Wednesday, August 10, 2011

August Temperature Update: Heat Records Outnumbering Cold Records by Amazing 24 to 1

August 11 Update: There were 42 all-time record high temperature records set in the first week of August. That is over 5 times the number of all-time low temperature records set in all 3 months of last winter.

Original post:
This summer's sound of crashing temperature records has resoundingly echoed through the first week of August. For August 1-9, the number of new daily high temperature records set in the U.S. has overwhelmed the number of low temperature records by an astounding ratio of 23.9 to 1. The excess of heat records over cold records has been more than 1000. This has raised the ratio for the summer to date to almost 10 to 1 with just over 3 weeks remaining in the season.

Although the most extreme heat has been focused on Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, nearly all of the country has been averaging above average temperatures except for the Pacific Coast, Nevada, and Utah.

Images (click to enlarge):
- Monthly ratios of daily high temperature to low temperature records set in the U.S. for July 2010 through Aug. 9, 2011. Data from NOAA National Climatic Data Center, background image © Kevin Ambrose (www.weatherbook.com). Includes historical daily observations archived in NCDC's Cooperative Summary of the Day data set and preliminary reports from Cooperative Observers and First Order National Weather Service stations. All stations have a Period of Record of at least 30 years.
- Preliminary U.S. average temperature and departure from normal for Aug. 1-8, 2011 from Climate Prediction Center/NWS/NOAA.

2 comments:

sleepership said...

On the lower Map anomaly- its exactly the area of the Dust Bowl circa 1934- mid Pliocene 3.5 million years ago- and 2020 and after?

CapitalClimate said...

If you're implying that there is a direct connection between those events, there is no credible evidence for it.

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