Yesterday broke Chico's streak of triple digit high temperatures (which stood at 2 days), as the high yesterday was only 99 degrees. Get used to it, because that's pretty much the pattern for this upcoming week. Weather forecasters had thought that a trough in the Pacific Northwest would affect us here in Northern California by lowering our temperatures a good 10-15 degrees from late last week's highs, but alas, no. It will cool down from last week, but only by a few degrees. Expect temps to remain in the mid to upper 90s through at least Friday. It may cool down (cool being a relative term) to the lower 90s by this next weekend. Oh, well. It is July, after all. And, Chico isn't alone in suffering from this heat. I heard yesterday that at least one city in 48 states recorded a high temperature of 90 degrees or hotter. Forty- eight states! That is unprecedented. Climatologists blame a lingering El Nino and global warming for this trend of hotter weather covering more territory. This is our future, folks. This won't be our grandchildren's future, but ours. A lot of people dismissed global warming this past winter with all of the cold air and snow. I believe that global warming enhances snowfall and colder temperatures in the winter, as well as giving us hotter, longer summers. It's all about extremes. Plus, if one looks at climate data over the past forty years, many cities have recorded twice as many record high temperatures as record low temperatures. That particular debate rages on, however, with some arguing that's merely because of the urban heat island effect, rather than global warming. I would refute that argument by looking at the worldwide trend of warming temperatures. Several of the past 15 years have been some of the warmest on record globally. That is what we should be paying attention to. It's concerning, and I fear this trend is irreversible at this point. Now we just sit back and see how much destruction global warming will bring. And on that happy note, here's Chico's seven day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Sunny and hot, with a high near 100. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph.
Tonight: Clear, with a low around 67. South southeast wind between 3 and 8 mph.
Monday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 97. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph.
Monday Night: Clear, with a low around 64. Southeast wind around 8 mph.
Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 96. South southeast wind between 3 and 8 mph.
Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 62.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 94.
Wednesday Night: Clear, with a low around 64.
Thursday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 96.
Thursday Night: Clear, with a low around 64.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 95.
Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 64.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 93.
If you think this was bad wait till you were around during the 1000AD warming where everage temps were several degress warmer then today and people grew grapes annually up in Canada!
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine how hot Chico would've been unless there was more monsoon moisture to offset it leading to more thunderstorm activites during August/September periods.
Too bad we don't have daily weather records back then. I'm facsinated by the 1000AD warming and would love to see some monster heatwaves back then that would last for weeks on end as part of the normal climate.
During warmer then average years the
100F spells would last 2+ weeks with brief interludes from unusual severe thunderstorms with maybe a tornado or two in the valley.
There wouldn't be much of a normal in terms of winter rainfall with some years bone dry and other years monsoons all winter long with very few breaks.
ReplyDeleteJuly 15th 1012AD Chico Weather blog at chicowx.blogspot.com from when the USA was tranported back in time to 1000AD from the mysterious event at 5AM PST December 21st 2012.
ReplyDeleteLast June started very gloomy with weak frontal systems from strong onshore flow and an unusual westerly jet stream bringing showers and fog in the mornings making it look like summer wouldn't get going.
The days that were shower free had partly cloudy weather and temps stuck in the 70s with rainy days in the low 60s making the 1st half of June the coldest on record ending -3 for the high temps and -1.5 for night time temps due to cloudy nights keeping temps steady.
Precipiation ended at 2.30 inches for the month much above average resulting mostly from showery systems with rain either in the morning hours before 10:00AM or at night eliminating chances of thunderstorms except on Saturday the 21st with a very loud thunderstorm between 8 and 10Am rattling homes and knocking out power to downtown Chico until 3PM forcing most stores to close!
Mid June was pefect wall-to wall sunshine weather for nearly two solid weeks with temps in the low 80s and nights in the low 50s/high 40s with unusually high pressure from the Pacfic Ocean.
Arizona started in the 100s by late March with very little moisture and has been stuck like a broken record which may be an omen of things to come when we enter July.
Sunday July 20th 1012 AD.
ReplyDeleteUpdate. The Fireball Heatwave finally ended after 2 and a half weeks of 100+ with most days over 105F The heatwave started on Tuesday July 1 with a high of 104F and after that was history.
The next several days flirted with the 110F mark with Friday Independance Day at 109.8F for the offfical high at the new and improved Chico Regional Airport which the new state of Northern California gave a million dollar grant in the form of the new electronic gold and silver to upgrade the airport facilites for commercial flight which will bring in more revenue without raising taxes! This will really help the economy get together and expose the beauties of Chico at the same time!
More on that later.
The weather.
The temps last week never went below 110F. Tuesday thru Thursday saw highs at 115F 116F and 119.8F just shy of the 120F mark but the humidity was between 2 and 6 percent during the day.
Power companies were forced to cut power to the industrial section of Chico between 12 and 5PM which saved the city from widespread blackouts
Most people conserved power volunterly which made a huge dent in power consumption and a new Nucular power plant was just opened after several successive trial runs easing the crunch and lowering electric rates considerably.
All the Reconstructed Lumber Mills in the foothills and mountains announced closures for the entire weeek since humidity last weekend forecasted to be below 30% by 8AM everyday.
Laws prohibit saw mill operators from operating if the wet bulb therometer is below 30 percent and all lumber mills in the new state of Northern California have to have at least one method of reporting hourly humidity readings at any time during operation or risk a $5,000 dollar fine for every hour of violation.
This heat wave causing all this trouble is from the same high pressure that was stuck in Arizona since mid March when temps at Phoenix stayed above 100F for several weeks solid without a single drop of rain unti the monsoons fired up last week bringing flash flooding.
Friday that monsoon moisture came during the early morning hours so highs stayed below 110F only making it to 105F with mostly cloudy skies and by evening the temps was 96F with increasing humidity and a threat of T-storms in the air with one severe cell affecting Paradise Magallia starting several fires but rain quickly extinguised them.
This heat wave causing all this trouble is from the same high pressure that was stuck in Arizona since mid March when temps at Phoenix stayed above 100F for several weeks solid without a single drop of rain unti the monsoons fired up last week bringing flash flooding.
Friday that monsoon moisture came during the early morning hours so highs stayed below 110F only making it to 105F with mostly cloudy skies and by evening the temps was 96F with increasing humidity and a threat of T-storms in the air with one severe cell affecting Paradise Magallia starting several fires but rain quickly extinguised them.