Since we talk about record cold events with regularity here, I thought I’d talk about some record heat events that occurred near me.
Here’s a roundup of some highs:
SXUS76 KSTO 210038 AAA RERSTO RECORD EVENT REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SACRAMENTO, CA 530 PM PDT MON APR 20 2009 ...RECORD HEAT ACROSS INTERIOR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA... A STRONG HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE HAS SETTLED OVER CALIFORNIA. THE HIGH PRESSURE...COMBINED WITH VERY LIGHT WINDS AND ABUNDANT SUNSHINE HAS RESULTED IN ANOTHER DAY OF RECORD BREAKING HIGH TEMPERATURES ACROSS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. TODAYS HIGH OF 96 AT REDDING RECORD BROKE THE RECORD AT BOTH THE AIRPORT AND AT THE OLD REDDING CITY LOCATION. THE OLD CITY RECORD WAS 93...SET IN 1931. THE HIGH AT RED BLUFF AIRPORT REACHED 95...WHICH ECLIPSED THE OLD RECORD HIGH OF 91 SET IN 1950. THE HIGH AT THE SACRAMENTO CITY STATION REACHED 94 DEGREES... BREAKING THE OLD RECORD OF 92 SET IN 1931. THE RECORD AT SACRAMENTO EXECUTIVE AIRPORT REACHED 93...THE OLD RECORD WAS 90 SET IN 1950. A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 96 DEGREES WAS SET AT STOCKTON CA SUNDAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 90 SET IN 1950. A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 97 DEGREES WAS SET AT MODESTO CA SUNDAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 92 SET IN 1986. TUESDAY WILL BE ANOTHER WARM DAY WITH NEAR RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES FORECAST. TEMPERATURES BEGIN TO COOL BY MIDWEEK...BY THE WEEKEND TEMPERATURES SHOULD BE NEAR NORMAL.
While note mentioned by the NWS, the weather station I operate for my local Newspaper, The Chico Enterprise-Record set a new record high:
There were a bunch set in Southern California also
A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 87 DEGREES WAS SET AT LOS ANGELES AIRPORT TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 83 SET IN 1986. A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 94 DEGREES WAS SET DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 92 SET IN 1914. A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 97 DEGREES WAS SET AT LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 88 DEGREES SET IN 1986. A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 96 DEGREES WAS SET AT SAN GABRIEL TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 93 DEGREES SET IN 1999. A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 92 DEGREES WAS SET AT U.C.L.A. TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 84 DEGREES SET IN 1999. A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 96 DEGREES WAS SET AT CAMARILLO TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 86 DEGREES SET BACK IN 1958. A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 96 DEGREES WAS SET AT OXNARD TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 86 DEGREES SET IN 1958. A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 87 DEGREES WAS SET AT SANTA BARBARA AIRPORT TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 86 DEGREES SET IN 1958. A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 94 DEGREES WAS SET AT SANTA MARIA TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 91 DEGREES SET IN 1938. A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 95 DEGREES WAS SET AT PASO ROBLES TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 93 DEGREES SET IN 1950.
And here comes the requisite mention of “global warming” from the media, such as this story from the Post Chronicle:
California’s Cities Hit Record Hot Tempertures – Global Warming In Effect?
by Jack Ryan
Maybe it’s global warming but a record storm of heat has hit Californians extremely hard on Sunday. According to reports, a record of 101 degrees in Santa Ana was reached. Originally in 1916 apparently, a 94-degree record had been in place.
According to the AP, “Record heat is forecast statewide again Monday with the National Weather Service posting a heat advisory along the coast from San Francisco Bay south to Big Sur. Thermometers registered record highs Sunday across Southern California.”
Note, the headline typo is NOT mine, click link to see the original. By the way, this is what the Santa Ana weather station looks like. It’s a great place to set records. Story here.
Santa Ana Station looking North. Click for a larger image
And finally, I had to laugh at this headline:
Only in California…maybe the headline writer for the Post Chronicle was there?
Did the fact that we had 2″ of snow on 4/40/09 in North East Pennsylvania make the news papers Today? Nope. That was just weather.
Last week’s models showed that deep area of low pressure dropping into the Western US. Funny that it was snowing in Las Vegas on Saturday, but it was over 85 by Monday. The same low pressure area was replaced by a pretty strong are of high pressure, which should spread the warmth eastward into the eastern third of the US by Friday. By this weekend, much of the Pacific Northwest will have cooled down. Got to love Spring.
Here at Glendale 3N in southern California my max on Monday hit 97, this tied the date record set way back in 1958. It was the warmest April temp since I had 100 back in 2004 and my all time April max was on the 6th of April, 1989. Of the last 32 Aprils, 17 have been 90 or above. By the way Anthony, get the May issue of the National Geographic Magazine. The Arctic ice is going to go away according to them. Bob
May be we need to set up a second weather station network outside of towns. Surely nowadays they could be monitored remotely and remove the human factor and cost of taking readings. I guess we would have to have it monitored by some neutral observer or it wouldn’t be trusted.
Mike Bryant (02:24:58) : re the weather service exchanging home thermometers for new ones, this is a bit Orwellian. I hope people say no thanks. I would worry about an aspect of their manufacture. I had a friend who’s father was a meteorologist and I once asked him if, when they were making the predictions with a probability attached, there was any room for subjective choice in the figure – my point being that the human factor may lead to choosing the best weather possible. He gave a noncommital complex answer. Anthony, you know about these matters. It would be interesting to see how weather forecasts differ between AGW meteorologists and skeptical ones. I noted a year ago (and emailed without receiving a reply) that our “theweathernetwork.com” made long term weather forecasts (2wks) that had the curve rising up at the end of the forecast because the near weather had been cooler than average. In most cases they had to bend it down again a week later.
While I admit I am not a meteorologist, it seems to me that the past 2 years we have seen a lot of these jumps in temps. Of course the “Climate Change Alarmists” (previously known as the Global Warming Alarmists) jump on the both cold and warm weather are caused by global warming.
But it seems that the primary cause of this has been the massive Ridges and Troughs in the Jet Stream which alternately pull warm air from the tropics and cold air from the artic.
Anthony, or other meteorologists out there, has their been an increase in these strong ridge/trough patterns, and if so, what could be causing it?
from solarcycle24.com
A small new Cycle 24 sunspot has formed high in latitude in the northern hemisphere and is approaching the western limb.
Sorry for the OT, but I like to point up stories I read that hopefully Watts may follow up on (I’m sure this one is under edit as we speak):
Sun at its dimmest for nearly a century
Some interesting quotes here:
“Evidence from tree trunks and ice cores suggest that the Sun is calming down after an unusually high point in its activity.”
“We are re-entering the middle ground after a period which has seen the Sun in its top 10% of activity,” said Professor Lockwood.
“He added that the current slight dimming of the Sun is not going to reverse the rise in global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels. ”
It’s strange that at no stage does any Warmist Climate Scientist or Meteorologist EVER acknowledge the possibility that recent temperature highs are in any way related to the “unprecedented recent activity of the sun”. But to me this seems to be self evident and I’m a layman!
The world talks about ‘surface temperatures’ as if they are the temperature of the, er, surface.
Who speaks of/for soil temperature? My local NBC affiliate, nbc12 in Richmond, has a weather blog. One of the meteorologists posted this in an entry a few days ago:
“As of yesterday the soil temperature was ranging between 48 & 52 degrees. This is still far too cold to plant warm season crops. I recently spoke with a farmer from The Northern Neck, he said, in 60 years he had not seen the ground stay this cold this late into the season…”
http://nbc12weather.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/the-soil-is-awfully-cold/
Is this stuff only for almanacs? or will soil temperature be noted only when it finally warms up?
Speaking of off-topic, and the insertion of “global warming” into pretty much everything,
http://www.winnipegsun.com/entertainment/movies/2009/04/20/9171551-sun.html
This one manages to compare movie downloaders with global warming!
(Then again, I’ve never yet met a Science Fiction fan who liked Kyle XY)
I’m in Kabul, Afghanistan.
“Normal” highs in Kabul for April are around 27°C and dry (rain and snow usually done by mid-March).
This April they’re averaging around 16°C and very wet…both of which are making local residents VERY happy. We had snow in Kabul 8 April…also a bit “unusual” according to long-time residents.
In Bamiyan Province to the west of Kabul they’ve had snow almost every day since mid-March (when it normally stops)…most recent snowfall was yesterday.
Temp readings throughout Afghanistan for March and now April were cooler than “normal” so far and that on the heels of what for Afghanistan was a “mild” winter. Next week’s forecast “heatwave” (highs around 22°C) should nudge us up to about 17°C for the month.
Yeah, I know…just weather.
And inches/feet/pounds/psi/BTUs. We call them “British Units” here in the US
Glad to hear it. I was checking tyre (tire) pressures today in the familiar units (psi) and noticed that the gauge I was using had a metric scale in kilopascals. 30psi is 207kPa, but of course, the graduations are too coarse to read that exactly, so I think I’ll stick to the useful ones. 🙂
A correction to the Gorenheit equation:
G=F+100+(or minus!) Reg eM(z) (The Mann constant.. which, Tho too complicated to explain, varies wildly as needed to suit your message)
Barry Foster (00:45:50) :
“I want to know why you Americans are still using Farenheit! It’s so last-century.”
America is going metric.
Inch by inch.
The Fahrenheit scale is also commonly used in the U.S. for body temperatures.
Where the extra fineness is useful, IMHO. Also, 100deg.F is a useful marker for taking an illness more seriously – stay at 40deg.C for long and you’ll be dead!
Pamela Gray (06:54:23) :
Good explanation (of the PDO).
Jet stream, anyone? Look at it today, and you’ll see why it is warm in CA. During a cool phase of the PDO, the polar jet stream has a more meridional flow, sweeping down over the Pacific Northwest or out of Canada, bring cold, dry, polar air masses over the plains. During the warm phase, the jet stream has a more zonal flow, with the polar jet stream remaining over the far north, and the Pacific jet stream sweeping in from the Pacific, bringing warmer, wet, maritime air over the US.
This is pretty much the classic difference between El Nino and La Nina, as depicted here:
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/209472main_elnino1_080128_HI.jpg
Atmospherically, we’re still seeing the lingering effects of what looks like La Nina, even though the tropical SST’s appear to be going ENSO neutral.
Squidly (06:04:14) :
Have you considered going to your doctor to see if you are “green” because of an hepatitis? 🙂
Really we are being literally bombarded (all around the globe) 24 hours a day with this green mantra. Tell the preachers not to exaggerate…it is just a good advice, they are just driving us crazy…and crazy people could turn them suddenly into martyrs..
Robinson (07:25:32) :
“We are re-entering the middle ground after a period which has seen the Sun in its top 10% of activity,” said Professor Lockwood.
“He added that the current slight dimming of the Sun is not going to reverse the rise in global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels. ”
It’s strange that at no stage does any Warmist Climate Scientist or Meteorologist EVER acknowledge the possibility that recent temperature highs are in any way related to the “unprecedented recent activity of the sun”. But to me this seems to be self evident and I’m a layman!
Interesting quote, where did you get it from, it certainly isn’t from the article you linked?
The difficulty of linking the solar activity changes to terrestrial temperatures is that the solar activity change is so small, hence the search by some for other related external source such as solar modulation of cosmic rays.
Now CARE is using global warming to solicit funds. The crap spewed in the following link is unbelievable:
http://tinyurl.com/dlzu65
AndrewWH (23:15:40) :
John F. Hultquist (23:52:46) :
I picked up on this claim as soon as I heard the report. I’m unaware of any proxy that shows such a thing. The statement is attributed to Prof Mike Lockwood of Southampton University.
Does anyone have a paper by him? I have heard some AGW proponents say similar things but I could never find the source.
Leif…where are you?
When our weather turned nice early in the west I told DW-‘Watch some idiot newsie is going to cry-“GLOBAL WARMING!”-one of our local warmists is now preparing her tome on how NE Oregon’s too warm.(I happen to have her as a client)-to send to the local
paper…
Those of us who have lived and worked in the High Lonesome of NE Oregon,only wish this were true.Last year we had 17f. and 4in of snow….
It’s supposed to get into the low 80’s here for perhaps the next several days here in Wichita, but how high depends on what weather site you’re looking at, then the temperature may drop below normal again. It’ll probably get higher in western Kansas than here.
I like the punchline, I wonder how much of that record is just the UHI effect (which there’s solid evidence for)
The LA Times attributeds the record heat to Santa Ana winds.
Long Beach, UCLA and LAX records are also broken Sunday by unseasonably warm weather that meteorologists attribute to Santa Ana winds blowing in from the desert. Today may be even hotter.
Santa Ana winds are katabatic. They are caused by cold air in the Mojave Desert flowing downhill toward the coast and hot (not in all places) because as the cold air flows downhill it is compressed and this heats the air.
The faster the winds blow, the hotter they get (less time for the heat to dissapate), and the wind speed in mostly a function of how cold the air from the Mojave is.
I’m sceptical that the record heat is in fact caused by Santa Ana winds. One reason is I believe Anthony’s Chico doesn’t get Santa Ana winds. Although they may get Chinook type winds due to the Sierras.
Anyway if Santa Ana winds are the cause they result from cold weather (in the desert interior).
So have you got that straight, cold weather is causing the record California heat.
Sorry, I’m mixing my reading references. The word Unprecedented comes from UCAR. You are correct in stating that Solar activity may not in itself be a direct causal factor, yes. However one would think that theories such as Svensmarks’ that you cite would get more attention from the community (and grant fund managers), given that there’s an obvious correlation there and an obvious failure with the AGW theory.
When you get rid of your useless royalty, we’ll switch to celsius. Deal? 😉
Thank you, Pamela, for the PDO cold phase data on the ’33 dust bowl.
Our 2 hottest days here in Weaverville, CA were Aug 5 &6 , 1932 , sitting in an as yet unbroken record string of 5 consecutive days. Am I correct to assume that 1932 was still part of that cold 30’s PDO? (i.e. – can you give me the range of years that cold PDO existed in?).