I've never been a fan of July and sadly it is only getting worse.
Let's begin looking at the first two weeks of July at the Salt Lake City International Airport. The average temperature was 87.1˚F, the hottest on record.
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| Source: http://xmacis.rcc-acis.org/ |
A few more numbers. The lowest maximum temperature so far this July was 96˚F on July 1st. 96! Maximum temperatures have ranged from 96 to 104 and there have been 7 days at 100 or more. If we add June, there have been 10 days at 100 or more so far this summer.
The lowest minimum temperature so far this July was 68˚F on July 11. Minimum temperatures have ranged from 68 to (gulp) 81. 81! In fact the average temperature on that day (July 3) was 90˚F, although that was beaten on July 9 when the average temperature reached 90.5˚F. To date, there have only been 21 days in the historical record with an average temperature of 90˚F or more. 19 of these days have occurred in the 2000s (and the 90˚F on 16 July 1925 would have been a reading from downtown SLC).
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| Source: http://xmacis.rcc-acis.org/ |
To state the obvious, we are living in a new urban climate regime in which July's are a hotter beast than they were in the 20th century, and the trend is not good.
Elsewhere, western Europe is bracing for a potentially historic heat wave. The UK Met Office issued it's first-ever Red Warning for Exceptional Heat today. I don't know how long that warning system has been in place, but the record high temperature in the UK is 38.7˚C (101.7˚F) and they currently pout the odds of beating that at 80% with a 50% chance of topping 40˚C (104˚F). Other countries affected by the heat include France, with impacts on the Tour de France.
In 50 years, I'll be dead, but I wonder what some future Wasatch Weather Weenie will be writing about the climate in 2072. I suspect it won't be good.
Is that overnight low of 81 a record? That’s all I’ve been paying attention to lately. Averaging mid-70s has me regretting my commitment to a swamp-cooler.
ReplyDeleteIt's tied with one other day for the 2nd warmest on record. The highest minimum was 82˚F on 13 Sep 2021.
DeleteIs there a way to determine how much of the approximately 10F warming is heat island and how much is climate change? Global average surface temperature (thankfully) isn’t warming this rapidly. Given the time it takes to install wind, solar, and energy storage technologies I’d say 1.5 to 2 C targets will be missed and 2072 Wasatch Weather Weenies will be baking for sure sadly. But maybe we can do something to address this horrible heat island effect as well.
ReplyDeleteIf you search for "heat island" in the Search the Weenies bar to the right, you can see various posts on this, although none are able to quantify the various contributions. I don't know of a study that has really looked at this question carefully, especially with regards to July temperatures which are probably most critical for human comfort. I don't think there is any doubt, however, that urbanization is contributing significantly and that there could be some opportunities to mitigate such effects some moving forward.
ReplyDelete100 F at high noon today. I wonder if we have a shot at the all time record.
ReplyDeleteIn 50 years SLC will most likely look something like Vegas in Blade Runner 2049.
ReplyDelete