Do heat waves last longer than they used to (in your area)?

[begin_within]

Twenty years ago, a heat wave where I live (San Diego) was a 3-day event. The first hot day, then the peak day where everyone was complaning, then the third day which was a little cooler so people stopped complaining because "it's not has hot as yesterday." Then it would be back to normal. In the summer of 2006, we had a six-week period from mid-June to the end of July where it never cooled down, even at night. The peak was July 22, 2006, where it was 108 at my house, with humidity so high that it literally felt like a steambath. This summer has been a little bit better, but August was pretty miserable and we have had about 10 days of heat and humidity in a row. Are the air masses that travel around and create these heat waves larger than they used to be? What is the pattern where you live?

[grasswire]

1. seems hotter to me

When I was a child, a day over 80 was unbearably hot to us. When I was in high school, we could wear pleated wool skirts on the first day of school in September. That's gone. Weeks of temps over 80 are common, and hot weather continues into October. I'm in the temperate PNW, west of the Cascades.

[NMDemDist2]

2. it's not hotter, just wetter and much more humid

we had rain at least 3x a week up until a couple weeks ago and this is supposed to be the desert. it's normal to have 'monsoon' season from mid July to about now, but it rained all spring and early summer

strange....

:shrug:

[begin_within]

12. What's odd is that here in San Diego we had only half of our normal rainfall

in the normal "rainy season" typically February and March - but they count the rainfall from July 1 from one year to June 30 the next year, and in the period July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007 we had only half the usual amount of rainfall. And San Diego is not that far from Arizona. Even weirder, it got down to 25 degrees at my house this past January - which is very rare for the city of San Diego. So it's been both hotter and colder, and more humidity, but less rainfall. Totally the opposite of the type of climate that made San Diego "famous."

[NMDemDist2]

16. oops, I should have said I was in SE New Mexico now, AZ is in a huge drought I hear

:hi:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. Here in CO, seemed to be the standard mix of summer weather. Last winter, though, yikes.

We usually have a decent number of snowstorms, but the waves of blizzards was a bit unusual.

MKJ

[Forkboy]

4. Not in Boston,no.

Been a great summer,weather wise anyways.5 of the last 6 weeks have been mid 70's to mid 80's and dry.It's enough to almost make me like the sun.

Almost.

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. Ditto, Cape and islands

[NutmegYankee]

35. It was cool this summer in Connecticut.

Few if any heat waves, 3 days above 90. It has already started dipping into the 40's at night and my car was covered with leaves today.


I don't have a good feeling about this winter...

[AlCzervik]

5. Last summer up here in Sucramento was worse than this summer but

it seems like over the past 7 years that i've lived here each summer the temps get a bit higher.

[LeftyMom]

23. Seems like we're getting less rain too.

It starts later in the year and ends earlier in the spring, and seems like there haven't been any significant flood worries for years, which is totally abnormal.

[Mist]

6. Yes, hotter, longer, and far more humid than a few years ago. nt

[blues90]

8. Here in Hollywood CA it has been better this year than last

Last june and all of july were hot and humid and the day CSNY played at the bowl was the 31st of july and it finally cooled down that night . This year july had a few warm days but this week it really heated up fast .

I have been in this area since 1981 and we had some hot days in a month but never the entire month or as humid as now either .

Each year the heat last longer when it comes and the sun seems to have no o-zone layer to block it . Now even in Ill where I came from it was hotter each year even hotter than it has been here .

We have had no rain either as we did 2 years ago . hell the entire planet is either in flames or floods or earthquakes and this year has been the worst ever that I can recall .

[havocmom]

9. Yes. Many more days in the 90s and LOTS more in the 100s

Eastern Montana should not be hotter than Tucson for several weeks in summer like we have been in the past three years.

[sam sarrha]

10. heat is destroying buildings, a brick building collapsed on a campus because it expanded the sunny

side wall and it fell off the multi story building

[kestrel91316]

11. Ask me next week when the heat wave is finally over. Right now my

brain is too hot to function.

Over 107 every day since Tues I think, and it won't end until next Wed at least. Last night at 10 PM it was still over 95. In Los Angeles.

Don't believe what the TV says, kiddies. They report beach and downtown temps, but half of LA is over here in the Valley, and we beat out Palm Springs with some regularity.

[Bobbieo]

15. This summer in Yuma has been exceptionally humid

lots of high temps, cloud cover and no rain! Yesterday it was 114 degrees on my back patio, lots of cloud cover but about 10pm, last night, all hell broke loose. Wind, dust and a downpour like I have not seen in 15 years.

Downed trees, flooding all over town. My back yard is a total mess and this am I found three fully feathered juvenal white wing doves floundering in the pool. Rescued them and 2 of them made it ok - the third is iffy. He is still resting, outside, in an abandoned aviary. Hope he makes it.

[begin_within]

17. He's lucky you rescued him. We have seen some of that wild weather on the news.

[lligrd]

13. Today's Heat Wave Seemed To Last An Eternity nt

[msongs]

14. 112 today and yesterday, NORMAL for a week or so late Aug. early Sept. in So Cal nt

[begin_within]

18. I lived in Orange, Calfornia from 1964 to 1977, and I don't remember it ever

getting up to 112, except during "Santa Ana" conditions in late September or October. Certainly never with humidity. I remember a lot of hot, bone-dry days, but not the kind of sustained heat with humidity like we are seeing now.

[shanti]

26. hey there!

:hi: i was raised in santa ana and lived there during the same time period as you, plus about 7 years. the weather has changed in the oc a LOT. do you remember seeing ice on the puddles in the winters at times?

[begin_within]

29. No, I don't remember any ice, and it never snowed. The last two

winters in San Diego, it has gotten down to 25 degrees at least one night eac winter, killing some tender tropical plants. A significant portion of the county's avocado crop was frozen and ruined in one night. That hasn't happened here in all the previous years I have lived here. The highest (108) and lowest (25) temperatures I have measured at my house happened in the 13 months.

[shanti]

33. the last time i saw ice on the puddles in winter

in the oc was in 1967 or 68. everything's changed now...

[LWolf]

19. I've only lived here for 2 years,

so I can't speak for a pattern.

I lived for 34 years in so cal, though.

It's possible that San Diego retains heat and humidity longer because more people live there. The more concrete, the more housing tracts with watered lawns, the more humans giving off heat and sweat and breath, and cars giving off exhaust, and the climate changes. Add the global climate changes, and it's probably magnified.

[treestar]

20. Local conditions have nothing to do with global warming

We had a really cold winter one year and the local newspaper decalared that meant Global Warming was not true.

Global Warming is an average reagrding the whole planet.

We need to buy property in Canada if allowed by their laws. Though ten to one but the repukes have beat us to it.

[begin_within]

24. I beg to differ.

Global warming is related to local climates. Global warming causes climate changes all over the globe, affecting local climates. For one example:

http://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0407/et0407s2.html

[YellowRubberDuckie]

21. Honestly?

We're actually having normal seasons now. Summer lasts until September, and the temp actually starts falling off. RARELY had this happened before.
Duckie

[marlakay]

22. Last summer hot for 5 months, this summer rained off and

on all summer and was even in the high 60's some days....and its windier than normal...hardly any snow year before last then last winter tons of snow...its all over the place!

I live in WA state in the center in the mountains.

[shanti]

25. yes

and i was in orange county last july when it was hot as hell. i live in sacramento now, but grew up in the oc and it was very rare to be that hot (and humid) in the summer. a lot of places in so cal still don't have AC, which makes it worse (we know better here in sacramento where 110 degrees in the summer is not unheard of). everyone has AC here. we just had our heat wave last week - fall is looking pretty good!

[lpbk2713]

27. I won't be turning off the A/C and opening up the windows till around Halloween.

That's when the heat and humidity start to taper off. And then it will be on a day by day basis. Winter is usually about two weeks in January.

[Maat]

28. I've lived in SoCal for almost 50 years now (my entire life) ..

I never recall such extended heat waves and this amount of humidity. It was 108 degrees out there today, and it hit 110 this week. I'm 1-1/2 north of San Diego - inland - in the Temecula/Murrieta Valley. It's getting hotter and more humid every year, and for a longer time period.

[marions ghost]

30. in the Southeast summer 07 has been historic, brutal

"Abnormally dry" and blistering hot. Yes, heat waves seem to be more severe now. It used to be that thunderstorms and tropical storms would periodically cool things off, but that doesn't seem to be happening. The plants are suffering and dying as well as animals and people. Old timers say they haven't seen this before. It's scary to people who've lived a long time in the Southeast.

Map as of August 28:

http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

[Maat]

31. Yes, and out here in Southern California ..

we get this humid, hot weather we never had before - with lightening and thunder periodically - and rain. I don't even know what to call it. I'm almost 50 years old, and I've never experienced this kind of thing before.

We always had a few months of 90-ish weather, with it being very dry.

It's just strange.

[JerseygirlCT]

32. I don't know. This past summer was quite mild here

Very few really hot days, actually, and quite a number of days I'd call downright cold for summer. (Yes, I love my summers).

[cherokeeprogressive]

34. It SNOWED on Mt. San Gorgonio Sat. and Sun.

I wish I had pictures, but my camera battery was dead. I DID see it with my own eyes though, having travelled to the top of Snow Summit today on the chair lift to have a beer or two. The eastern face had snow in the low spots that didn't get any sun.

Here in Big Bear Lake the pattern has been morning or afternoon thunderstorms, with hail last Saturday and rain every day since Wed. Temps lower than normal.

[begin_within]

36. Now that's bizzare.

107, 110 in Palm Springs, and snow on Mt. San Gorgonio just a short distance away.

[cherokeeprogressive]

37. It's kinda what I thought too. But I kid you not, I saw it today at Snow Summit.

Strange.

[dogday]

38. This seems like it has been the coolest summer I can remember in Texas

We have had so much rain in Houston, it has kept the temperature down... I can't believe it is already September...