A really nasty day
It's hot. It's humid. And it's very still. It's, well, summer in Baltimore. Seven out of the last eight days have reached the 90s at BWI. The highest reading was 98 degrees, on Saturday. We could come close to that again today.
Here's the official forecast. Not much relief in sight yet, although we should slip back into the 80s for the weekend. The Baltimore Health Department has issued another Code Red Heat Alert, and extended it through Wednesday, too. Plenty of others share our misery. Here's the national map, showing heat advisories and warnings in orange and purple.
How hot is it? Click here. Ready to cool off? Try Seattle.
August is running more than 5 degrees warmer than the long-term averages for BWI. Seven of the last eight days (including today) have reached the 90s. The high mark was 98 degrees, on Saturday. We may challenge that number today. In all, we have had 26 days in the 90s since May 1. Last summer's total was 39 days, but we have three weeks to go.
We have set no new records yet this summer. But a 96 degree reading out at Dulles International Airport on Monday afternoon tied the old record for an Aug. 6 there, set back in 1977. We will be hard-pressed to bust today's record high of 105 degrees, set during a Baltimore heat wave in 1918.
Air quality has not been too bad, actually. You can follow developments here.
We remain very dry, too, more than 5 inches behind the average pace since May 1 at BWI. It's worse in many other parts of the state.
Comments
You said the low at BWI has never been 80 or above. It's now 4 am in Towson, and 82 degrees. Do we have a record?
Posted by: greg koppenhoefer | August 8, 2007 3:56 AM
Thanks for your question. It's shed some new light on this little factoid.
The overnight low at BWI this morning was 80 degrees. I just got off the phone with Andy Woodcock, at NWS Sterling. He ran a computer check for me and found two other dates since the official observations for Baltimore moved to BWI in July 1950 when the low failed to dip below 80 degrees: July 22, 1972 and June 26, 1952, both with lows of 80.
My earlier search included only July and August, because those are the only months with online data for record high minimums. So I missed the June date. And I missed the 1972 event because I was searching only record high minimums. There was a July 22 with a warmer record low, but it was before 1950. My bad.
Anyway, the bottom line here is that this morning marked only the third time in 57 years of observations at BWI (or Friendship) Airport that the low failed to fall out of the 80s.
The next question should be this: Are temperatures rising at BWI ? If so, is it because temperatures have been rising globally? Or, as I think more likely, are they rising because of continuing development at the airport - more paving, more buildings and more "heat island" effects? Or both?
Posted by: frank roylance | August 8, 2007 10:53 AM