Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Another heat wave looms

You know you're in the hottest part of the year when a day with high temperatures in the low 90s is considered a cool-down, but that's how I'm hearing some meteorologists describe today's weather.

This "cool-down" won't last long, as the powerful heat-producing high pressure system that has been baking the Midwest for two months will push back into the Carolinas on Wednesday and control our weather for several days.

It's not clear if we'll be looking at 110-degree heat indices again, as was the case late last week, but conditions probably will be similar.

High temperatures will soar into the middle 90s Wednesday and into the upper 90s Thursday through Saturday. The big question surrounds dewpoint temperatures. They were in the low and middle 70s last week, and that's downright New Orleans-ish. Add those dewpoint readings to 98-degree temperatures, and you get Excessive Heat Warnings.

Today, on the "cool" side of the front, dewpoint temperatures remain in the low 70s, so we can assume Thursday, Friday and Saturday or this week will resemble last week.

A break in the pattern appears in the offing for early next week. Computer models indicate a trough will set up in the eastern United States, and with the upper-level flow coming from the northwest, we can expect a cold front or two to cross the region. That would bring cooling thunderstorms and less heat.

In the meantime, I guess we'll have to enjoy today's low 90s, because it'll seem pleasant by the time we get to late this week.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"...we can expect a cold front or two to cross the region."

Putting it in the context of this heat wave, define "cold front" for us.

Anonymous said...

If the Puritanical freaks that run this Country would loosen up about nudity, this heat wave wouldn’t be such an issue.

TC said...

Anonymous at 3:23.....just so long as the Wal-Mart crowd doesn`t strip down..............

Anonymous said...

To piggyback on TC's comment - if we didn't have our "Puritanical freak" laws, I'm sure the first people to start running around in their birthday suits would be people that should never do so - kind of like how the people with the nastiest feet in the world are the first ones to run around in sandals and flip-flops.

As for the re-firing of God's furnace (again), this is putting me in such a state of torment that if we get a real snow (6 inches or more) this winter, I'm likely to lose my sanity in the jubilation and throw myself upon a pile of snow - in my birthday suit.

Anonymous said...

No snow. We've had more than our share the last two winters.

Anonymous said...

"Putting it in the context of this heat wave, define 'cold front' for us."

Guess it doesn't do any good to ask Steve Lyttle a question about the weather. Maybe I didn't ask it seriously enough?

That's okay, though. I'll get my weather info from some other source instead of the not-so-observant Observer.

Anonymous said...

Okay, why has this forecast changed sharply from yesterday when highs for the week were forecast at 5-7 degrees cooler? Perhaps the original forecast doesn't jibe with the data needed for some to shriek about ongoing global warming.

NO credibility at all,eh, NOAA, Accuweather, etc.