By Paul Homewood
Greg Porter, one of the Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post reported last week on the Northeast’s intense heatwave:
Since the past weekend, the first intense heat wave has kept a tight, sweaty grip on the eastern United States. As of Tuesday morning, about 80 million Americans were under some type of heat advisory. Forty-four of the 50 states expected to reach at least 90 degrees Tuesday afternoon. Expect both of those statistics to grow through the end of this week, as the brutal heat wave intensifies and expands to include the western part of the country.
On Monday, Washington, Philadelphia and New York all reported heat indexes — or “feels like” temperatures — in excess of 100 degrees. Record-warm overnight low temperatures were set in Albany and Burlington, Vt.
Tuesday could end up being even warmer — or at least it will feel warmer — since humidity was higher across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
As we know, Porter’s colleague, Jason Samenow, has already tried to link these heatwaves to global warming, talking of “record” temperatures, conveniently recorded in the middle of cities.
But how does it compare when we examine proper rural sites, such as Ithaca University in NY.
http://www.nrcc.cornell.edu/wxstation/ithaca/gfr_pics.html
According to their daily almanac, temperatures peaked at 94F on July 3rd:
http://www.nrcc.cornell.edu/wxstation/ithaca/ithaca.html
However, 94F is not unusual at Ithaca. Indeed, the July record was 103F, set in 1936.
Furthermore, in the last week minimum temperatures have dipped close to record lows:
http://climod2.nrcc.cornell.edu/
The table below shows the highest July temperature each year since 1893 (2018 is obviously not included yet):
http://climod2.nrcc.cornell.edu/
We see quite clearly that the highest temperatures occurred during the 1930s, and indeed before, if we zoom in:
And is we look at all of the summer, the pattern is just the same:
http://climod2.nrcc.cornell.edu/
If the Capital Weather Gang want to know what a truly record breaking heatwave looks like, I suggest they check out July 1936 at Ithaca:
http://www.nrcc.cornell.edu/wxstation/ithaca/ithaca.html
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
July 12, 2018 at 12:19PM
Iowa Climate Science Education 