August 8: Record-Breaking Warmth, Daily Links

WEATHER

No doubt about it, the weather for the past five weeks has been hot — since July 3, our average high temperature has been 92.8 degrees, and the average low has been 72.9 degrees.  We haven’t set any daily temperature records in that time frame, but we’re approaching a record for warm-spell longevity.  The last time the temperature in Nashville dropped below 70 degrees was on July 2 — that means today is the 37th consecutive day when even the LOW temperature has been 70 or above.  That got me thinking…what’s the longest such streak in Nashville history?  I asked the National Weather Service to do some digging, and here’s what they came up with for the “most consecutive days with minimum temperatures above 70 degrees”:

YEAR                           NUMBER OF DAYS ABOVE 70                          ENDING DATE
1955                                              41 days                                                                       August 12
2016                                             37 days…and counting                                                  ???
2012                                             30 days                                                                         July 28
2011                                              30 days                                                                       August 1
1993                                             30 days                                                                         July 29

Many thanks to Samuel Herron of NWS-Nashville for pulling that data for me.  There’s no end to the current streak in sight, so unless the scattered storms this week unexpectedly cool us off, we’ll be breaking that record by Saturday:

Why is all of that relevant?  Because it’s not just the daytime heat that wears you down this time of year — the sneaky part of the heat is how little it cools off at night.  When you walk out the door first thing in the morning and it’s already uncomfortably warm, you don’t get any break, AT ALL.  (This is also the sneaky part about climate change — it’s not just summertime high temperatures that are getting hotter.  It’s the increase in average temperatures, year-round and world-wide, that’s the greater concern.)

So, are you ready for some good news?  The humidity will be lower today!

Now, don’t get your hopes up for any comfortable air — dew points this afternoon will still be in the upper half of the 60s, but it’s the first time in a while that we’ll be below 70 on the “muggy meter” (unless you live in eastern Middle Tennessee):

It will still hot today, but “normally hot” with highs around 90:

The best chance of storms today will be in the still-very-humid higher terrain of eastern Middle Tennessee, as this morning’s HRRR model run shows:

The oppressive humidity will be back in place tomorrow, and it will stick around the rest of the week.

That means our unsettled weather pattern will be back in place as well, with scattered storms likely in the midday and afternoon hours.  Tuesday’s storm chances look like this, according to the RPM model:

As always, the overall pattern depicted by the models is more valuable than the specific when/where of the storms that they show.  Just plan on keeping the umbrella handy through the weekend, and be flexible with any outdoor plans.

 

LINKS

Some Monday morning nerdiness for you…

• In case you missed it, here’s the best weather video from last week, of a waterspout near Omaha.
• It’s been over a decade since a major (Category 3+) hurricane struck the United States.  That’s a good thing, right?  Maybe not in the long term…
• NBC owned-and-operated TV stations have a new severe weather tool to utilize — a mobile radar.  Worth the investment, or just a gimmick?  (In case you’re curious, WSMV is not owned by NBC.)
• The 10 most-startling climate facts from last year, the warmest year on record for the planet as a whole.
• One of Jupiter’s moons, Io, has a very thin atmosphere.  That’s cool enough, but here’s the really interesting part — Jupiter’s shadow collapses that atmosphere to frost once every 42 hours.
• Astronomers have identified the 20 most “Earth-like” exoplanets.
• The weirdest star in the galaxy continues to throw curveballs to astronomers attempting to explain its behavior.
• Is the universe bigger than its age should allow, or do we need to open up our minds about space?
• The Large Hadron Collider just disappointed a bunch of theoretical physicists.
• Thoroughly agree with this article: it’s time for passwords to go away.
• Saturated fats may damage the part of the brain responsible for regulating hunger.
• Some summer Olympics nerdery: are we reaching the end of world records?
• The science of how dogs make us happier, healthier, and fitter.

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