Weather phenomena

[huntinbuddy]

This is an unusually long stretch of above 95 temps into the 100's, and well into the 100's for the heat index, for us, Charlie.

The weird thing about this stretch is the TOTAL lack of moisture.   We have hot days all the time here in the summer months, but almost always it is accompanied with fairly high humidity.   Nearly all of these triple digit days have been with only 30 to perhaps 40% humidity.   And no moisture comes up at evening.   In the early mornings you can walk through the grass....what's left of it, and there is no dew from the previous night.

[Tony_]

 What may be historic about this heat wave is how much of the country is being hit, at the same time, and how long it is lasting. Am not sure how the power grids are holding up.

 I know it is worse elsewhere, but, here in Norfolk, it will be 100 tomorrow, and 102 on Sunday, probably followed by severe storms as a cold front finally pushes through.  We are not used to this, at all, and humidity will make the heat index much worse.  The only saving grace is that those people who work outdoors will be on their week-ends.

[huntinbuddy]

What may be historic about this heat wave is how much of the country is being hit, at the same time, and how long it is lasting. Am not sure how the power grids are holding up.

 I know it is worse elsewhere, but, here in Norfolk, it will be 100 tomorrow, and 102 on Sunday, probably followed by severe storms as a cold front finally pushes through.  We are not used to this, at all, and humidity will make the heat index much worse.  The only saving grace is that those people who work outdoors will be on their week-ends.

I think that is right....this system that has been anchored over the midwest for two weeks now is forecast to be pushed to the east, and then it will be all replaced with hopefully a new jetstream, and it will get cooler.  We are suppose to get our break here on Sunday.

Our local news here at 5pm, gave the high today officially at 105.  I showed 106 on my system here at home about an hour ago.  The old record for this date was 101 in 1939.

As for the power grids, we have held up fairly well around here.  Everyday, certain sections of town lose power to a few hundred homes from transformers that blow at sub-stations, but we have not had any long or widespread outage anywhere.   A more annoying thing that happens here is the pavement and concrete on roads buckles and creates sometimes quite hazardous spots very quickly.   At the moment there is one just a block from my home, where they have blocked off the street so traffic has to go through on a single lane.  I should go up and take a pic of it!

[CellarDweller115]

A more annoying thing that happens here is the pavement and concrete on roads buckles and creates sometimes quite hazardous spots very quickly.   At the moment there is one just a block from my home, where they have blocked off the street so traffic has to go through on a single lane.  I should go up and take a pic of it!

You should!  I've heard about that, but never seen that.

The temps here have been at the low 90s, but they're supposed to be up to near 100 or so for the next few days, I guess it's moving towareds us like Charlie said.

[bentgyro]

Relieved to hear that most people are safe and sound (if in the dark).
Can't imagine those temperatures...............We posted a high of 65!
We have been having a few nice days lately..........after a lot of rain and dark, cloudy days.
We get into the 70s and we think we are having a hot spell
Take care everyone!

[huntinbuddy]

The heat and resulting drought continue in the midwest.   Today was at 99, and the remainder of the week will be triple digits again.   1.5 inches of rain since May 4th.  It is estimated half of the agricultural crops have been destroyed in most of the midwest.   No relief in sight.

http://apnews.myway.com/image/20120716/US_DROUGHT_2.sff_GFX296_20120716153008.html?date=20120716&docid=DA029B6O3

[fritzkep]

Not good for the farmers. I remember back in 1985 going to church at Conception Junction MO, they prayed for gentle rains in season. That was in May.

[huntinbuddy]

Not good for the farmers. I remember back in 1985 going to church at Conception Junction MO, they prayed for gentle rains in season. That was in May.

When I went on my little trip to the South central part of the state last week, check out the sign at the Catholic church in Freeburg, MO.




Today, the entire state was declared a disaster by the USDA

http://www.komu.com/news/usda-declares-all-missouri-counties-disaster-areas-because-of-heat-drought/

[fritzkep]

Yep. Only thing to do.

[Tony_]

 Well, here we go again, maybe. It's not even noon here in Norfolk, and the weather channel is tracking a derecho in the Mid-West which could reach here tonight. A lot of forum members would be in its path, as well.  The last one, I only had 1 hour warning, but we got by all right.  Fritz got hammered.
 I never even heard of these things before these last months.

[fritzkep]

Oh boy. Not good.

[huntinbuddy]

Appears to be just light to moderate rain at this time.   Not sure if it is forecast to develop into more.

http://www.intellicast.com/National/Radar/Current.aspx?location=USVA0659&animate=true

[fritzkep]

Hope not.

[huntinbuddy]

Any drops of rain at all would be welcome here.....

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DM_state.htm?MO,MW

This map is a week old, and the new week is posted each Tuesday.   New one should be up any time now.

[Tony_]

 No derecho.  In fact the weather service contradicted the Weather Channel, and was apparently right.  We have a lot of power outages in Southern Virginia, but, luckily, these were from regular storm blobs, not a 400 mile derecho.
 I need to lower the freezer contents, though.  Too many t-storms this year, and it's kind of dumb to think one of them won't ruin a lot of food.