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Damn, it's HOT


rsb320

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11:00 am... 97F at IAH... 4 degrees ahead of yesterday.... clouds building east of Harris County... could it get hot enough for a bit of convection?? :unsure:

You know it looks like the models hit it head on. I mean the gfs ( http://wxweb.meteostar.com/sample/sample.shtml?text=kiah ) has held on to the hundreds run after run after run. I knew it was going to be hot with 850 temps pushing 28 degrees. OUCH! Record set yesterday at the Big Airport of 104 and CLL of 105. Clouds thickening up and may see some showers thanks to a backdoor front, but I'm not hanging my hat on anything. If we do have any shower development, we may see some micro subsidence on the fringes which could help heat things up as well. Air can't rise everywhere! We could very well see temps of 104 to 107 across the area today. HtownWxBoy...check your pm.

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Ok, I'm no weather guru, but after sticking my thermometer in the sun it read 155 degrees. Certainly that's not the heat index?

Not even remotely close. I think we'd combust. Heat index may top 108 degrees today. Remember that water has a high heat capacity. Meaning it takes a lot of warming to change just one degree. The drier the air is, the more heat it can hold. Days that we top out at 96 degrees with 80% humidity are the ones that are far more unbearable than days over a hundred because in order for us to get that hot, the humidity has to be extremely low. I don't know about you all, but I sweat very little yesterday. It's a desert heat. Feels like an oven. You know it's hot, but it's tolerable.

I'd like to add that any heat index over 105 is considered dangerous. You can dehydrate very quickly and not even know it. Just keep that in the back of your mind....

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Not even remotely close. I think we'd combust. Heat index may top 108 degrees today. Remember that water has a high heat capacity. Meaning it takes a lot of warming to change just one degree. The drier the air is, the more heat it can hold. Days that we top out at 96 degrees with 80% humidity are the ones that are far more unbearable than days over a hundred because in order for us to get that hot, the humidity has to be extremely low. I don't know about you all, but I sweat very little yesterday. It's a desert heat. Feels like an oven. You know it's hot, but it's tolerable.

I'd like to add that any heat index over 105 is considered dangerous. You can dehydrate very quickly and not even know it. Just keep that in the back of your mind....

I figured it was bogus. As much as I hate humidty I now wish it would return. My tropical plants are having a very hard time right now, even while keeping them watered.

Edit: I'm now registering 103.1 in the shade.

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It looks like some clouds have moved in and the temp is dropping somewhat. Also, there appears to be a shower over on the east end.

While window gazing, I noticed something is on fire to the north of DT.

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It looks like some clouds have moved in and the temp is dropping somewhat. Also, there appears to be a shower over on the east end.

Clouds? I haven't seen a cloud out here in BFE for two weeks. Consequently, and I think I may have mentioned it earlier, much of the trees that TXDOT planted on the Katy are dead.

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Ok, I'm no weather guru, but after sticking my thermometer in the sun it read 155 degrees. Certainly that's not the heat index?

155?? that really made me lol, haha

it rained at work for a while today. it was 80 there and 90 by the time i got home

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Ok, I'm no weather guru, but after sticking my thermometer in the sun it read 155 degrees. Certainly that's not the heat index?

Keep in mind that the heat index they give, let alone the temperature, is in THE SHADE. So yes, it IS possible to feel like 150, if you're in the sun; all the radiation from the sun has to land somewhere, ya know!

This is what explains the "urban heat island" phenomenon; all of the sun's energy hitting concrete/asphalt=more ambient heat.

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...Remember that water has a high heat capacity. Meaning it takes a lot of warming to change just one degree. The drier the air is, the more heat it can hold...

I think you mean the right thing but stated it wrong. Humid air can hold much more heat, or it takes more energy to get the humid air to a higher temperature. I'd rather 105 degrees at 20% humidity than 95 at 90% any day. To me, the shade is infinitely more bearable even in the heat when it is less humid. When it's humid it doesn't matter shade or not, it's nnasty.

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The Jersey Village area got some rain yesterday afternoon. It looked like it was going to make it out to Cypress, but it was just a head fake. The high on my (shaded) porch yesterday afternoon was 102.9 F.

Question for the meteorologically inclined: it seems that we've been getting some of the spotty afternoon showers this week, which hadn't been happening the past few weeks. Is that a sign that the high pressure system is weakening?

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Ok, I'm no weather guru, but after sticking my thermometer in the sun it read 155 degrees. Certainly that's not the heat index?

Thermometers don't measure heat index values, just temperatures. The heat index is the temperature it "feels like" b/c the moisture in the air makes it difficult for your sweat to evaporate. Normally you sweat and when your sweat evaporates it cools you (it carries heat away from your body)... but since there is too much moisture already in the air the sweat can't evaporate as easily and it makes it "feel" like it's even hotter than the actual temperature. :)

On a side note, it poured at my place near the Medical Center yesterday... it was so great to see rain.... I ran around outside like a little kid... then ran back inside when I almost got struck by lightning. :blush:

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The Jersey Village area got some rain yesterday afternoon. It looked like it was going to make it out to Cypress, but it was just a head fake. The high on my (shaded) porch yesterday afternoon was 102.9 F.

Question for the meteorologically inclined: it seems that we've been getting some of the spotty afternoon showers this week, which hadn't been happening the past few weeks. Is that a sign that the high pressure system is weakening?

No, it just moved a bit... plus we had a boundary push into southeast Texas which helped serve as a focus for the shower / storm development... unfortunately this boundary is washing out so rain chances should be a bit lower today (around 10%).

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Keep in mind that any shower that does develop may induce sinking or subsidence on the periphery of the storm which would serve to increase the temperature quite a bit. Won't happen everywhere, but it's possible. Remember, when air sinks, it is compressed and warmed. We're looking at temps well over 100 degrees again today...especially with 850mb temps into the mid 20s. Good news here is that they heights are supposed to lower in the near future as the ridge tappers.

On a side note, Tropical Invest 93L has been classified in the Caribbean. Some of the models spin this up into something and eventually moves it into the gulf. Something to watch...

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Keep in mind that any shower that does develop may induce sinking or subsidence on the periphery of the storm which would serve to increase the temperature quite a bit. Won't happen everywhere, but it's possible. Remember, when air sinks, it is compressed and warmed. We're looking at temps well over 100 degrees again today...especially with 850mb temps into the mid 20s. Good news here is that they heights are supposed to lower in the near future as the ridge tappers.

On a side note, Tropical Invest 93L has been classified in the Caribbean. Some of the models spin this up into something and eventually moves it into the gulf. Something to watch...

HERE... WE... GO!!!

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Worst part to me is having to water my damn yard. I HATE watering my yard in a city whose annual rainfall averages about an inch of rain a week (50" per year).

I've watered the yard twice this week. The alternative is what happened to me last summer when I didn't water, and ended up with dead St. Augustine. I suppose a better alternative would be to replant with buffalo grass. I wonder how bahia grass would look? :)

You're not serious about bahai grass I hope . Yes its' drought hardy , but it's stems are tough as vinyl . Hard to mow . An ugly invasive grass that has no purpose in the city . Its a pasture grass used for cattle grazing .

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Thermometers don't measure heat index values, just temperatures. The heat index is the temperature it "feels like" b/c the moisture in the air makes it difficult for your sweat to evaporate. Normally you sweat and when your sweat evaporates it cools you (it carries heat away from your body)... but since there is too much moisture already in the air the sweat can't evaporate as easily and it makes it "feel" like it's even hotter than the actual temperature. :)

On a side note, it poured at my place near the Medical Center yesterday... it was so great to see rain.... I ran around outside like a little kid... then ran back inside when I almost got struck by lightning. :blush:

Gotcha... I was somewhat assuming since tempurature is measured in the shade, that in the sun was the heat index.

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Gotcha... I was somewhat assuming since tempurature is measured in the shade, that in the sun was the heat index.

The heat index is calulated using relative humidity and temperature. I don't know the calculation, though. In the winter, they use wind speed and temperature to calculate the wind chill factor.

If someone knows the specifics, bring it on.

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You're not serious about bahai grass I hope . Yes its' drought hardy , but it's stems are tough as vinyl . Hard to mow . An ugly invasive grass that has no purpose in the city . Its a pasture grass used for cattle grazing .

No, not serious about bahia grass...I brought it up because of a recent trip to my grandpa's place up towards Collie Station, where they're in a slightly worse drought than we are here in Houston. For reference, he's had the property for nearly 50 years, and his stock ponds are as low as he's ever seen them.

That being said, he's still got *some* green bahia grass out in his pasture...obviously it's a tough drought-resistant grass. Probably a result of having those tough stems you talk about. I know that a lot of desert plants stay drought tolerant due to their high wax content that prevents them from losing too much water to evapotranspiration.

I do have a friend down in Corpus that's been growing a couple of patches of buffalo grass in his yard. Says it's hardy as hell, but pretty tough to get it to spread in an existing turfgrass yard. Says you have to just about eradicate any other turfgrass in the patches you want to grow it. Says it does great where you can pull up St. Augustine, but it isn't outcompeting the bermuda grass. Says you have to completely kill the bermuda to get the buffalo to be able to grow.

He also said that it does require maintenance...the buffalo grass needs to be mowed TWICE a year!!! :o I like that idea.

Corpus is in an EXTREME drought...much worse than we are in Houston, and worse than what they've got up at my grandpa's. We think we've got it bad because we haven't had significan rain since April...they haven't had significant rain in Corpus since OCTOBER!

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Thermometers don't measure heat index values, just temperatures. The heat index is the temperature it "feels like" b/c the moisture in the air makes it difficult for your sweat to evaporate. Normally you sweat and when your sweat evaporates it cools you (it carries heat away from your body)... but since there is too much moisture already in the air the sweat can't evaporate as easily and it makes it "feel" like it's even hotter than the actual temperature. :)

Yep... Got this from the Farmers Almanac:

"The combination of high temperature and high humidity reduces your body's ability to cool itself. For example, the heat you feel when the actual temperature is 90 degrees Fahrenheit with a relative humidity of 70 percent is 106 degrees Fahrenheit".

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On a side note, Tropical Invest 93L has been classified in the Caribbean. Some of the models spin this up into something and eventually moves it into the gulf. Something to watch...

Most of the Forecast Models say it will head in our direction then turn to the right and squeeze its way between to Highs (the one thats over us and one in the Atlantic) possibly hitting Florida. Should be a tropical depression or storm later this weekend.

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Yep... Got this from the Farmers Almanac:

"The combination of high temperature and high humidity reduces your body's ability to cool itself.

and if your a/c unit doesn't drain properly, the humidity levels remain surprisingly high.

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