Tuesday: 100 earliest in day & for longest time
* Still hot, heat advisory for District: Full Forecast | NatCast *
The National Weather Service reports the following stunning climate facts from Tuesday for Reagan National (DCA):
THE EARLIEST REPORTED READING OF 100F IN A CALENDAR DAY WAS RECORDED YESTERDAY JULY 6 2010 ... JUST BEFORE 12 PM NOON EDT ... OR 11 AM IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME ... EST. PREVIOUSLY THE EARLIEST RECORD OF A 100F READING IN WASHINGTON DC WAS AUG 21 1930 AT NOON EST ... OR 1 PM EDT.
THE MOST NUMBER OF CONSECUTIVE HOURS OF 100F OR BETTER IN WASHINGTON IS 7 HOURS. THIS HAS OCCURRED TWICE...ONCE ON JULY 21 1930 FROM NOON TO 6PM EST ... OR 1 TO 7 PM EDT. THE OTHER WAS YESTERDAY JULY 6 2010 FROM NOON TO 6 PM EDT.
Also notable: It appears DCA and BWI will set or tie record high minimums for today. The low at DCA dropped to only 81 this morning (previous record high min 79, 1994). Baltimore dipped to 79 equaling the record high low of 79 from 1986.
By
Jason Samenow
| July 8, 2010; 10:00 AM ET
Categories:
Local Climate
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Posted by: BandTCrowd | July 8, 2010 10:32 AM | Report abuse
How is noon-6pm seven hours of 100+? It's seven consecutive hourly readings, I know, but if you're using readings on the hour you're assured of really no more than 6 hours and 2 minutes where the temps were at or above 100.
Posted by: ah___ | July 8, 2010 10:35 AM | Report abuse
It says "yesterday, July 6th" when yesterday was July 7th. Or were both days just that miserable? :)
Posted by: hereandnow1 | July 8, 2010 10:40 AM | Report abuse
Hopefully some of historical data in this and other heat wave-related posts will appear in next year's Weatherwise 2010 wrapup. And hopefully the magazine will get the numbers right, which they haven't always been doing in recent issues.
I've written to the Weatherwise editor a couple of times about their mistakes, but there was response and the mistakes keep occuring (e.g., they got Baltimore's snow totals wrong in the May-June issue)and badly misstated the distance between Virginia Beach and Harrisburg in the March-April issue.
The on-line version of the July-August megalopolis snowstorms article at http://www.weatherwise.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/2010/July-August%202010/mega-snow-full.html also has DCA's snow total wrong. It was 56.1, not 56".
And Dulles isn't included in the list of reporting locations, which is a major distortion of the snowfall that occured much of the D.C. area received this past winter. Even a cursory glance at the snowfall map CWG posted yesterday indicates the wide discrepancy in our area's February snowpaloozas.
The inaccuracies may seem like small change to some. But when you are producing a scientific magazine/journal, you have an obligation to get your data correct and Weatherwise is rapidly losing its credibility.
Kudos to CWG for alertly and quickly correcting this blog's rare inaccuracies. The CWG blog has become the publication of record for those of us seeking accurate weather information hereabouts.
Ok, time to go back outside and enjoy our delightful Amazon rain forest climate!
Posted by: JerryFloyd1 | July 8, 2010 10:49 AM | Report abuse
How about these records from http://www.hingepepper.com/weather.htm My favorites are having the record high and record low on the same day.
Posted by: eric654 | July 8, 2010 10:58 AM | Report abuse
hereandnow1, I think it's all referring to Tuesday. It was written last night. Though DCA reported a 99 at 12:52 in between all the 100+. Close enough?
Posted by: Ian-CapitalWeatherGang | July 8, 2010 11:07 AM | Report abuse
BandTCrowd, you are being sarcastic, right? When DC has these nights (downtown) in the 80F-84F degree range for low temperatures, I start going a little crazy. Or at least GRUMPY :-) I mean, I am not even up at 4:45am-5:45am when the low temperatures occur. So I never experience a heat index during waking hours BELOW 90!!! ughh :)
Posted by: Camden-CapitalWeatherGang | July 8, 2010 11:31 AM | Report abuse
This is nothing like the heat waves of the 1930's.
Washington itself has NEVER had a temperature higher than 106F. Most surrounding areas and states as far west as Minnesota went over 110F. Get to the Dakotas and westward and you start exceeding 120F. [North Dakota, 121F @ Steele. In Canada, Yellow Grass and Estevan, SASK have hit 117F or 47 Celsius]
Posted by: Bombo47jea | July 8, 2010 12:15 PM | Report abuse
Note, headline mistakenly referenced yesterday instead of Tuesday. NWS statement was issued yesterday but was referring to events on Tuesday July 6.
Posted by: CapitalWeatherGang | July 8, 2010 12:26 PM | Report abuse
i totally agree with ah___. 12:00 - 6:00 is 6 hours... what? are there 25 hrs in a day now...? sheesh...
Posted by: walter-in-fallschurch | July 8, 2010 3:21 PM | Report abuse
@walter and @ah__
Am thinking that the seventh hour is incorporating the period between 6 and 7 p.m. (i.e. right up until the 7 p.m. observation is taken)
Posted by: CapitalWeatherGang | July 8, 2010 4:07 PM | Report abuse
maybe a better answer (or another way to look at it) is that they're thinking it was 100+ for a 1/2 hour on either side of those 7 readings - from 11:30 to 6:30?
Posted by: walter-in-fallschurch | July 8, 2010 4:57 PM | Report abuse
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I'm so happy to be alive and in the DC area to experience such events!