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The great July heat wave of 2013


Ian

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On the topic of cooling the house, our kitchen gets hot as hades during the day and we couldn't figure out why... We realized when the previous owners redid the kitchen/dining floor they covered a vent. There is a cold spot on the floor itself. Doh

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It does but my temperature is the same as Leesburg's so I'm not so sure that is correc...Plus my wind direction is southerly, I think it would have an easterly component if it were a true bay breeze convergence some.

Yeah I checked the obs in the area plus wunder ground stations and whatever it was seemed quite diffuse. Only started to notice it around 5 so not sure on its origin.
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Good idea :thumbsup: except I have tried closing the vents seasonally but there is a point where the system starts whistling which is very annoying. One thing that has helped is leaving the fan in the always on position so the air is constantly circulates even when the compressor is off.  That works okay when it is in the 80's or cloudy weather or a thunderstorms to cool it down, house has a black south facing roof and zero trees so that really places a "hot top" on the upstairs.

 

Electric bills are very good here, This June was just $ 97 last year had one in the low 200's, of course compared to the WV place with solar I sold in the spring these bills are high.. I averaged about $400 per year for the electric out there over the 7 years.

I am in a 3 story home also. We put in ceiling fans on the 3rd and 2nd floor in every room. Fans on high we keep our air at 76 all day and the upstairs stayes cool. They help keep the electric bill down also. In the winter we just reverse them.

We are installing solar panels this year. Someone told me that they help as an insulation layer over the roof, did you find that the case with yours?

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Still haven't seen a 100 tossed out by MOS, tho maybe I missed it. NAM MOS has been doing pretty lousy this week as usual it seems when it's hot. GFS fairly spot on within d1-2 at least. Has dual 99s for our favorite hotspot JYO at 18z.

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Keep AC on 68 here... damn cookie cutter home with one system for three floors is the only way to keep the upstairs around 76!  good news is the basement is probably 66 which is just right for chillin

 

I love summer.. :thumbsdown:  sweating my ass off on construction sites smelling like an unkempt locker room when I get home... only hit 95.6 here today which is so much more refreshing than than 98 or 100.. :P

An attic fan would work wonders for you, it would probably take 2 or 3 degrees off the upstairs temperature. I have one and even when the temperature reaches 100 outside I can get my upstairs down to 70, although I do have 3 central systems.

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Living in an old Balt City house. No central air, window units for the bedrooms. I can confirm that piling up the high minimums after awhile makes the living conditions pretty damn unpleasant in the main part of the house. When it never cools off at night, no way to get the built up heat out. 

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insane mins everywhere..80 at midway..79 at MKE!.....even MSP had a low of 78 this morning....89 there now

 

any reason?...Do the record heights have anything to do with it?.....or west winds?

 

the east answer is dewpoints -- most of the great lakes has been quite wet and the vegetation is completely unstressed, the mid level ridge didn't originate over the dry SW, the low-level source region has been either GoM or Atl., the strength of the mid-level ridge has trapped this moisture which is being supplemented by high evapotranspiration rates over high soil moisture regions. 

 

also another point about the non-stressed vegetation is that vegetation will continue to transpire after solar radiation has ceased, it has an inertial component that continues to pump water vapor into a developing noctural BL raising dewpoints in the period after sunset which also might be helping to keep mins high -- i think the general takeaway is that an anomalous heat ridge over wet soil leads to over-performing mins and under-performing afternoon maxes

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the east answer is dewpoints -- most of the great lakes has been quite wet and the vegetation is completely unstressed, the mid level ridge didn't originate over the dry SW, the low-level source region has been either GoM or Atl., the strength of the mid-level ridge has trapped this moisture which is being supplemented by high evapotranspiration rates over high soil moisture regions. 

 

also another point about the non-stressed vegetation is that vegetation will continue to transpire after solar radiation has ceased, it has an inertial component that continues to pump water vapor into a developing noctural BL raising dewpoints in the period after sunset which also might be helping to keep mins high -- i think the general takeaway is that an anomalous heat ridge over wet soil leads to over-performing mins and under-performing afternoon maxes

 

thanks...great explanation...and dangerous as hell for elderly in the midwest w/out AC...hopefully people are looking in on them....

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thanks...great explanation...and dangerous as hell for elderly in the midwest w/out AC...hopefully people are looking in on them....

 

it'll be interesting to see if we do indeed max out 850s tomorrow and fri. almost get the sense of the subtropical high becoming "rooted" as a continental air mass as it sits around. 

 

im not sure i agree with the multiple comments about heat underperforming though. as far as i can tell looking at guidance as its progressed every day has hit the high end of reliable guidance. compared to an upper ridge like this in past years maybe but as noted the origins and pre-conditions were considerably different. 

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it'll be interesting to see if we do indeed max out 850s tomorrow and fri. almost get the sense of the subtropical high becoming "rooted" as a continental air mass as it sits around. 

 

im not sure i agree with the multiple comments about heat underperforming though. as far as i can tell looking at guidance as its progressed every day has hit the high end of reliable guidance. compared to an upper ridge like this in past years maybe but as noted the origins and pre-conditions were considerably different. 

 

the pattern keeps repeating too...no large scale pattern change...more humidity and high mins...probably some nice 87/74's coming up next week

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I am in a 3 story home also. We put in ceiling fans on the 3rd and 2nd floor in every room. Fans on high we keep our air at 76 all day and the upstairs stayes cool. They help keep the electric bill down also. In the winter we just reverse them.

We are installing solar panels this year. Someone told me that they help as an insulation layer over the roof, did you find that the case with yours?

 

The main solar panels for my WV place were on the barn roof and back fed the house electric. so in my case they had little effect. :P   Seriously though it will vary depending on the install method, if they are rail mounted at least 6" above the roof surface. Tighter mounts trap more heat underneath (6" minimum I recommend since air flow and cooler panels perform better). 

 

There is know doubt the roof and attic area below the panels will be cooler.  Send me a photo of your system when the installation is complete.  And get a measurement or two of the attic temperatures now  and then do that again on a comparable day after installation.

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thanks...great explanation...and dangerous as hell for elderly in the midwest w/out AC...hopefully people are looking in on them....

5 dead already in MD from this heat wave, so it is very dangerous here as well.

I believe it is 5 dead this summer, not this heat wave.

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The main solar panels for my WV place were on the barn roof and back fed the house electric. so in my case they had little effect. :P   Seriously though it will vary depending on the install method, if they are rail mounted at least 6" above the roof surface. Tighter mounts trap more heat underneath (6" minimum I recommend since air flow and cooler panels perform better). 

 

There is know doubt the roof and attic area below the panels will be cooler.  Send me a photo of your system when the installation is complete.  And get a measurement or two of the attic temperatures now  and then do that again on a comparable day after installation.

 

 

Thanks!

 

80/84 HI 85 currently. Heading up to the lake this morning. Thinking we will be spending our whole time in the water with plans to be leaving around 12:30 as I have to pick up a friend of one of my daughters. Should be a good time to bail.

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it'll be interesting to see if we do indeed max out 850s tomorrow and fri. almost get the sense of the subtropical high becoming "rooted" as a continental air mass as it sits around. 

 

im not sure i agree with the multiple comments about heat underperforming though. as far as i can tell looking at guidance as its progressed every day has hit the high end of reliable guidance. compared to an upper ridge like this in past years maybe but as noted the origins and pre-conditions were considerably different. 

 

just as a clarification -- I used "underperforming" not as a metric relative to guidance (which has been fine; see 2 days ago when i said that the low level thermodynamics didn't support 100 on tues/weds) but from a meteorological standpoint relative to how the magnitude of the mid-level anomaly didn't necessarily translate to a low-level anomaly of the same magnitude -- the current observed land surface-atmosphere coupling and the antecedent airmass favored a scenario where the low-level anomaly has been slow to strengthen (relative to the mid-level anomaly) -- not sure I know the relative weight of which played more of a role (the antecedent tropical airmass or land surface-atmosphere coupling). 

 

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