There’s a lot of complaining about the weather going around these days, leading me to wonder what they’re kvetching about? Here in Chicago this year we’ve had one day in which the temperature hit 100°F. That’s the first day it’s been that hot since 2005 and that, in turn, was the first time we’d seen temperatures that hot since 1999.
In 1988 we had seven days in which the thermometer soared to 100 or above.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Chicago was 105°F in 1934. The second highest was 104 in 1995.
Here’s a rundown of the hottest days in Chicago history.
I saw commentary over the weekend about flooding in what I think is your neck of the woods. You OK? Basement not masquerading as a pool?
A little seepage, nothing more. Not bad considering the 7 inches of rain that fell in one night and that people not far from us had several feet of water in their basements.
I hate to say it, it’s not the heat . . . it’s the . . .
Theory going around down here is corn is to blame. There is a college professor somewhere that is claiming there is more moisture in the air due to advanced agriculture. I’ll say that I notice the heat more in the morning when the temp is in the 70s, just above dew point, than later in the day when it’s just a mild scorching.
People are kvetching more because of the heat index. I keep hearing reports that “It will fell like 117 degrees today in [choose the God-forsaken city of your choice]!” How about just stating the actual temperature? But that can’t happen because it isn’t dramatic enough. I’m guessing that if we used Celsius instead of Fahrenheit for our temperature scale there would be less use of the heat index – it just wouldn’t be as dramatic without the rollover into triple digits. (That would be a nice bonus to switching, BTW.)
Incidentally, the first time I visited my wife’s family in the middle of the Mojave Desert, they were having a heat wave. Which is to say that it was 117 degrees in June instead of July, or some such. But when I got out of the car, and first stepped into the heat, my first words were, “I’ll be damned! It IS the humidity!” It had felt worse back in Orlando when we left, with temps around 94 degrees and high relative humidity, than in the middle of the desert. I’m sure, however, that the desert would have killed me even faster without precautions.
Heh, just got back from Vegas, typically the temperature was over 100 almost all the time during the day. Being used to SoCal temps I felt like I was going to explode into flames when I’d step outside. Still had a great time.