Summer 2010 heat: a recap (Pittsburgh, Emsworth: buy, live in, station)

[deathegg88]

Originally Posted by nuwaver88

I was at a wedding in a tux on that 103 degree day on July 16, 1988. The reception was at some old hall in Oakmont with lousy AC. Yeah, there was a lot of sweat on the dance floor. The summer of 1988 had thirty-eight days over 90.

LOL, I was married in '88, earlier in the month. I remember that. Way too hot for tux-wearing. (Shouldn't have gotten married, but that's another story....)

[airwave09]

Originally Posted by jacosimo

Keep bitching about the heat yinzers, because you're gonna be buried in white death this winter once again. I've got a feeling hell is gonna come down in icy, frozen sheets of misery this winter and it's gonna be even worse than Snowmageddon.

That sounds unlikely, if you look at the snowfall records Snowmageddon is a once every 15 year event. It obviously could happen 2 years in a row, but the odds are stacked against that happening.

[Honest Bob]

I would have to agree that the temperatures at the airport does not correspond with the temperatures of downtown Pittsburgh, due to the fact that the pavement soaks up the heat during the day and emits it during the night.

What some people don't understand is that it takes a lot of energy from the sun to warm the ground one degree. When the ground is moist it takes something like 460 times the energy to heat the atmosphere one degree when the ground is saturated with moisture vs when the ground is bone dry like right now in some parts of the state.

It has gone beyond 90* at my home about 24 days so far this year in Jefferson county. The reason for this phenomenon is due to the fact that all of the rain this year has gone north or south of our location and no rain has hit our area. Once the ground gets this dry, it takes several times more energy from the storm system to release it's moisture over our area because the ground is so dry it actually sucks the moisture from the clouds before it gets a chance to accumulate in an appreciate able amount - which would then fall in the form of rain.

So basically wet ground stays wet and dry ground only gets drier.

The same was true last winter when Pittsburgh and the Laurel Mountains was pounded with snow, yet we only got snow in the inches and not the feet in the central mountains of Pennsylvania. It's a revolving cycle.

If you ponder the weather forecasting sites, you will learn that the measure wind - you have to put your anemometer about 36 feet above ground and even then, it will only be accurate if there is no tall buildings or trees around to refract the wind. You need to put a rain gauge in the middle of a 10 acre field - with nothing around it and you need to have a thermometer - both in the shade and in the sun and one on 4 sides of a building - but not attached to the building. The building would absorb the heat during the day and radiate it at night.

The end result is that you have to have a lot of room to do these types of weather monitoring and the only way to do that is to have a lot of land and the only place available that is concerned with the weather is the airport and so that is where the equipment is situated and that is where the temps and rain fall and wind speeds are measured.

Maybe some of you could set up a home weather station and develop a link on the computer where people could go and see your actual temperatures and precipitations and where you could log this data into a computer - twice a day and be able to prove what the weather is in your neighborhood.

WTAJ - Altoona does this with their weather watchers program, which is aired nightly on their 6 PM and 11 PM newscasts.

[Honest Bob]

Feel free to visit Joe Murgo's weather blog at We Are Central Pa.com

Altoona, State College, Johnstown, and DuBois Local News, Sports & Weather on WeAreCentralPA.com

Joe was a meteorologist for Accu Weather out of State College for many years and he teaches a meteorology class at Penn State University.

[BrianTH]

I like snow. Although I understand getting so much at once is a problem, I wouldn't mind if we had a decent amount on the ground for a longish period.

[raynist]

Originally Posted by Honest Bob

Maybe some of you could set up a home weather station and develop a link on the computer where people could go and see your actual temperatures and precipitations and where you could log this data into a computer - twice a day and be able to prove what the weather is in your neighborhood.

This is how most of the weather stations are setup on weather underground.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I like snow. Although I understand getting so much at once is a problem, I wouldn't mind if we had a decent amount on the ground for a longish period.

I feel the same way. I wish we could get more of the lake effect and had constant snow cover from Thanksgiving to St. Patty's Day.

[tijlover]

Would someone please throw in the Heat Index and translate these temp's for the Feel Effect?

I'll betcha there were days in Pittsurgh with 90+ and 80% humidity that were hotter than we were here in Las Vegas at 110 with 5-10% humidity.

90 with 80% humidity translates to 113
90 with 70% humidity translates to 106

Yikes! 95 with 70% humidity translates to 124!

Data comes from the People's Almanac.

Here, in the desert, with 10% humidity, no matter if it's 85-90-95-100-110, you automatically shave off 5 degrees for the feel effect. Some times the humidity falls even below 5%, and? Even cooler.

Alright, I'll beat some sharp poster to it! In winter, when it falls to 30 degrees at night, along with one of our notorious, merciless wind blasters of 40MPH, the feel index: 4 below zero! And, I swear to God it feel more like 30 below zero! Grrr! You can freeze, at times, in your shoes in this city come January.

[deathegg88]

Yes, I was in Vegas in January '08, and wow I couldn't believe how cold it got!

[tijlover]

You should see the saucer eyes of those that moved to Las Vegas in the summer, and go thru their first winter here! What were they thinking?
Like many, they moved, leaving their winter coats behind, and were led to
believe it's hot year round here.

And given the low temps in winter (it can get down into the 20's at night)
+ our wicked Valley winds + our low humidity + no cloud cover, it's a recipe for freezing. It freezes at a different temp in the desert: 40. Buy a plant here at the Nursery, what does it say? Protect your plants below 40 degrees.