This weather is awful!! 2008-2021

[Ronstar]

After a several day heat wave and yesterday’s deluge, we are in for a series of sunny days in the low 80’s. Perfect for the roof replacement that starts tomorrow.

 

[rayinpenn]

This weather is awful!!

I was awoken from a heat induced extended nap by a thunderstorm announcing the arrival of a cold wave. That thunderstorm was a doozie accompanied by a wind storm.. thankfully the stucco work had been complete by 12:30 so by 5 in the heat it was dry. Looks like we are in for 6 days of highs around 80 - a reprieve from the 90s.

 

[NW-Bound]

Years ago, a coworker returned to Atlanta from a summer in Phoenix. I quipped, "but it's a dry heat." She immediately replied, "yeah, it only feels like it's 110 when it's really 120!"

It's true. If you have high humidity in addition to 120F, you are gonna die!

 

[Ronstar]

It's true. If you have high humidity in addition to 120F, you are gonna die!

True - To me, humidity tacks on about 15°. I found the 120° Arizona dry heat to be about the same discomfort level as 104° with high humidity in Chicago burbs or Houston.

Just walking a short while outside in Arizona at 120° sizzled my skin - working outside in 104° and humid in Chicago and Houston almost suffocated me. Hopefully I'll never have to go outside in either condition again.

 

[NW-Bound]

Not just Florida. Have you been to Phoenix?

The difference is we have AC. Europeans do not.

Sounds like a business sales opportunity for AC companies.

Before more ACs can be installed, their power grids need to be beefed up, and more power plants added.

I just read that some places in the US Northeast got power blackout because they ran out of juice. Aye, aye, aye...

 

[Dtail]

True - To me, humidity tacks on about 15°. I found the 120° Arizona dry heat to be about the same discomfort level as 104° with high humidity in Chicago burbs or Houston.

Just walking a short while outside in Arizona at 120° sizzled my skin - working outside in 104° and humid in Chicago and Houston almost suffocated me. Hopefully I'll never have to go outside in either condition again.

Not sure that math works, but who knows.
When it is full blast humidity in FLA, the temp is usually around 91-92. Can't imagine that humidity with a 105 degree heat.

 

[NW-Bound]

New Orleans and Jacksonville vie for the most humid city in the US.

One day, I saw that N'awlins had 90+% humidity and 90+F temperature. Come to think of it, it was misleading, because the humidity level was quoted for the morning, while the temperature was for the afternoon when the humidity dropped to a lower level.

I don't know if people or any animal can survive 90+ humidity at the same time as 90+ temperature. I for one would croak.

 

[Ronstar]

90+ temps and 90 + humidity would be a croaker for sure. It doesn't take 90% humidity to spike the heat index. Last Friday, we had a heat index of 111 when the temp was 93° and humidity was 64%. On the same day, Scottsdale, Az had a temp of 106° and my weather app showed a "wind chill" of 101°- humidity was 10%.

I did a little research. Chicago Midway airport reported a temp of 106° and record heat index of 125° during the heat wave of 1995. 730 people died in Chicago during that heat wave.

I found this chart showing heat indices based on temp and humidity.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I got overheated in New Orleans in February this year. Of course we were there the only 3 hot days they had. The state sent us to Vegas one August to tour some facilities and we were in and out of cars all day. About the time the car cooled down we were at the next place. By the time we got to the airport my pants and underwear were soaked with sweat. Couldn’t live there.

 

[NW-Bound]

Another heat wave hit Europe. Oh, the poor people. Last time in 2003 70,000 people died, and it was not as hot as this.

Trains were canceled in Britain and France, and French authorities urged travelers to stay home.

One by one, heat records are being broken across Europe. On Thursday afternoon the Paris area hit 41.6 degrees Celsius (106.9 degrees Fahrenheit), beating the previous record of 40.4 C (104.8 F) set in 1947.

The Netherlands and Belgium also reported new record heats and Britain is expected to do so later.

The Netherlands' meteorological institute said 40.4 C (104.72 F) was recorded Thursday in the municipality of Gilze Rijen, near the border with Belgium. That just eclipsed the 39.3 C (102.74 F) recorded a day earlier in the southern city of Eindhoven.

In Belgium the new all-time high rose to 40.6 C (105. F)

 

[W2R]

Temperatures here in New Orleans have remained about average or slightly cooler than average for this time of year. It's sunny and beautiful today with a predicted high of 87F in our suburb.

The low pressure area in the Gulf of Mexico that that NHC has been keeping an eye on, seems to be weakening. It now has 0% chance of developing, and there really isn't anything else to worry about out there right now. Good! We are soon moving into the height of hurricane season here, August and September and so it's time to keep an eye on such things.

 

[folivier]

The practical difference in a very humid place like south Louisiana is that when you sweat it doesn't evaporate. IOW you stay wet and that wet layer has no cooling effect since it's not evaporating, it actually keeps your body heat from dissipating. In drier climates when the sweat evaporates rapidly it has a cooling effect. I've spent time in Arizona and if you're in the shade and have any wind it can feel cool when the temperature is below 110º. But here in Louisiana when it's in the 90's and the humidity is 80%+ it's downright miserable!

 

[aja8888]

It was 66F and 40% humidity this morning when I was walking the dog at 6:30 AM. Strange for here. (south Texas)

 

[Lagniappe]

I am in Paris right now for the record heat. Lots of people here don't have air conditioning, so several stores that do have lots of browsers, killing time.l The restaurants that have signs indicating they are air conditioned are packed, and the normal outside seating is fairly deserted.

My Airbnb has an AC that is barely keeping up. As long as I stay in one room, I am fine. Tomorrow will be cooler, and rain is expected this weekend.

 

[NW-Bound]

Even a bitty AC for one room is fine as a life support system.

In 2017, I arrived in Paris in early May to start a long car trip. It was cool at around 60F when we landed. At the end of the trip when we returned to Paris in late June, we got caught in a heat wave. It was only around 96F, but the Airbnb did not have AC.

During the day, we could still walk about while trying to stay in the shade, but at night it was difficult to sleep until midnight when it cooled off to the low 80F. We were so glad to fly home. The temperature at home was 120F when we got back. Darn! At least we had AC.

I cannot see myself without AC at 107F. Even at night, the temperature would not cool off to 90F until very late. And it is hard to sleep in 90F with some humidity. I guess I am too spoiled. I would just stay home to surf the Web.

 

[NW-Bound]

The practical difference in a very humid place like south Louisiana is that when you sweat it doesn't evaporate. IOW you stay wet and that wet layer has no cooling effect since it's not evaporating, it actually keeps your body heat from dissipating. In drier climates when the sweat evaporates rapidly it has a cooling effect. I've spent time in Arizona and if you're in the shade and have any wind it can feel cool when the temperature is below 110º. But here in Louisiana when it's in the 90's and the humidity is 80%+ it's downright miserable!

In Phoenix, when you get out of the pool you would shiver because of the cooling by evaporation.

 

[zinger1457]

I am in Paris right now for the record heat. Lots of people here don't have air conditioning, so several stores that do have lots of browsers, killing time.l The restaurants that have signs indicating they are air conditioned are packed, and the normal outside seating is fairly deserted.

I've been watching the Tour de France and the bike riders have been really suffering the last few days, some of the riders were complaining about unsafe conditions because of excessive heat. Can't imagine doing a ~125 mile bike ride when the road temp is around 100 degrees. In the Alps the next couple days so probably not so bad.

Live in AZ so use to the heat but the hottest place I've been to is Kuwait, went there in July a few years ago for work and it was about 125 degrees. When the wind starts blowing it's like you're in a sand blasted furnace.

 

[Dawg52]

We've had a nice break from the heat this week in central MS. Nice cool mornings and not bad in the afternoons. Yesterday around 1pm I played 9 holes of golf. Normally that is a no go for me this time of the year. Heating back up this weekend but next week another cool front suppose to slide through. I'll take a little Oct weather this time of the year.

 

[Chuckanut]

There is no need to air condition the entire house. Save money by just air conditioning yourself:

https://9to5mac.com/2019/07/29/wearable-air-conditioner/

Sony is promising something I’ve wanted forever: a silent, wearable air-conditioner …

The Reon Pocket is a compact unit that slips into a pouch on the back of a special t-shirt. It was offered through Sony’s First Flight crowdfunding program,

 

[ERD50]

There is no need to air condition the entire house. Save money by just air conditioning yourself:

https://9to5mac.com/2019/07/29/wearable-air-conditioner/

Sounds nice, but check the comments on the 9to5mac site from "Lenny Valentin", he's spot on. I've also worked with Peltiers, they are amazing in that a small component with no moveable arts can produce some 'cool'. Apply a voltage, and one side of the module gets hot, the other gets cold. But implementing it to make it useful is tough - it immediately starts conducting energy across the hot and cold sides, and w/o proper thermal management, within seconds you just have a module that gets warm (the cold is overcome by the heat).

They have very low efficiency, so not only does it take a lot of power to move the heat from one side to the other, it is also generating heat from that power. All this has to be moved - it takes large heat sinks and fans to provide much cooling at all.

Having something in direct contact with skin might help you feel cooler, and not require so much cooling power. But I'd bet one of those little pre-frozen ice-packs, wrapped in some insulation so it slowly absorbs heat from your skin, and insulated heavier on the other sides would be far more practical. Carry a small, well insulated cooler to replace the ice packs as needed - that would probably weigh less than the battery to power that Peltier.

I'd expect some sort of fan or fan/mister would be much better than that thing

-ERD50

 

[NW-Bound]

^^^ I agree 100% with what ERD50 wrote.

Having some experience with solar panels, I will say that it would not be hard to build a tiny home with an AC powered entirely with PV panels. You start with a canopy of about 400 sq.ft. of solar panels, which will provide shading for a tiny home under it.

 

[NW-Bound]

I just saw a headline on Bloomberg Web site which said today, Mon 8/12/2019, the heat in Texas caused the spot price of electricity to hit $6537.45/MWh. That's $6.54 for a kWh, which is normally $0.02 whole-sale. Yikes!

Yet, the weather map did not show anything that looked that bad.

See: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...eat-pushes-power-prices-to-near-record-levels.

 

[NW-Bound]

Just as they predicted yesterday, today Tues 8/13/2019 the heat in Texas caused the bid price on electric power to hit $9/kWh.

Besides the heat wave, below-par wind also contributed to the problem by causing a drop in generation by wind turbines. Old power plants being retired without adequate replacement is blamed for the problem.

See: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...heat-triggers-emergency/ar-AAFL62t?li=BBnbfcL

 

[ERD50]

Just as they predicted yesterday, today Tues 8/13/2019 the heat in Texas caused the bid price on electric power to hit $9/kWh.

Besides the heat wave, below-par wind also contributed to the problem by causing a drop in generation by wind turbines. Old power plants being retired without adequate replacement is blamed for the problem.

See: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...heat-triggers-emergency/ar-AAFL62t?li=BBnbfcL

I guess this could be posted in that 100% RE thread as well.

I was curious about the timing of these extreme kWh prices, ~ 100x normal. From the graph in your link, the spike is just that, very narrow, but it stays way above normal for maybe tens of minutes at a time?

So on average the price of a kWh probably has not changed much, but it seems they must offer these prices to get enough energy to prevent a brown/black out.

Some quotes from that link:

This week’s price spikes also underscore how dependent the region’s power grid has become on wind farms, which now make up about a quarter of the generation capacity in Texas. Lackluster breezes contributed to the higher prices, said Flannan Hehir, a power analyst at energy data provider Genscape.

Wind power generation in the region has plunged for three straight days, grid data compiled by Bloomberg show.

....

“We are seeing the coal fleet retirement hasn’t been replaced with a lot of large gas plants,” said Campbell Faulkner, chief data analyst for commodities broker OTC Global Holdings. “We are changing the generation mix and that is what this is caused by.”

Seems they need to get more gas plants on line. But I guess a few minutes of $9 kWh prices a few dozen times a year doesn't justify the cost. It's tough to deal with peaks on this scale, and far tougher when 25% of your capacity is outside your control.

-ERD50

 

[timo2]

Besides the heat wave, below-par wind also contributed to the problem by causing a drop in generation by wind turbines. Old power plants being retired without adequate replacement is blamed for the problem.

See: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...heat-triggers-emergency/ar-AAFL62t?li=BBnbfcL

I suppose the laws of supply and demand will kick in. When the price gets too high, consumption should fall, thus resulting in the appropriate consumption for the wind turbines. Unlimited increases in consumption are not really viable long term.