Saturday, September 25, 2010

Endless Summer X: Washington Ties Record for 90°+ Days;
Richmond, Raleigh Extend Records

Today's high of 93° at Washington ties the annual record of 67 for days with 90° or higher temperatures. The highs of 94° at Richmond and 98° at Raleigh further extend their records to 78 and 91, respectively. Raleigh's high also smashes the old record for the date by 6°.

Record daily highs were also set at Washington Dulles (93°, old record 92° in 1970) and Martinsburg WV (95°, old record 94° in 1930).

Image (click to enlarge): Cumulative annual number of days with temperatures 90° or higher in Washington, CapitalClimate chart from National Weather Service data

Friday, September 24, 2010

2010 Continues Setting Mid Atlantic Heat Records

Today's heat records in the Mid Atlantic area are part of a continuing trend over the last 6 to 7 months. Here is a summary of the heat records to date in the Washington area from the National Weather Service:
THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF RECORDS BROKEN AT THE THREE MAJOR
CLIMATE SITES IN THE AREA SINCE THE UNUSUALLY WARM PERIOD BEGAN IN
MARCH. STATS ARE THRU SEPT 24-

DCA-[Washington National]
BROKE OR TIED 6 DAILY MAX TEMP AND 9 DAILY HIGH MIN RECORDS SO FAR
IN 2010. JUNE 2010 WAS THE WARMEST JUNE ON RECORD AND JULY 2010
TIED THE WARMEST JULY AND MONTH ON RECORD. SPRING /MAR-MAY/ 2010
WAS THE SECOND WARMEST SPRING ON RECORD WHILE THE SUMMER /JUN-AUG/
2010 WAS THE WARMEST SUMMER ON RECORD. DCA HAS HAD 66 DAYS SO FAR
THIS YEAR OF 90 DEGREE OR HIGHER TEMPS...WHICH IS 1 DAY SHY OF THE
67 RECORDED IN 1980.

BWI-[Baltimore/Washington International]
BROKE OR TIED 11 DAILY MAX TEMP AND 5 DAILY HIGH MIN RECORDS SO
FAR IN 2010. JUNE 2010 WAS THE SECOND WARMEST JUNE ON RECORD AND
JULY 2010 TIED THE WARMEST JULY AND MONTH ON RECORD. THE SUMMER
2010 WAS THE WARMEST ON RECORD. BWI HAS HAD 58 DAYS SO FAR THIS
YEAR OF 90 DEGREE OR HIGHER TEMPS...THE MOST ON RECORD.

IAD-[Washington Dulles]
BROKE OR TIED 18 DAILY MAX TEMP AND 21 DAILY HIGH MIN RECORDS SO
FAR IN 2010. SET MONTHLY RECORDS IN 2010 FOR THE WARMEST MARCH AND
JUNE WHILE APRIL AND JULY 2010 WERE BOTH THE SECOND WARMEST ON
RECORD. SPRING AND SUMMER 2010 WERE BOTH THE WARMEST ON RECORD.
IAD HAS HAD 57 DAYS SO FAR THIS YEAR OF 90 DEGREE OR HIGHER
TEMPS...THE MOST ON RECORD.
And to the south in Richmond:
IN OTHER NOTES...RIC REALLY PILING ON THE POINTS WITH RESPECT TO
90 AND 95-DEGREE DAYS. THROUGH FRI 9/24 RIC HAS HAD 77 DAYS WITH A
HIGH OF 90 F OR HIGHER (PREV RECORD HAD BEEN 70 DAYS IN 1977) AND
40 DAYS WITH A HIGH OF 95 F OR HIGHER (PREV RECORD HAD BEEN 35
DAYS IN 2002).

Endless Summer IX: Day 66 of 90°+ Temperatures;
Heat Records Set in 10 States from North Carolina to New Hampshire

5:30 PM Update: The preliminary high temperature at Washington is 99°, 5° above the old record (1970) and 22° above the climatological average. This is 16 days later than the previous latest date with a temperature of 99° or higher (100° on Sept. 8, 1939).

The high of 97° at Dulles also smashes the 1970 record by 5°.

Baltimore's high of 95° ties the record, also from 1970.

Martinsburg WV's high of 95° is 1° below the 1970 record.

Other highs around the region:
Baltimore Downtown 97
Charlottesville VA 97
Hagerstown MD 95
Other records set or tied (previous in parentheses):
Richmond VA    96 (95,1970)
Norfolk VA 96 (90,1970)
Salisbury MD 95 (91,1930)
Wallops Is. VA 90 (87,2009)
Blacksburg VA 87 (tie,1970)
Beckley WV 86 (85,2007)
Raleigh NC 96 (91,1945)
Greensboro NC 93 (92,1941)
Atlantic Cty NJ 93 (89,1970)
Georgetown DE 97 (95,1970)
Wilmington DE 92 (91,1970)
Mt. Pocono PA 85 (84,1970)
Avoca PA 90 (88,1970)
Binghamton NY 88 (84,1970)
Syracuse NY 90 (88,1970)
Worcester MA 85 (tie,1914)
Concord NH 90 (88,1908)
5 PM Update: Washington National is still 97°, Dulles is up another degree to 97° also.

4 PM Update: Washington National has backed off to 97°, Dulles is up to 96°. The latest report from both Culpeper VA and College Park MD is 99°.

3 PM Update: Washington National reports a remarkable jump to 98° as the wind has shifted to the southwest. If correct, it would be not only a new daily record (old record 94° in 1970) but also the highest temperature so late in the season. Other stations in the region reporting similarly high temperatures:
Culpeper VA        99
Patuxent River MD 98
Fredericksburg VA 98
Frederick MD 97
Leesburg VA 97
Manassas VA 97
College Park MD 97
Stafford VA 97
Ft. Belvoir VA 97
Andrews AFB 96
Baltimore Downtown 95
Dulles is up to 95°.

Richmond, Raleigh new records added below.

2 PM Update: The high temperature so far is 93°. Washington Dulles has already broken its daily record with 94°, 2° above the old record set in 1970.

The 96° so far at Richmond has broken its previous record of 95° also set in 1970. Richmond records extend back to 1897.

Raleigh has reached at least 95°. This breaks the 1945 record by 4°, although Raleigh records extend back only to 1944.

Original post:
At 1 pm today, the temperature at Washington reached 91°, bringing the total number of 90° days for 2010 to 66, one short of the record number in 1980.

Richmond (94°) and Raleigh (93°) are continuing to add to their records.

Images (click to enlarge): Washington/Baltimore and Mid Atlantic regional surface temperatures at 4 pm EDT, September 24, 2010, from MesoWest; Cumulative annual number of days with temperatures 90° or higher in Washington, CapitalClimate chart from National Weather Service data

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Endless Summer VIII: Day 65 of 90°+ Temperatures

5:30 PM Update: And the preliminary high temperature for today at Washington is 93°. With a morning low of 71°, that's a daily temperature 14° above the climatological average.

The 93° at Washington Dulles ties the daily record for the second consecutive day. Baltimore's BWI made it only to 89°.

Richmond hit 97°, only 1° below the daily record, and Raleigh's 99° blasted away the previous daily record from 1980 by 5°.

Original post:
The 3 pm temperature at Washington is 92°. Today is the 65th day of 2010 with temperatures of 90° or higher, just 2 days short of the record in 1980.

Richmond and Raleigh (currently both 96°) are extending their records by one more day.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Endless Summer VII: Heat Parade Rolls On;
64th Day of 90°+ Temperatures in Washington

5:30 PM Update: The preliminary high temperature is 95°, just 3° below the daily record and 18° above the average for the date. With the low of 67°, the day is 13° above the climatological average.

Other regional high/low temperatures:
Washington Dulles  94/63
Baltimore/BWI 91/61
Baltimore Downtown 93/65
The high at Dulles ties the record set in 1970 and 1980.

Original post:
By 3 pm today, the temperature at Washington reached 91°, making this the 64th day of 90° or higher temperatures this year. The high so far today is the 93° reading at 4 pm.

Day 64 was achieved 2 days later than in 1980, but that year peaked out at the record annual total of 67 days on September 23. With 90° temperatures expected for the next 2 days, however, this year's heat streak is likely to go at least 1 day later. This year has already far exceeded 1980's 90° record in longevity; the first 90° day in 1980 was May 13, but this year it was almost a month earlier, on April 16.

Meanwhile, the 94° so far at Richmond and 95° at Raleigh have further extended their already broken records. This is now the 7th day of 90°+ temperatures at Raleigh out of the last 9 and the 13th in September overall. It's the 8th day this month at Richmond.

Images (click to enlarge): Cumulative annual number of days with temperatures 90° or higher in Washington, CapitalClimate chart from National Weather Service data; U.S. surface temperatures at 4 pm EDT, September 22, 2010, from Unisys

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Seasonal Weather Outlook Update: Warm Fall, Then Colder Early Winter in Northeast

WSI, the industrial weather forecasting subsidiary of The Weather Channel, announced exclusively on CNBC this morning (video unavailable) that its updated seasonal weather outlook calls for a warm remainder of the fall over much of the northern U.S. followed by colder weather in December:
"The combination of the La Nina event, a relatively cold north Pacific, and a record warm north Atlantic are quite bullish for a very warm October, especially across the northeastern quarter of the country" said WSI Chief Meteorologist Dr. Todd Crawford. However, the historically persistent negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation and the strength of the North Pacific climate signals suggest that the widespread warmth in October will be short-lived with more widespread cold across the eastern US in November and December. For the October-December period as a whole, we are forecasting 1776 gas-weighted heating degree days, within 1-2% of both last year and the 1971-2000 mean."
The latest 90-day outlook for October-December 2010 from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, shown in the image, calls for more widespread warmth, especially over the central and southwestern portions of the country.

Seasonal Outlook

Latest seasonal forecast: Click here.


Latest 3-month temperature outlook from Climate Prediction Center/NWS/NOAA.