone, just always feel stuff like that is cheap.

[Trent]

oh i know, and im as big a stats person as anyone, just always feel stuff like that is cheap.

It's not that cheap of a record considering it will likely correspond to the hottest month ever on record. There are quite a few "cheap" 89 degree day highs as well. I don't understand this nonsense about intra-hour high temps. If it's 80 degrees for 5 minutes at :53 minutes past the hour, is it somehow less cheap than if it's 80 degrees for multiple 30 minute periods between hourly observations?

In the same vein, a lot of low temperatures are cheap because it is much more likely to have 3-5 degree radiational cooling intra-hour temps versus a much less common 2 degree intra hour high. Or the more cheap, infamous 12:01am high temps or 11:59pm low temps also come to mind.

But a temperature is what it ultimately is. Scales are human, and a streak of 80+ is no more relevant than 78.4+ or 85+. Just wait until 30 years, if the US ever went metric, no one will care about the meaningless streaks noted in the record books. Temperatures will be converted to a new scale, and new streaks, ones no one even cares about now, such as 30C+ will be the the new benchmark. 40C will turn into this elusive record, achieved only on the rarest of occasions.

[jcwxguy]

so much for today being much cooler, 110 outside

[tacoman25]

so much for today being much cooler, 110 outside

Why is McPherson so much warmer than everywhere else nearby?

[OHSnow]

Why does it seem like it's easier to heat up this summer than summer's past? It's like not even widespread heavy rain and lots of cloud cover can slow things down.

[Hoosier]

Why does it seem like it's easier to heat up this summer than summer's past? It's like not even widespread heavy rain and lots of cloud cover can slow things down.

Drought/dryness is playing a role. As far as the second part, I don't really agree.

[Powerball]

Heh, MEtro Airport still managed to sneak up to 90*F (technically an overachievement based on the latest forecasts) despite altostratus and stratocumulus most of the day.

The altostratus looks to be mixing out though.

But to be honest it doesn't feel like a 90*F day. Because of all the rain and cloud cover the air remained pretty damp.

[Powerball]

Day 32 at DTW at or above 80. It'll be interesting to see how long this streak continues. It's got to be getting close to record territory.

Actually it's 37 for the year as of yesterday.

It may 32 just for the summer though.

[Trent]

Actually it's 37 for the year as of yesterday.

It may 32 just for the summer though.

I was referring to 32, now 33 days in a ROW of 80 and above.

[michsnowfreak]

It's not that cheap of a record considering it will likely correspond to the hottest month ever on record. There are quite a few "cheap" 89 degree day highs as well. I don't understand this nonsense about intra-hour high temps. If it's 80 degrees for 5 minutes at :53 minutes past the hour, is it somehow less cheap than if it's 80 degrees for multiple 30 minute periods between hourly observations?

In the same vein, a lot of low temperatures are cheap because it is much more likely to have 3-5 degree radiational cooling intra-hour temps versus a much less common 2 degree intra hour high. Or the more cheap, infamous 12:01am high temps or 11:59pm low temps also come to mind.

But a temperature is what it ultimately is. Scales are human, and a streak of 80+ is no more relevant than 78.4+ or 85+. Just wait until 30 years, if the US ever went metric, no one will care about the meaningless streaks noted in the record books. Temperatures will be converted to a new scale, and new streaks, ones no one even cares about now, such as 30C+ will be the the new benchmark. 40C will turn into this elusive record, achieved only on the rarest of occasions.

Agree about the 89 highs being cheap. Thats what I mean, to me (and I always feel this way), when youre going for an extreme (be it warm or cold) and using a certain temp as your baseline, I hate when the temp ends in a 9 or 0. Say your high is 89. You can look at it like "oh my god it felt so hot, and it sat at 89 for hours, and it wont count for a 90F day". Or, if the high is 90, its like "well, this counts towards a 90 degree day, but barely".

When I say intra-hour, I dont mean so much the time of the max, I mean you will look at the hourly temp logs and the max temp is 2-3F higher than ANY reported hour during the day. When DTW hit 100 several days ago, their hourly temp was 98 at 2pm and 98 at 3pm yet the high of 100 was recorded at 241pm. One of the days (I think July 14) when DTW's high was 80, aqain, the highest hourly reading was 78, but an 80 somehow snuck in there. And.....on the flipside, I remember a few of our 89F days this summer, the hourly temp was 89 for like 3-4 hours, and yet we never managed to hit 90? Its just some of the quirks about weather.

Agree, some of those 12:01am highs are so stupid. I remember we had a one-day warm spell in winter, the high snuck up to its peak RIGHT around midnight, then temps crashed. So the high one day was like 53 at 11:20pm and the next day was 54 at 12:30am, yet the daytime temps were in the 30s both days. Those seem cheap, but for records, it is what it is.

BTW, hope the U.S. never goes metric for weather records. Takes away on some of the interesting data.

[michsnowfreak]

Actually it's 37 for the year as of yesterday.

It may 32 just for the summer though.

DTW has had 54 days of 80F or higher this year so far.

1 in Apr

7 in May

18 in June

28 in July

Looking back at my cataloged data since 1948, the most 80F days DTW has seen in a year was 99 in 1977, and the least was 43 in 1992. More recently, we went from one extreme to another. Just 59 days in 2009 to 95 days in 2010.

[Powerball]

DTW has had 54 days of 80F or higher this year so far.

1 in Apr

7 in May

18 in June

28 in July

Looking back at my cataloged data since 1948, the most 80F days DTW has seen in a year was 99 in 1977, and the least was 43 in 1992. More recently, we went from one extreme to another. Just 59 days in 2009 to 95 days in 2010.

I should have mentioned I was speaking strictly of 80*F+ days (not including 90*F or above).

[IWXwx]

I am finding the ongoing discussion concerning temperature records interesting, particularly regarding "midnight highs" and intrahour bumps.

When measuring using a time scale, there has to be a cut off somewhere. Why not at a time that man has determined to be the beginning of a new day? I understand it may not be relevant concerning sensible weather. For example, when it is 54 at midnight, but most of the day the temps are in the 30's. It would not be prudent to change our time measurement scale to suit our needs. That would create a firestorm on how to best do that, and would not create anymore accuracy than what science currently uses.

Concerning intrahour bumps, the technology has developed to constantly measure air temps, so why not use it? Isn't the goal to determine the highest and lowest temperatures during a certain unit of time? I understand that in times past, it was not possible. I see no flaw in the concept of continuing to record hourly temps but use the constant monitoring method to determine daily highs and lows.

Finally, in regards to measuring in Fahrenheit vs. Celsius, it is a quantifiable measurement, easily understood by the U. S. general public. 89 vs. 90, once again, there has to be a cut off somewhere.

No method is perfect, but I feel science has developed a very good method of measuring the weather.

As the famous saying goes, "...lies, damn lies, and statistics."

[MN Transplant]

No shocker here, but the MN state climatologist's office did confirm the record DP at MSP

http://climate.umn.e...point110719.htm

Record Dew Point Temperature in the Twin Cities: July 19, 2011

The National Weather Service Forecast Office (NWS) in Chanhassen and the DNR State Climatology Office have conferred on last week's extraordinary dew point temperatures in the Twin Cities. It was agreed that the 82 degree F dew point temperature value reported at 3:00 PM and again at 4:00 PM on Tuesday July 19, 2011 at the Twin Cities International Airport will be considered by these offices as the highest dew point temperature ever recorded in the Twin Cities. The old record in the Twin Cities was 81 degrees at 11:00 am on July 30, 1999.

It is known that July 19 dew point temperatures exceeded 82 degrees F at moments between the routine hourly observations. However, in the interest of historical consistency and practicality in establishing future records, only hourly dew point temperature measurements were utilized to determine the new record.

Heat index values on July 19 were extraordinarily high. The 4:00 PM observation may have tied or set an all-time heat index record for the Twin Cities. The air temperature reported at that hour was 95 degrees F and was paired with the 82 degree F dew point temperature. In the next few weeks, the heat index formula used by the NWS hourly "Weather Roundup" product will be used with the historical hourly air temperature/dew point temperature data set to create a heat index climatology. Another announcement will be sent when this is completed.