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August 6, 2011

How cool is Ft. Meade? And why?

FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:

Several readers have asked me about relatively cool temperatures at Ft. Meade in the summer. Jeffery Gibel says the fort is 7 to 10 degrees cooler at night than the surrounding area: “What gives?” My best guess? Ft. Meade benefits from being downwind from the forest and green space at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Station and the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge. Tree shade and evaporative cooling make them a natural air conditioner surrounded by paved urban heat islands.  

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:00 AM | | Comments (1)
Categories: From the Sun's print edition
        

Comments

I used to give flight instruction at Ft. Meade, Tipton Airport and so regularly checked weather there. It was always cooler as Jeffrey Gibel observes, by quite a bit compared to BWI where I also did some instructing. I put my vote with Frank on the large wooded area adjoining the airport at Tipton. This is what upsets me when I see, again and again, wooded areas destroyed in AA County and houses/buildings put up--this is just going to make it warmer among other things. When will we learn?

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About Frank Roylance
This site is the Maryland Weather archive. The current Maryland Weather blog can be found here.
Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1992, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page. Frank also answers readers’ weather queries for the newspaper and the blog. Frank Roylance retired in October 2011. Maryland Weather is now being updated by members of The Baltimore Sun staff
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