You've probably heard the statistic about the relative lack of 90-degree days so far this year in Charlotte.
Through Sunday, there had been only four days this year of 90 degrees or warmer in Charlotte. If you don't like the hot weather, I wouldn't get too excited about the rest of the season. It wouldn't take much to make major changes in that statistic in a hurry.
Obviously, the small number of hot days is a result of the heavy rainfall we've received since the beginning of June. Clouds and storms have kept high temperatures bottled in the 80s.
As National Weather Service meteorologist John Tomko noted, it's not as if the weather has been cool.
"Even those days with highs in the low and mid 80s have been very humid," Tomko says. "The morning lows were in the low 70s most days."
If the persistent upper-level low pressure system leaves our area alone for a while, just sit back and watch high pressure do its thing. There's a tremendous amount of moisture in the ground and the lower levels of the atmosphere, due to all the recent rain. That will serve to carve a few degrees off the daily high temperatures, but once some drying takes place, we could see a lot of 90s in a hurry.
Several 90-degree days are forecast this week, and we could see more of that later next week.
And there is still all of August and September ahead.
In 2009, when we had a relatively small number of 90-degree days (28), nearly half of those came in August (13).
The least 90-degree days in a year was 8, in 1967. We came close to equaling that mark in 2003, with 9. The most was 88, in the brutally hot summer of 1954. And we came close to equaling that mark also, in 2010, with 87.
We had 49 days of 90 or hotter last year, down from the 73 of 2011 and the 87 of 2010.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Don't celebrate lack of 90-degree days ... not yet
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4 comments:
We won't. In fact, we will celebrate the return of 90-degree days that will be very helpful in burning off the excessive amount of moisture we have received all summer.
Sopping wet yards need to dry out for mowing, and the spongy ground needs a chance to drain to prevent more large trees from toppling, and hopefully save rotting crops. It may also help stop the growth of mildew due to damp, sun-less weeks.
Bring on weeks of 90-plus days.
Comment above me can speak for them self! I work outside!
Oh come on now....you are tough enough to handle 90-degree weather, are you not? Has AC softened you up? I work outside--rain or heat--very good for character and constitution!
Hang in there, pal!
"We had 49 days of 90 or hotter last year, down from the 73 of 2011 and the 87 of 2010."
Definitely global warming.
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