You know how the saying in the headline ends.
We got a little lesson in the impact of humidity on Sunday across much of the Charlotte region, when a push of drier air made outdoor life a little more tolerable -- at least for a day.
Now the humid air has returned, and it's probably here for the rest of the week. What else would you expect in the dog days of summer?
The easiest way to measure humidity is with the dew point temperature. Basically, anything in the upper 60s or higher during the summer is very humid air. When it falls into the lower 60s or below, and it's in May through early October, that's much more comfortable.
On Sunday, Charlotte's dew point readings were in the upper 50s and low 60s. Even though the air temperature climbed into the 90s, it was a more tolerable day outdoors than Friday and Saturday, which were two of the worst days of the summer, with dew point readings in the low 70s.
But the humidity returned. The dew point temperature climbed from 59 degrees at 7 p.m. Sunday to 70 degrees at 11 a.m. Monday. That has set the stage for the rest of the week.
The atmosphere is expected to remain generally stable Monday afternoon, and that will limit thunderstorm development to a few spots -- mostly southeast of Charlotte. But the arrival of a weak low pressure system Tuesday, combined with the heat and humidity, will bring more widespread thunderstorm activity. The only good news is that temperatures Tuesday are not expected to climb much above 90, due to ample cloud cover.
The rest of the week appears to be straight from the Carolinas Summar Playbook -- hot, humid, with a few thunderstorms around every afternoon. Highs will be in the low 90s. There's a chance that we might catch some storm-free weather Thursday or Friday, if a bit of dry air can wedge into the region again briefly.
Monday, July 30, 2012
It's not the heat ...
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9 comments:
I am so sick of this season. Summers were never this annoyingly uncomfortable when i was a kid. Was it because I was a kid, or was it because it wasn't this disgustingly hot and muggy back then?
We just experienced a beautiful spring. We had warm temps early follwed by some cold fronts every few weeks including some record low morning temps. It has been hot and muggy since June 28th, but heck it's NC and now it's July. four more weeks and I'll bet we're done with summer.
Anonymous 2:29,
Probably because you were a kid, and kids spend the summer doing fun things outside so we have pleasent memories.
Then you get older and your outdoor time in the summer becomes mowing the lawn and painting the fence and suddenly, the memories just aren't so happy!
Growing up in Charlotte, it's always been this hot and humid here. I always laugh when the weather comes on and the meteorologists all go gaga about how hot it is. Not from around here, are ya?
. . . it's the cupidity
People in Charlotte don't know what hot and humid is. Try New Orleans and Washington DC. That's hot and humid. And least we get a day of low humidity.
I lived in Charlotte from April, 1983, to July, 1991. In the summer of '83, during July, there were 14 consecutive days of high temps of 100 deg. F or higher. I thought I had died and gone to hell, but then found out it was just Charlotte in the summer! (And that was before "global warming" was all the rage.)
Anonymous at 4:15 PM.....I totally agree with you there, but I would add that the folks in Charlotte should try dealing with the heat we get in Dallas, TX every year...a minimum of 20 days of 100 degree temperature or greater ( some years more than 20 days )! I don`t Charlotte could handle it.......
I'll take this heat and humidity over wild fires and floods anyday.
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