Another Hot One

Photo by CaptainKidder on Flickr

Yesterday's heat was proof that the old saying "Yeah, but it's a dry heat" is true. Although the high reached 96 the heat wasn't necessarily overwhelming because the dew points remained in the lower 50s. Those dew points have crept into the lower 60s this morning. Combine the increased humidity with another day above 95 degrees, we've got a heat advisory, an air quality alert, and the city hasopened cooling centers. Take it easy today.

As mentioned last week the heat is a result of an upper level ridge sitting on top of a surface high pressure system. That situation looks like it will last through tomorrow before breaking down. If anything Tuesday is going to be hotter and more humid. Look for a high near the century mark. The record high for tomorrow is 101 degrees.

The excessive heat will begin to fade on Wednesday when, an upper level low over Nova Scotia is expected to back up and displace the ridge. Wednesday will still be plenty miserable with a high in the lower 90s, lots of humidity, and an outside chance of showers. Upper 80s should be the norm for the end of the week and start of the weekend.

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By Joe Schumacher in News on July 5, 2010 12:43 PM

Comments [rss]

HBHB

Lived in NYC my entire life and never heard a single person say that we have "dry heat". NYC is known for it's brutally humid summers.

henricus

Just a thought from someone who really wanted to comment on your post earlier:

You are a special sort of obnoxious. You take the side of the most monopolistic power company in the world, which charges insane rates. You fail to realize that on a day that is 100 degrees many people fall into a category for whom it is dangerous to be in that kind of heat. You don't seem to comprehend that heat kills people, beyond being an annoyance. Why in the hell is it wrong for me to turn on my air conditioner today, on a day when an air conditioner is intended to be used? I'm not cooling my apartment to 65, but I would like it to be a bit less than the 91 it was when I walked in the door, but it seems by your standards I'm killing the environment and whining too much because I would like to have power on a day like today.

Yes, you used ad hominem attacks which are painfully annoying. No, insulting a generalized image of a CEO at ConEd does not constitute an ad hominem.

Spirit of 76

You are a special sort of stupid. Insane rates? Take a look at this:

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/06/21/baltimore-tops-cities-with-highest-utility-bills/

NYC is barely in the top ten.

Heat kills people? Humans have been around a million years before Willis Carrier commercialized air conditioning. In most countries around the world, AC is still a luxury, including countries a lot hotter than it is in NYC where they don't have all the cool, clean water you can drink. Go tell the people in Central America that you'll die without AC with your apartment at a blistering 91º. They'd laugh themselves to death at such a whiner. Go talk to the people in Port Au Prince where it's not only hotter as I write this, but many don't even have electricity.

Is insulting an anonymous idiot in a comments section considered an ad hominem?

dr zippy

Heat waves certainly do kill people, especially the poor and infirm. See Europe in 2003 and Chicago in 1995.

Spirit of 76

I know excessive heat kills the elderly and infirm. But almost always because they refuse to open their windows and don't take simple precautions like using fans and drinking a lot of water. Read the very article you cited:

Hundreds of Chicago residents died alone, behind locked doors and sealed windows, out of contact with friends, family, and neighbors, unassisted by public agencies or community groups. There's nothing natural about that.

That's not a function of not having AC, but of creating stifling heat inside sealed homes, something "primitive" peoples aren't stupid enough to do, so the don't have many heat-related deaths, unlike "civilized" people. Is henricus eldery or infirm? If 91º is deadly in his apartment, why aren't people dropping like flies in similar temperatures outside? Drink plenty of fluids and sit in front of a fan and as long as the humidity isn't extreme, you'll be just fine without AC and without devouring 1000 watts or more continuously. You wouldn't be very comfortable, but you'd hardly be on the brink of death.

Don't conflate henricus's two complaints. First he says that it's deadly, then in the next sentence says he's entitled to be cool. If he helps cause a blackout because he refuses to control his own electric usage, what would happen to the very people he claims are at risk?

jaycjay

"Those dew points have crept into the lower 60s"

"The dew point has crept." There's never more than one dew point.

What it means is that currently if the air were to coll to a temperature somewhere in the lower 60s, at that point water vapor in the air would condense into water. That's not happening, because the temperature is in the 90s. When the dew point and the temperature are equal, the relative humidity is 100%.

Splicer

In other news, Con Ed is begging people not to use their air conditioners due to the long standing philosophy of the company not to invest in any infrastructure. "It's not that hot", said the CEO from his comfortable 68 degree office.

Spirit of 76

Do you have any idea how much it would cost to upgrade NYC's electrical infrastructure? You're not in the boondocks, where you can simply string up more lines on utility poles or add more poles. They'd have to dig up virtually every street on every block, and under each street is a literal rat's nest of tunnels, conduits, pipes, etc. filled with electric cables, water pipes, sewer lines, telephone lines, cable TV coax, optical fiber backbone and many more things than you can imagine. Every one of these utilities have to coordinate the construction so working on one doesn't disrupt the rest. Each street would take months to dig up, upgrade, fill in and resurface, during which people would complain about how their lives have been turned upsided down. Considering how many streets there are in the city, would you be ready to stop your whining around the year 9595?

People in general and entitled Americans in particular waste too damn much energy. Conservation is the first, best line of defense against blackouts, but people like you would rather complain. Then again, you're probably one of those people who wrote in the dead of winter that global warming would be great.

Splicer

Is that what I am? One of "those people" that thinks global warming would be a good idea? Actually, I like winter. You can wear layers and stay warm whereas you can't take everything off in the summer and feel cool. As for your diatribe on conservation, I don't disagree with you. I conserve as much as I can in my apartment by keeping lights off that aren't necessary, buying efficient appliances, etcetera. So how about keeping the ad hominem attacks in check there chief?

Spirit of 76

If you agree that conservation is good, then why bitch and moan about ConEd? Why don't you yell at the people like the commenters here who, when told ConEd asked for unnecessary appliances to be turned off, said they would go home and crank their AC, just because they like being douchebags? I wasn't aware that two sentences constituted a diatribe. The entire first paragraph was a response to your flippant contention that it's somehow easy to upgrade a centuries-old, fully built-up city that has the highest population density in the nation.

As for ad hominem, surely it's nothing like your comment about the CEO of ConEd. That's not ad hominem, nosiree. At least you're here to shoot back.