Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Philly is no where near as warm in the summer as cities south of it - Philly has heat wave spells of course, like most of the Midwest and Northeast, but surely is not comparable to cities south of it in the Southeast or Florida
Y'all got that right! Our heat wave is what alot of the south experiences on a normal basis. No thanks.
isn't a better measure of 'comfortability' the dewpoint? my understanding is anything over 70 degrees is pretty unbearable. there have been some summer days here where I've felt like I was going to melt or suffocate, and i was CONVINCED it was 95 degrees, 90% humidity. look at the weather and the humidity was actually only about 50-55%. but the dewpoint was high.
my understanding is that Heat Index and Dewpoint are both two measures of the same thing. They mean different things, but both are derived using relative humidity and temperature.
Philly is no where near as warm in the summer as cities south of it - Philly has heat wave spells of course, like most of the Midwest and Northeast, but surely is not comparable to cities south of it in the Southeast or Florida:
my understanding is that Heat Index and Dewpoint are both two measures of the same thing. They mean different things, but both are derived using relative humidity and temperature.
Locally, our weatherpersons say the dew points above 60 are "uncomfortable", above 70 are "unbearable" and above 80 are "Guam-like". (Never been to Guam, can only imagine )
This pretty much jibes with my comfort levels. I'm getting pretty good at guessing what the dew point is. If I am mowing the lawn and sweating buckets, I'll check the Weather Channel afterward and usually find that the dew point is above 60. Conversely, on those hot, "ovenlike" days when the temp is 90+ but I am not sweating, I find the dew point to be less than 60. On those days, we can leave the AC off, just stay out of the full sun and we're fine.
You gotta also remember that the global weather is not as it used to be and those averages may soon change.
First of all, even if you believe that, changes to this point have been of less than one degree, that wouldn't have any discernible difference on this whatsoever.
Secondly, this isn't a forum debating global warming. We aren't predicting "what may soon change"...I am talking about what people have experienced - not the guesstimated future, but the now.
Thirdly, even if you think / guess that the "averages may soon change", what would make you think that Philly (or anywhere else in the Northeast) would leapfrog the heat of the SE or FL?? Wouldn't those areas correspondingly get hotter as well?
Locally, our weatherpersons say the dew points above 60 are "uncomfortable", above 70 are "unbearable" and above 80 are "Guam-like". (Never been to Guam, can only imagine )
This pretty much jibes with my comfort levels. I'm getting pretty good at guessing what the dew point is. If I am mowing the lawn and sweating buckets, I'll check the Weather Channel afterward and usually find that the dew point is above 60. Conversely, on those hot, "ovenlike" days when the temp is 90+ but I am not sweating, I find the dew point to be less than 60. On those days, we can leave the AC off, just stay out of the full sun and we're fine.
First off,do the local weatherpeople know the climate of Guam? When it gets so hot here I generally say it feels hot as the equator! I used to say it felt like Florida or even Africa but then I found out that not all of Africa is stifling.
But I do the same with observing the dewpoint because I was sure it had something to do with the humidity but it didn't seem high enough so there had to be another variable.
I have visited Guam and it is definately hot year round, however the beaches there are a thousand times better than any of those in Florida or California so that makes up for the heat!
First of all, even if you believe that, changes to this point have been of less than one degree, that wouldn't have any discernible difference on this whatsoever.
Secondly, this isn't a forum debating global warming. We aren't predicting "what may soon change"...I am talking about what people have experienced - not the guesstimated future, but the now.
Thirdly, even if you think / guess that the "averages may soon change", what would make you think that Philly (or anywhere else in the Northeast) would leapfrog the heat of the SE or FL?? Wouldn't those areas correspondingly get hotter as well?
First off,these 'experts' are always telling us that the earth is warming 'faster than thought' so that right there pretty much tells me it's anybody's guess. One day it's one degree,the next they're saying more.
Second,I'm not debating global warming but apparently nowadays all one has to do is mention weather changes and immediately they turn into Al Gore and become the target of debate.
As far as 'guesstimating' I don't normally support that either,but I don't want to sound like one of the 'experts' so I use conservative terms such as 'may'. What I meant to say was the weather seems to be changing to where those 'averages' won't be the average soon enough.
And as far as certain areas 'leapfrogging' other areas in terms of change,anything is possible. No ones saying where the changes are originating from.
I have visited Guam and it is definately hot year round, however the beaches there are a thousand times better than any of those in Florida or California so that makes up for the heat!
That's what I kind of thought. I had originally thought that Guam was out somewhere near Hawaii where it's warm year round but supposedly not oppressive. In fact I think Hawaii gets rated the best weather quite often.
However Guam seems to be far off in the middle of the ocean so unless those local weatherpeople have lived there it's quite a unique analogy by them.
Locally, our weatherpersons say the dew points above 60 are "uncomfortable", above 70 are "unbearable" and above 80 are "Guam-like". (Never been to Guam, can only imagine )
This pretty much jibes with my comfort levels. I'm getting pretty good at guessing what the dew point is. If I am mowing the lawn and sweating buckets, I'll check the Weather Channel afterward and usually find that the dew point is above 60. Conversely, on those hot, "ovenlike" days when the temp is 90+ but I am not sweating, I find the dew point to be less than 60. On those days, we can leave the AC off, just stay out of the full sun and we're fine.
I see what you mean.
I went to weather underground to look at the numbers for where I grew up. In that area of South Carolina, the daily average dewpoint stays between 70 and 75 degrees for all of June, July, and August. Even in May and September it stays between 60 and 70.
I looked up Guam - talk about some odd weather. Their seasons don't really change. The temperature is 80-something in December, April, July, October, etc. It doesn't seem unbearably hot or humid, though. On the data I was looking at, the dewpoint stayed around 70-75.
Brownsville, TX is pretty hot, but not as hot as I thought. - the dewpoint stays between 75 and 80 in the summer. Same goes for New Orleans.
Last edited by anonymous; 01-16-2008 at 01:10 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
)
