You'll only be a few minutes, you think. Just long enough to run in for a box of diapers or a carton of milk. Surely you can leave the kids, or the dog in the car that long without worrying about them.

Well don't. Emergency room physicians are reminding us that our cars can become hothouses, even 130-degree ovens in as little as 10 minutes when outside temperatures are as pleasant as 80 degrees.

Such temperatures can quickly be deadly to children and pets. And it happens every year. Harried grownups are sure their errands will be quick, but they're not. Or worse, they forget the kids are even in the car, and they park for work, only to realize too late that they forgot to drop them at day care.

UPDATE: A local example of exactly this phenomenon occurred recently in Ellicott City, when a 23-month-old child was left in the family car, in the driveway, all day. She died of heat stroke.

UPDATE 2: The state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is also reporting the death of an elderly Prince George's County man, found inside a dwelling where the temperature had climbed to 99 degrees. His death was complicated by cardiovascular disease, health officials said.

A study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2005 found that even when it was 72 degrees outside, the temperature increase inside the car can put children at risk for hyperthermia, reaching 117 degrees. And "cracking" the windows 1.5 inches made no significant difference, either in the speed of the temperature increase or the final temperature.

Here's more from Dr. Nick Jouriles, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.:

“Putting it bluntly, leaving your child in a hot car is like leaving your child in a lit oven,” he said. “The most important thing to know is that it does not have to be brutally hot outside for it to be brutally hot inside the car.  Be especially careful if you are sleep deprived or experience changes in your schedule or your child is in the back seat, making it more difficult for you to see.

Continue reading "Your car can become an oven in 10 minutes" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Heat waves
        

The heat and humidity have split, but not before toppling trees- big ones - all across Maryland and Virginia.

The list of incidents of downed trees, with associated structural damage and power outages, is impressive. There were also some lucky escapes, too. There's the story in today's Sun about Craig Cocharo, of Towson, whose 2007 Honda Accord - with him at the wheel - was crushed by a falling tree at Loch Raven Drive and Dulaney Valley Road. He escaped uninjured, but it's hard to imagine how.

Got any good storm stories to relate? Leave us a comment and share them. Here's Iver Mindel's report of an apparent microburst that raked the Lutherville park where he was attending lacrosse practice:

Continue reading "Timber falls as heat wave exits" »

Posted by Frank Roylance at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Heat waves
        

This late-spring heat wave is only getting worse today. The forecast high of 100 degrees at BWI is two degrees hotter than the record of 98 degrees, set 75 years ago today, in 1933. 

Downtown temperatures will be even hotter. It's already 95 degrees here at The Sun's weather station at Calvert & Centre streets. The heat index reading - which factors in the 75-degree dew point and its effect on evaporative cooling from the skin - is 108 degrees as I write this just after 11 a.m. And the peak heating probably won't occur until 3 or 4 p.m.

Heat advisories continue throughout the region, extended until 8 p.m. tomorrow. Here's AccuWeather.com's take on the heat wave. And here are some other high readings from yesterday's heat across the region.

Oh, man. This is brutal. But it's certainly not unheard of. There are seven dates in June with record highs of 100 degrees or higher for Baltimore. The highest was 105 degrees, reached on June 29, 1934. We touched 101 degrees twice, on June 5, 1925, and June 15, 1994 - not all that long ago.

Blame, once again, falls on the big high-pressure system sitting over the mid-Atlantic states. Clear skies and a clockwise circulation that's pumping hot, humid air our way from the south and west, are combining to put us in the steam bath. The sun, less than two weeks short of the summer solstice, is nearly as high and strong as it ever gets here. So being outdoors is a bad idea no matter how you cut it. That's Lindsay MacCuaig, of Baltimore, ignoring such advice in the photo above. The Sun's Algerina Perna shot the picture.

Fortunately, that high can't stick here forever. Forecasters expect that it will continue to drift eastward, allowing our next not-so-hot front to move in tomorrow. That won't provide much heat relief right away. The forecast high for Tuesday is still 97 degrees. But it will bring increased chances for showers and thunderstorms by Tuesday afternoon and evening. And Wednesday should be cooler, with highs in the mid- to upper-80s for the rest of the week and right through the weekend. That's still 5 degrees or so above the long-term averages for the date.

Hang in there, Baltimore.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Heat waves
        

Dang, that was hot. The temperature at BWI at Baltimore-Washington International (breathe here) Thurgood Marshall Airport climbed to 95 degrees yesterday afternoon. That was only a degree shy of the record for the date - 96 degrees set back in 1999.

But that doesn't tell half the story. I was riding around in the afternoon looking at 111 degrees on my car thermometer (it eventually cooled to 102 degrees). It was 94 on the WeatherDeck, and to 99 degrees at the Maryland Science Center. And away from the harbor, the sensors at The Sun's weather station at Calvert & Centre streets soared to 100 degrees at 3:37 p.m., a pretty good indication of what it was like downtown.

What was it like? It was very humid, and the sun was relentless, turning a venture outdoors into a stroll through a runaway steambath. 

My son and I sought some quiet time together, so we headed out onto the Gunpowder in the kayaks. The river water is still quite cold, and where the hot, humid air hung over the cold water in the shade, it condensed, producing a beautiful low fog. We were very comfortable on the water, even chilly when the shade and the breeze were right. There were flocks of swallowtail butterflies, a gaggle of geese, several blue herons that flew ahead of us as we cruised from Monkton to Phoenix. Kingfishers chattered, and we spotted a deer bolting into the brush. A beautiful day, until we had to haul out and sit in the sunshine waiting for our ride out. Whew!   

While we set no new temperature record at BWI, they tied one down at Reagan National Airport, matching a 98-degree reading on the same date during the heat wave in 1999.

Today promises more of the same. The forecast high for BWI is 97 degrees. That would tie the 1999 record here. There's a small chance of some isolated showers and thunderstorms south of the city once things get cooking in the afternoon and the hot, humid air at the surface starts to rise. Heat index values, if you pay attention to such things, will be over 100 degrees. There are heat advisories up for the entire area, shown in orange on the map at left.

UPDATE: Looks like the high today at BWI was "only" 93 degrees.  It was 97 and change at The Sun's weather station.

But the storms, if you get one, will provide only temperary relief. Monday looks like the worst day of the lot, with a forecast high of 99 degrees at BWI. That would set a new record for that date. The old one is 98 degrees, set in 1933.

There is some relief in the cards. The big high-pressure system that has been pumping this hot, humid weather up from the south and west is moving slowly east. Behind it there's a cool front, and the collision of hot and cooler will raise our thunderstorm chances on Tuesday, and lead in slightly less-hot temperatures - in the mid-90s Tuesday, and the mid- to upper-80s from Wednesday into the weekend. Normal highs for this time of year at BWI are in the low 80s. We're still a month away from the highest average highs of the year.

Okay, so it's hot. We all know that. The important question is, "How are you keeping cool this weekend?" I told you about our paddle down the Gunpowder.

Aside from burning money in your air conditioner, how are you keeping the sweat off your brow ?  Are you among the 49,000 BGE customers who lost power in the storms south of the city yesterday? How are you coping with that?  Are you new to Chesapeake summers? Can you believe this stuff? Leave a comment and let us know how you're faring in this steam bath.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Heat waves
        

With the temperatures outside the Sun building now at 98 degrees, and 52 percent humidity (dew point 77 degrees), the heat index has reached 115 degrees at 12:30 p.m. If you're indoors, working in air conditioning, thank your lucky stars. This is truly dangerous heat and humidity.

It's 101 degrees at the Inner Harbor.

If you have a relative or a neighbor with cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, dementia or some other chronic condition, please go check on them, or call them and make sure they're okay. Nearly all of the 13 Marylanders who have died this summer from heat-related causes also had underlying conditions that hampered their ability to tolerate and cope with the heat and humidity, and hastened their deaths.

Let's look after each other.

Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Heat waves
        

Oh man, this is awful. The weather instruments here at The Sun were reading 93 degrees at 10 a.m. and they're still going up. The heat index numbers have been fluctuating between 109 and 112 degrees as the breeze causes humidity numbers bounce around. 

The overnight low at BWI was 80 degrees. A check with meteorologist Andy Woodcock, out at the NWS forecast office in Sterling, Va., found that this was only the third time since the official observations moved to BWI (Friendship) Airport in July 1950 that overnight temperatures have failed to drop below 80 degrees.

The other occasions were on June 26, 1952 and July 22, 1972.

The list is much longer if you include all dates since weather records began in Baltimore in 1871. Back then, the readings were taken in downtown Baltimore, where heat-island effects cause higher daytime temperatures, and retard overnight cooling.

Development and paving at BWI may be contributing to a heat island effect out there, too.

Here at Calvert & Centre streets, the low this morning was 84 degrees. It was 85 at the Maryland Science Center. 

Mercy.  

Posted by Frank Roylance at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Heat waves