Monday, July 15, 2013

Our "Urban Heat Island" Seems to Be Broken


"Urban Heat Island" where the built up heat from buildings and pavement make metro areas at least 10 degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside.  (Photo from EPA's website.)  "Urban Heat Island" = another one of those tragic terms to describe how we will all perish from Climate Change.


My thermometer.  Inside temp on top - outside on the bottom.  Yep, 70.5 degrees outside. (Weather folk are saying the "comfort level" = 62 degrees.)  Checking the calendar, yep, July 15th at 4:15 p.m..  And by the way, it's still raining here.

Ok, Texas can have rain in July but it usually comes from a tropical system of some sort which means the temperature is usually high 80's -90's and really sticky. No, this is by no means any complaint -- just reporting the facts.  Everyone you meet these days says the same thing. "Do you ever remember it being this cool in July?"

So, I looked for some data.

Darker black line at the bottom, our current weather reading (red line is the forecast).  You can see we are well below all the averages, means, etc.  Looks like another record breaking day. But in a good way.



What is the weather like where you are?  Click this link to: WeatherSpark

6 comments:

stiener said...

I do not recall a weather system like this one ever in July and I`m fairly long in tooth.Whatever, I`m so thankful for it. I was beginning to give up on my plant hunting due to hard ground.

HolleyGarden said...

I do remember a cold July once, but it was many years ago. I remember thinking I didn't like it! What was I thinking?!!! (Actually, I was young and just worried about going swimming!) It rained here yesterday, too, and again today! Wahoo! I like talking about rain and cool days much more than drought and triple digit heat!

Casa Mariposa said...

We've had a weirdly cool, wet summer but I'm not complaining. I like the extra water! :o)

Marguerite said...

Our weather doesn't seem to be one thing or the other this year. We had 37 degrees celcius one day and then 21 degrees the next. Now it's raining. Just when you think you know what to wear it changes again.

Karen said...

We're hot and muggy, oh so muggy...yuck! right now, but if we can hang on until Friday, it's supposed to break. We did get over an inch of rain in less than thirty minutes on Tuesday which was a blessing. Of course, 'hot' for you would be much more than our mere 90 degrees, but the dewpoints in the mid-70's is what's doing me in.

So good to visit again, I've been gone far too long!

creekside rummager said...

Hi TG - well the weather here in No. CA is just too darn hot for me. It has been 96 degees, but they say it will feel like 102 degrees. REALLY! We usually have very dry heat, but this year we keep getting muggy conditions which I'm not adapting well too. OK I am complaining. I think this next week is suppose to be a bit less hot. No rain here.