
- 03 Sep, 17
- by Dale
- in current events
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how hot?
This weekend, the San Francisco Bay Area is having an historic heat wave. In the City, temperatures reached 106°F, while out here in Concord, we have seen 116°. On September 2, Concord was hotter than Bangkok and Death Valley! Since Weather Underground has great data, I thought I’d take a look at the trend.
First, here at our house: We have a weather station in the backyard that reports data to Weather Underground. It tells us the following about the period from Memorial Day through today this year:
- 96° – the average maximum temperature
- 77° – the average of the 24-hour mean temperatures
- 56 – the number days where the maximum temperature exceeded 95°
- 33 – the number days where the maximum temperature exceeded 100°
- 24 – the number of days where the maximum temperature exceeded 105°
Yes, it’s been hot, but has this year been hotter than others? I looked at the historical data for Buchanan Airfield (KCCR) for the past 30 years and I came up with a few interesting charts. (Click on these to see a bigger version.) Traditionally, summer runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day: that’s the period covered in these graphs.
The “mean temperature”, which is the overall temperature in a day, was at an all-time high this year. From 1988-2014, the range was 69° to 72°. 2017 has been higher than that: the average mean temperature has been 75°
Things become a little more dramatic when you look at the average maximum temperature. The trend since 2011 is pretty striking.
Finally, when you look at the number of hot days each year, we see the same alarming trend.
I think it’s fair to say that, here in Concord, CA, this has been the hottest summer in 30 years.
Here are the numbers I used today.
YEAR | # of days | average max temp | average 24-hour temp | average min temp | days above 95° | days above 100° | days above 105° |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1988 | 99 | 85 | 72 | 58 | 22 | 5 | 1 |
1989 | 99 | 83 | 70 | 57 | 8 | 3 | 0 |
1990 | 99 | 84 | 71 | 58 | 13 | 5 | 0 |
1991 | 99 | 82 | 69 | 56 | 7 | 1 | 2 |
1992 | 106 | 85 | 72 | 58 | 10 | 1 | 0 |
1993 | 99 | 85 | 72 | 59 | 16 | 5 | 1 |
1994 | 99 | 86 | 72 | 58 | 13 | 2 | 0 |
1995 | 99 | 84 | 72 | 60 | 16 | 5 | 0 |
1996 | 99 | 87 | 73 | 59 | 26 | 10 | 0 |
1997 | 99 | 86 | 73 | 61 | 11 | 3 | 0 |
1998 | 106 | 84 | 71 | 59 | 23 | 12 | 2 |
1999 | 99 | 82 | 69 | 55 | 12 | 5 | 1 |
2000 | 74* | 84 | 71 | 58 | 16 | 5 | 2 |
2001 | 99 | 86 | 71 | 57 | 23 | 6 | 2 |
2002 | 99 | 85 | 71 | 57 | 14 | 7 | 2 |
2003 | 99 | 87 | 72 | 58 | 22 | 4 | 0 |
2004 | 99 | 86 | 72 | 59 | 14 | 4 | 0 |
2005 | 99 | 86 | 71 | 57 | 17 | 3 | 0 |
2006 | 99 | 87 | 72 | 58 | 24 | 12 | 6 |
2007 | 99 | 86 | 72 | 57 | 17 | 6 | 0 |
2008 | 99 | 87 | 72 | 57 | 19 | 10 | 4 |
2009 | 106 | 85 | 71 | 57 | 22 | 8 | 1 |
2010 | 99 | 84 | 70 | 56 | 13 | 3 | 1 |
2011 | 99 | 84 | 70 | 56 | 10 | 2 | 0 |
2012 | 99 | 85 | 70 | 55 | 16 | 2 | 0 |
2013 | 99 | 85 | 71 | 57 | 12 | 6 | 0 |
2014 | 99 | 86 | 72 | 58 | 15 | 5 | 0 |
2015 | 106 | 87 | 74 | 60 | 18 | 7 | 1 |
2016 | 99 | 88 | 73 | 57 | 17 | 8 | 0 |
2017 | 99 | 90 | 75 | 60 | 30 | 17 | 8 |
2017 is missing September 4 – Labor Day. KCCR did not have data for the following days in 2000: June 1-8, July 12-21, July 23-26, July 28-31.
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one tough chicken
dianthus, “rainbow loveliness”