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I was going to post it under interesting weather stats but I'm skeptical if it really happened.
Does anyone on here believe that the reading was accurate?
Last edited by nei; 06-06-2015 at 05:39 AM..
Reason: unnecesary
Seems unlikely. A similar thing happened in Queensland, where the town of Cloncurry reported 54°C. It was later found that proper equipment wasn't used when recording that temperature, and that it was closer to 47-48°C.
A Weather Underground post on hottest temperatures recorded lists the Santa Barbara under "Anecdotal Temperature Reports" with a validity score of 1. As in, there is some physical evidence, but there's no description of the thermometer, its setting or nearby conditions:
I have never found any outside source to validate Tompkins' story, and I am highly skeptical of its veracity. I don't doubt that strong hot, dry downslope winds could kick up lots of dust and produce very high temperatures - but in the 110 F - 115 F range at most. The 133 F just isn't physically reasonable, as it would require the creation of an extremely hot air mass somewhere to the northeast. Last Monday's weather was a very good strong example of the sort of conditions that would produce such a heat wave, and our temperatures topped out at least 20 degrees below Tompkins' figure. Stronger winds could have increased the heating a bit, but not nearly that much.
Official weather station goes back to 1893, hottest temperature recorded is 115°F. They've had plenty of Santa Ana wind events over that time. Having one be 18°F warmer than the hottest on record seems unlikely. A weather station with 120 years of temperature rarely would break a record by more than a couple of degrees, definitely not 18°F.
It was probably in direct sunlight. I was a baby back in 1859, and I distinctly remember it seemed very hot, but not that hot. I tried to eat a popsicle, but it melted before I could finish it. I was too young to eat it at normal speed. I've been angry about it's melting ever since. My wife even divorced me because I wouldn't stop talking about that popsicle.
It was probably in direct sunlight. I was a baby back in 1859, and I distinctly remember it seemed very hot, but not that hot. I tried to eat a popsicle, but it melted before I could finish it. I was too young to eat it at normal speed. I've been angry about it's melting ever since. My wife even divorced me because I wouldn't stop talking about that popsicle.
Something didn't add up with this account, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then it came to me - popsicles didn't come into being, until 1923. There is no way you could have been eating a popsicle that day -care to explain?
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